The Dog Stars

Like a lot of highly touted books, I found Heller's to be a bit disappointing. It takes a long time to get started, for one thing, and in the end the plot line is somewhat simplistic, hard to believe, and full of coincidences and wish fulfillment. The narrator, one of the survivors of an epidemic that kills most of the world's population, is also a bit unconvincing in his relationships with others (except for his beloved dog)--and he has absolutely no sense of time, which leads to the book's final (again wish fulfilling) events. The language of the book, while poetic (especially when he is quoting Chinese poetry) is sometimes effective and moving, but at other times is so totally removed from how folks actually speak that it doesn't help the novel's sense of reality. The best scenes, by far, are those of violence, when the narrator and his current ally have to defend themselves. Good thing he has allies who turn out to be gun nuts or Navy Seals (so sick of that trope). Compared to Cormac McCarthy's The Road, The Dog Stars is like a B-Movie. We do learn a bit about fuel for airplanes, however. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was excellent. ( )

Check out my review at:
http://www.shannonsbookbag.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-dog-stars-heller.html ( )

Whoa. This amazing book, which demands to be read s-l-o-w-l-y (due to Heller's inspired choice to subtly alter the protagonist's language, to reflect the fact that he's had almost no-one to talk to in nine years), is a perfect blend of the end-of-the-world brutality of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, with the loveliness of Nevil Shute's On the Beach. Extraordinary, realistic, and profoundly moving. ( )

Good prepper porn. Read it for the second time 20/01 ( )

I’m glad that I pushed through. Initially, I had a hard time with the abrupt, grammatically strange style. But as I settled in, it began to feel natural and appropriate to the setting.

I’ve seen comparisons with The Road which I can understand but this book is also very different; much lighter at times. Along with the darkness, there is also humor, love and tangible hope. I especially appreciate how Hig’s curmudgeon neighbor, Bangley, becomes an entertaining voice in Hig’s psyche when alone. The technical aspects are enjoyable, particularly the details about flying.

Hig’s broken meditations on loss and hope/hopelessness are moving.

"…The Dipper wheels back into place. Just one turn. One turn of the wheel and we are different, never the same. Not ever. Not even those stars. Even they, they decay, collapse, collapse, coalesce, break apart. Close my eyes. It’s what’s inside. What’s inside moving, swimming in the pain like a blind fish forever swimming. Is what lives what remains. Renews, renews the love and the pain. The love is the creek bed and the pain fills it. Fills it every day with tenter code hereears."
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