The Dog Stars

It was good, but not really my cup of tea in terms of overall style. The pacing was a bit too slow overall, although desperately tense in some parts. Audiobook narrator was great. ( )

I really liked this book, but I have to say it left with the feeling someone punched me in the stomach. It is poetic. It is engaging. The sex scenes are hot without being affected. (Some other reviewer called them “wet sex”, well… “dry sex” is not fun, is it?) Yet, yet…

Maybe what bother me the most was the presence of not one, but two Rambo like characters? In a story with 5 characters – counting the dog – to have two characters so much alike that they are interchangeable is bad enough, but that these mirror image characters are gun toting, navy seals, covert operative types, seemed like lazy character development from an author that seem to have a lot more potential than this.

It does make me think that the hidden message here is: We cannot survive without the help of gun loving, ruthless big man, trained by the military to protect us. Even when they are shooting at young girls wielding a kitchen knife or 9 year old sickly boys, they are really guaranteeing that we – the good guys – have a future.

I cannot avoid thinking of the heated debate over gun control in the USA right now. As a Canadian citizen some may not think it is my place to even brush into this debate, but hearing of machine gun killings in elementary schools – anywhere in the world – makes my heart skip a beat. And, as someone looking in from outside, why do American movies and books keep on perpetuating this narrative that only machine guns and grenades will save the good way of life. “Never, never negotiate” this is the motto.

As I write this I realize that I cannot give any stars to this book. To give less stars on account of my political perceptions would negate the lovely prose, the insightful musings on nature, life, love and death. Then, to give 4 or 5 stars would make me feel as if I backed what I perceived as a dangerous message here.

The funny thing is just a couple of hours ago I recommended this book to a friend. Actually, thinking of it, I would still highly recommend this book. But I hope that it would lead to a debate on the covert messages we acquire and internalize.

Some reviewers peg this book as a “more optimistic dystopia than The Road”. I actually think it is more disturbing than ‘The Road”. A more optimistic view would require that character Rambo #2 became an agriculture expert, or a leading scientist, or a librarian… someone with more to offer to a new generation of survivors than tactical military expertise.

Oh! You don’t agree with me… it is simple: Shoot me!

Mi sono imbattuto quasi per caso in questo libro, leggendo una recensione sul web.
Di solito non è il modo migliore per trovare un buon testo, ma stavolta ci ho azzeccato.
L'origine della trama è un'apocalisse mondiale originata da un virus, cosa attualissima oggi.
Ma lo svilupparsi della trama esce dalla fiction e va dritto al nostro cuore, attraverso le vicende dei protagonisti.
Scritto con una prosa singolare che all'inizio sconcerta ma che poi si rivela piacevolissima.
Ottima la traduzione.
Lettura indispensabile in tempo di pandemia! ( )

I listened to this one on audiobook and that probably was the way to do it. I read a few reviews in advance and noted that one reviewer found the language usage and syntax jarring and unsettling to the point that it detracted from their enjoyment of the book. In listening, I can see that because the prose is conversational rather than literary. If not listening to an audiobook I would have been tempted to read aloud. Sounds weird, but that is the way this book is written.

Loved it. Amazing story. Good characters and a great dog. Heartbreaking, nerve-racking, and beautiful. Heller writes like a great American writer like Hemingway---especially in his deeply spiritual connection with the sports life of hunting and fishing. I kept thinking of “Big Two-Hearted River” as I listened. The narrator is more modern than Hemingway, who would not have spent nearly as much time contemplating the reasons for his actions, and more time just getting on with the action of the story.

This novel dives deeply into fishing, flying small airplanes, hunting, how magical it is to have a really good dog as a companion, the nature of love and loss, killing another human being, and deliberately going beyond the point of no return just to see what is there. Pretty literary stuff, but the story is told in the context of a violent post apocalyptic world and has several edge of the seat white knuckle situations that had me waiting in the car after I got to my destination just to see how it all came out.

Not many novels are this well written yet this exciting at the same time. 5 stars. One of the year’s favorites for me.
( )

Pandemic related stories had a resurgence last year, but this one is better than most. None of the heavy, fear-driven hysteria. It's largely a quiet book, focused on one man's survival under very challenging circumstances. The narrative is deeply connected to the land where the main character lives, and whether he understands it or not, the land plots him in the world. You might expect a dire ending - I mean, shouldn't everyone die - but the ending provides some hope that everything will bar alright in the end. While the ending stretches believability a bit, it's a nice change to the typical narrative arc fo thee kinds of books. The author's previous narrative non-fiction work in the outdoors provides him what he needs to make the landscape its own character in the story, and the writing has a deep connection to his poetry work, making the book surprisingly lyrical. So, a hopeful disaster book. ( )