Reviews for Even the Dogs

The average rating for Even the Dogs based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-08 00:00:00 Melissa Derosa Some reviews of even the dogs criticise the unusual style, the frequent shifts in point of view, the sentences which peter out in mid stride, and the mixed-up chronology, but in my opinion, Jon McGregor has chosen the most fitting way to tell this story. From the title to the last line, it is all perfect. Here's why: The title, itself a fragment, refers to a comment by a soldier in Bosnia who, when asked for directions to a particular town, replies that there's no point in going there as even the dogs in that place are dead. So why is this comment about annihilation in Bosnia relevant to the action of this book which mainly takes place in a provincial English city? Here's why: The principal character is called Robert Radcliffe and the author might well have called the book Robert Radcliffe's Life, but even the dogs in the street would have had a better life than Robert Radcliffe. Or he might have called it Robert's Last Days, but even the dogs would have had better. Or the title could have been Robert's Wake, but even the dogs So you're beginning to get the picture. The world of this slim novel is a violent and tragic place and people's lives sometimes come to an abrupt But, you might ask, why would we want to read about people whose lives are so wretched and doomed? Here's why: Jon McGregor tells the story in an original and creative way: the events are recounted by a group of invisible narrators who have the ability to be in the past and the present and in more than one place at the same time. Crazy but genius. The many shifts in point of view, veering from the 'we' narration of the group of characters who begin the story, to the individual viewpoints of various members of the 'we' group, are perfectly handled. The 'we' slides subtly to 'he' or 'she' but we hear it all somehow as 'I'. Magic. There is a cinematographic quality to the writing which makes it seem like we are watching a documentary: details stand out; sounds, even smells, are vivid, but nothing is over dramatised. Subtle. There are amazing touches of irony: Robert, an unemployed alcoholic, completely unknown and undocumented by the authorities gets examined, handled, touched, washed and cared for after he is dead. In life, he was surrounded by decay. In death, he is sanitised. Ant, a British soldier in Afghanistan, witnesses the harvesting of opium while waiting to be airlifted home after losing his leg in a bomb blast. This hero will end his life as a crippled heroin addict on the margins of society in the company of another damaged ex-soldier, a survivor of the Falklands war, who served also in Bosnia. Robert, likewise an ex-soldier, dies alone on Christmas Day. When I started this book, I had been reading The Opium-Eater, a life of Thomas De Quincey. Final irony.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-03-09 00:00:00 Joshua Swedis Bear with me We won this book. We felt we had to read it. The second person plural POV was distracting and the random stream of consciousness made it an easy but not exactly enjoyable read. We didn't appreciate the fractured sentence structure or starting thoughts and sentences and occasionally never finishing those thoughts and sentences. Our assessment of Karen's excitement for it made us move it to the top of our to-read pile. Pancakes. We had high hopes for Sentences would start but never And we like depression and different views of society. We understood the edgy style and the drug addled view of the horrors of addiction. All done without dialogue. Hockey pucks. We must The disjointed storyline combined with lack of punctuation and multiple characters made us yearn for beautifully constructed sentences. Second person plural POV really distracting. Pumpkin Seeds are and The End. Ms. Karen, If you still want it I'll send it to you. :)