Helpful Score: 19
I don't understand why people recommend this book for dog lovers. There's graphic animal abuse and animal torture. A poor sweet dog suffers because its master wants to find out "the truth". Be warned ...this is not a sunny, My Dog Skip kind of story. I wish I hadn't read this book. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the story.
Helpful Score: 16
Despite the downright craziness of the plot, this is a touching an emotionally moving puzzle of a story. I would say that the central motif weaving through the story is language - the language barrier between owner and dog, the unspoken language between husband and wife that harbors secrets, the language spoken in our subconscious that somehow television psychics become attuned to, and the wife's poetic language that works itself from a penultimate, odd act into a real clue into her psyche.
If you're intrigued, give this book some time. You won't need much, as it's a relatively fast read.
If you're intrigued, give this book some time. You won't need much, as it's a relatively fast read.
Helpful Score: 12
Obviously I'm a minority of one. I hated this book, and I find it amazing that others are recommending it for dog lovers. How maiming and torturing a dog to satisfy one's own self obsession makes it a "touching love story" is beyond me. (And just as a side note, you must have language first in order to form and retrieve memories.)
Helpful Score: 12
This is an eerie, lovely, scary book all at once. This story will warm and scare one with the power of grief and what a human can do to ruin themselves and others.
Helpful Score: 9
I also don't understand why this book is recommended to dog lovers. There is a vivid, disturbing element about trying to restructure dogs' anatomy so they can talk, which I found very distressing. I'm such a dog lover that I REALLY didn't like this book. It was just too strange & very upsetting. Be warned if you read this that it's not a typical dog-lovers' book.
