I read The Little Stranger with a friend. A book in which - among other things - a dog is put to death.
A dead animal is the sucker punch of literature (I'm looking at you The Red Pony).
After that, we agreed: no more dead dog books.
We thought we were safe going with a book about newspapers. We chose The Imperfectionists: a tale of an English newspaper in Italy told via vignettes about each employee. That can't involve dogs. Right?
Wrong.
By page 200 I was already annoyed, and that was sans dog. The highlight of each chapter was the title, wittily turned into a newspaper article title. The writing was adept and knowledgeable, but I disliked the people and what happened to them. I get the point and the metaphor of it all...but I just didn't like it.
I got to the last chapter and *SPOILER not only did a dog die, but it was murdered by a human. AND THAT WAS WHERE IT ENDED. Oh sure, there was a where-are-they-now wrap up, but all I could think was DEAD DOG DEAD DOG DEAD DOG.
I had to read a Batman comic just to lighten the mood...
"Anything that's worth anything is complicated. Don't you think? Or is that stupid?"
Tom Rachman
Tom Rachman
Remember that book you posted about one time - While I was Falling by Laura Moriarty? Well I felt SO bad for the dog in that book that I couldn't finish reading it. I only got about half way through because I was sure that the mom was going to put the dog down because he was such a 'nuisance'.
ReplyDeleteThe part where the mom was staying with her daughter in the dorm room and she woke up early to take the dog out.....that's where I cried and cried and took the book straight back to the library. I don't think I'll ever forget it!!
Oh Jabba - That was upsetting! Don't worry though, in that book the mom and the dog live happily ever after, just not in the dorm room.
ReplyDeleteYou are under NO circumstances allowed to read either Stranger or Imperfectionists.