Book Reviews
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Book Reviews |
| Neil Plakcy, author of the gay Hawaiian crime thriller Maku, and Sharon
Sakson, a television journalist, dog-show judge, and breeder, combine their literary
talents and their love of canines and present a smartly assembled collection of
25 essays about Man’s Best Friend... make that, Gay Man’s Best Friend, because
each of the book’s essays is written (or, in some cases, orally transmitted by
way of interviews edited to read as essays) by gay men. Some of the essay writers are well known to the worlds of letters, stage, and film: Charles Busch, author of the Broadway play The Allergist’s Wife (and writer and star of Die Mommie Die), relates a childhood of revolving homes and the canine companions who got him through. Animal Planet’s David Mizejewski writes about the pain of a romantic breakup and the balm of a dog’s steady company - and, of course, how to make your own backyard more harmonious with nature (including good deep shrubs where small animals can flee a dog’s wont for hunting). And you just know that filmmaker Jonathan Caouette is going to have a juicy tale to tell - indeed, he does: somehow it comes as less than a total shock when Caouette admits to having kidnapped the companions he kept as pets during his boyhood. Ron Nyswaner, too, comes clean with the love and grief that his dogs have brought him, ending up with expressions of gratitude for the way they stood by him, never judgmental, even when he trawled the depths of drug-addled paranoia. Other contributors are businessmen, systems analysts, AIDS activists, and writers of different stripes: there are columnists, short-story authors, and, ahem, book reviewers. They all share surprisingly funny and engaging stories of their lives with dogs, the complictions that their pets have brought to their romantic lives, and the utter devotion their dogs have lavished upon them. The late Stephen Kwielchek shares a story of domestic warfare with his boyfriend’s jealous dachshund - the method he hit upon for peace in their time, and in their home, is novel, bodacious, and - if you’re a dog - almost too obvious for any mere human to have cooked up. There’s an occasional spiritual element to the book, too, as when Matthew Phillips takes on the topic of whether dogs go to Heaven. Phillips has an answer to that theological conundrum, though you might have to be a true believer going in to find it entirely convincing. I’m more a cat person, though I’ve had my own canine pals, and if these essays made me laugh out loud (and brush away the occasional tear), they’ll be a surefire way to delight any dog lover. Every single essay has something to give the reader, and every voice - many of them blessed with an informal, easygoing style that makes this collection exceptionally readable - positively trembles with gratitude and affection for our four-footed friends. |
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Publisher: Alyson Books. Publication Date: November 1, 2006. Pages: 274. Price: $24.95. Format: Hardcover Original. ISBN 978-1-55583-957-4
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Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, as well as for wigglefish.com, where he serves as Editor at Large. |