Last Days of the Dog-Men: Stories Book

This is a unique, fine little (slender, slim, thin) compilation of finely crafted literary fiction ever so loosely connected through the presence and role of canine companions.

Immensely sad, periodically gorgeous, at times brutal, relentless, raw, and ... for all of its four-legged focus, altogether human and flawed and broken.

I'm glad I read it. Obviously, some of the offerings were better than others (or at least they spoke more directly to me). For whatever reason, Seeing Eye resonated, and it was one of the shortest, a mere nibble, maybe a bagatelle, almost a tone poem.

I don't read/consume as much literary fiction that skews to creative writing as I used to. Sure, I always look at and incline to the Booker Prize winners and short list. The Pulitzer and National Book award winners, sure, more often than not... And maybe its getting older, maybe it was the dramatically expanded access to translated fiction we've witnessed in my lifetime. Maybe it was my rekindled interest in fantasy and sci-fi and cyberpunk and all things AI, I dunno.... But, for me, it was very much a change.

Decades ago, the DC gem of a literary bookstore, Chapters, was not far from my office, and ... in a pre-kid, pre-Amazon, pre-Kindle, pre-Goodreads era ... it was easy to walk in at lunchtime, peruse, chat with the staff and customers, and read stuff that you simply wouldn't see or notice on the central tables at (later) Borders or, these days, Barnes & Noble. Sure, there's Politics & Prose downtown (still, a wonderful institution, and I should make an effort to visit more often, but it is what it is), but, it's not convenient for me, and ever since the Northern Virginia satellite of Kramerbooks closed abruptly in the 1990's, well, other than the library, I rely on my wonderful, neighborhood independent bookstore, One More Page books, which, while gratifyingly eclectic, rarely steers me in the direction of this kind of fare. And that's fine, because with wide reading interests, my book stack always seems to be growing, rather than shrinking...

In any event, a nice artful diversion. I'm glad I found it.