600 Hours of Edward Book

Edward Stanton is a man hurtling headlong toward middle age. His mental illness has led him to be sequestered in his small house in a small city, where he keeps his distance from the outside world and the parents from whom he is largely estranged. For the most part, Edward sticks to things he can count on...and things he can count. But over the course of 25 days (or 600 hours, as Edward prefers to look at it) several events puncture the walls Edward has built around himself. In the end, he faces a choice: Open his life to experience and deal with the joys and heartaches that come with it, or remain behind his closed door, a solitary soul.

Bellingham Herald - Barbara Lloyd McMichael

"600 Hours of Edward" is an inventive, engaging, surprising book. It is presented in the form of a diary and the one making the assiduously detailed entries is 39-year-old Edward Stanton, a man who is captive to the tics of Asperger Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder....In "600 Hours of Edward," readers are privy to 25 days in which Edward's sequestered life is dealt several unexpected turns. Edward records them in his diary, and frets about how to deal with these disruptions to his routine. His manner of coping is governed by a cognitive style that will seem unconventional to most readers, but the bottom line is that he figures out how to adapt....Some might compare this book to the "Rain Man" movie that starred Dustin Hoffman both, after all, feature a mentally ill person as an intriguing and ultimately endearing central character....In this book, it is Edward who considers life through a very unique lens, and who then acts on what he has learned. As he succinctly puts it, "I'm mentally ill. I'm not stupid."...Lancaster has created a wonderful character and placed him in a memorable story. "600 Hours of Edward" contains humor, sadness, courage, insight, great vocabulary, and more daily temperature data on Billings than you'd ever care to know. Following Edward on his journey is exhausting, yes, but thoroughly addictive as well.