Dog Years: A Memoir
, poet Mark Doty’s bestselling book about life, loss, love, and dogs comes out in paperback April 8th.
Publisher’s Weekly review…
"Doty explores, with compassion and intelligence, the complicated, loving territory inhabited by devoted dogs and their loyal humans. In 1994, when the author’s longtime lover was dying of AIDS, beloved pet Arden kept the surviving partner afloat. A new adoptee, the rambunctious Beau, in his "sloppy dog way," becomes a part of the tribe and carries some of the burden of grief. Doty says Beau "carried something else for me too, which was my will to live." In a time of devastating pain, as well as in happier times, Doty’s two dogs are the "secret heroes of my own vitality."
The dog characters in the book are irresistible, and the arcs of their lives are delineated with the tenderness and passion of the truly smitten. Arden’s quiet nobility and slow decline breaks the heart, while Beau’s goofy enthusiasm peaks with youth and mellows in illness. With a marvelous ability to present the pain of mourning with a poet’s delicate hand, and an irrepressible instinct for joy, Doty delivers a soulful love story which illuminates no less than the big human mysteries: attachment, death, grief, loyalty, happiness. The book nimbly sidesteps sentimentality and lands squarely on a philosophical, inquisitive tone as intellectually evocative as it is emotionally resonant."
Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian writes…
"The pleasure of Dog Days doesn’t depend upon liking dogs – because this isn’t really a book about them at all. It’s a hymn, instead, to human grief and despair, and to the miracles of hope and love."
And includes this funny, poignant excerpt from the book…
Mark Doty was walking his arthritic dog through Manhattan when a passerby paused to pet the black retriever. "He’s had a good life," she remarked carelessly. "Isn’t that just lovely, that we’re all part of the cycle, we’re here and then we go!’" She was trying to be kind, Doty could see. But, he writes, "I wanted to say, though I did not, Fuck you."
Anyone with an old dog knows that feeling. The book sounds amazing, but maybe not right for me now. Owning an old dog makes me philosophical enough. Let me know if you read it.
