Here's a novel that some will hate while others will love it...but none will be likely to forget it. I haven't figured out yet in which category I fall; but I know this. This book is going to stay with me for a good while. Many of the books I read--and I read MANY--I've forgotten by the time I start the next one. Not this one. I'll rethink it, swallow it and regurgitate it for more thought. I also think I'll reread it, because I'm sure I missed things I shouldn't have the first time.   It's the retelling of the classic Sophocles' tale of Oedipus Rex  for our modern era.

Written by David Guterson, who also penned the award-winning Snow Falling On Cedars,  this is a sweeping, propulsive, darkly humorous novel of destiny, desire, and destruction set against the backdrop of the high-tech world of Seattle.

In Seattle in 1962, Walter Cousins, a mild-mannered actuary--a guy who weighs risks for a living--takes a risk of his own and makes the biggest error of his life. He sleeps with Diane Burroughs, the sexy, not quite legal,  British au pair who's taking care of his children while his wife is recovering from a nervous breakdown.

Diane gets pregnant and leaves their baby on a doorstep, but not before turning the tables on Walter and setting in motion a tragedy of epic proportions.  Their orphaned child, adopted by an adoring family and named Edward Aaron King, grows up to become a billionaire Internet tycoon and an international celebrity--the "King of Search"--who unknowingly hurtles through life toward a fate he may have no power to change.
The book is rife with subtle, and not so subtle allusions to Sophocles' tragedy from the title to the final page. For those who have read Sophocles, it's interesting to look for these allusions as one reads.
There's also much to do about dreams and what they symbolize, an oblique reference to Freud's "Oedipus Complex."
However, it's a fascinating story that juxtaposes the lives of Walter, Diane, and Ed with twists and turns that anyone can enjoy, regardless of his prior knowledge of Sophocles.
This is David Guterson's most daring novel yet--that brings a contemporary urgency to one of the greatest stories of all time.