A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog Named Trixie

by Dean Koontz

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In a profound, funny, and beautifully rendered portrait of a beloved companion, bestselling novelist Dean Koontz remembers the golden retriever who changed his life.

A retired service dog, Trixie was three when Dean and his wife, Gerda, welcomed her into their home. She was superbly trained, but her greatest gifts couldn't be taught: her keen intelligence, her innate joy, and an uncanny knack for...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345530608
• ISBN13: 9780345530608
• Release Date: July 2011
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Dog lovers book

If you love dogs this book is for you. If you have ever been the recipient of a Golden's love, antics, joy, pain and loss, this book is for you. Our beloved Ladybird Johnson succumbed much like Trixie. She lived 16 wonderful years with us and battled tumors and cancer till there was another fight she just couldn't win. But true to her Golden nature she never complained and loved us till the end. Thank you Trixie and Dean and Gerda for sharing you golden love with us all. We are now in our "holding pattern" waiting for another Golden love to shower us again.

A wonderful story

I was really mesmerized by this lovely story of an unexpected friendship. We can never forget that a dog will complete our lives in ways we never knew could happen. Thank you Mr. Koontz.

A Dog Lover's Delight!

If you are a Dean Koontz fan, you already know that he is a master at writing. If you are looking for one of his weird and twisted stories, this is not the book for you. However, Mr. Koontz has written a beautiful memoir of life with his dog. The book is not so much about his dog, Trixie, as it is the journey that he and his wife take while blessed with her in their lives. If you have ever had a pet that gets deep in your heart, you'll understand that the journey and lessons were his to learn and the dog's to teach. Whereas "Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog" is a dog story filled with love, mischievous behavior and antics, "a big little life" is a story filled with love and spirituality. Marley is a rebel, Trixie is an angel. The things I found most interesting while reading this book are the snapshots of Mr. Koontz life that he has kept so private over the years. While writing about the life of his dog, he inevitably includes stories about himself that give us a great view into his personal life, his thoughts, his writing practices and more. And I must say, like many writers, he's a bit quirky! "a big little life" includes no great suspense-filled moments. There are no plot twists. There are no superhuman characters. There is just Trixie and the unconditional love between a special dog and her human companions. A well written story from the perspective of a dog lover for life.

By Reading About the Dog, We Better Know The Man

What I Brought To The Reading Of This Book: I've loved animals all my life, and worked at an animal shelter for several years. I'm not a rabid (no pun intended) fan of the author, but I'm certainly a fan. I lost a very beloved dog only a few days before the Koontz family lost Trixie. Reviewing this book seems silly. If you know, accept, have experienced the animal-human bond, you will love this book and will find yourself wiping away tears, especially if you've lost a pet before it felt like it was time. If you're not an "animal" person or have uttered the words "I like animals okay, but..." you're probably going to think Koontz has written an exercise in anthropomorphism. It's that simple. The fact that I give it 5 stars tells you where I stand. Trixie Koontz was a good dog. People who love dogs know that description is richer than can be expressed and imbued with as much love as a heart can contain. It's all any dog could wish to hear from her family. Good Dog. She was raised to be a service dog, and when an congenital issue with an elbow sidelined that, she went to be with the Koontz family and became part of that family. She became their daughter. If that last sentence seems silly, this is not the book for you. C.S. Lewis wrote: "Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable." People who truly love animals know the truth of this and, like Dean and Gerda Koontz, chose to have their hearts wrung and broken again. In doing so, they know grace. Reading this book was mostly a joy for me. By reading about Trixie, I recalled my own pets -- indeed, part of the book was read while sitting on the front lawn with one of my dogs, watching the birds feed, and not too far from the wildflower garden we planted only weeks before losing Riley, and weeks before the Koontzs lost Trixie. By reading about Trixie, I felt connected to the author, AKA Trixie's dad, who writes books. Of course, I knew the "ending" and knew I would cry, and I did. Like Trixie, Riley was diagnosed and gone too soon, and -- like Trixie -- I took him home to give him the best spoiling ever, only to find out that even that had to be cut short. Okay, let me talk about something else, and why I picked the subject line I did. By reading about Trixie, we know better the heart of Dean Koontz. We learn about his childhood and the man he grew to be, and we learn a lot about his spirituality and what he values. For fans, it's an interesting glimpse into the heart of the author, must like King's On Writing tells you as much about the author as it informs you of

The transformative story of how a dog irrevocably changed Dean Koontz's life

As any writer will tell you, the most difficult thing to write about convincingly, without being excessively sentimental, is the transformative nature of love in all its dimensions. In the hands of an inept writer, the subject inspires unintended hilarity, ripe for parody. But in the hands of a writer who has spent a lifetime honing his craft and explicating it in novels, as Dean Koontz has done, the prose will sing and soar in an exultation of joy. Joy is Trixie. Trixie, adopted by Dean and Gerda Koontz, is at the heart of this book: We learn how Trixie came into and became an inextricable part of their lives; and then, by her untimely departure, made them realize that relationship, that "dance" (as Jan Strnad put it), was such an enriching and uplifting life experience. To Dean and Gerda, Trixie Koontz was an angelic entity who, by example, deepened and enriched their lives; she constantly reminded them about all the things in life that truly matter: experiences and trust and the deepening bond of friendship that blossoms into love and, finally, heartbreak when Trixie died. (Yes, they adopted another Golden Retriever, who actually is in Trixie's family tree. Small world.) Dean is an exquisitely careful writer who, to my mind, has probed deep into the timeless relationship that we have with our canine companions that live for one purpose: to experience, and share, joy. It's a joy that Dean and Gerda nearly missed out on because, as they explained, they were busy with their lives and careers and didn't want to be irresponsible and not give the dog the attention she deserved. Finally, they realized that -- as in all things in life -- the perfect time to take action is NOW: not next month, not next year, or not ten years down the road when you "have the time." That day will never come. Thus: Carpe diem (seize the day). So they did, and their lives were transformed in ways they never imagined when they accepted Trixie into their lives and then into their hearts. I've read MARLEY AND ME, and I've also read the book about Dewey, the library cat, but this book takes us to the next, higher level. Dean has given a lot of thought to the relationship he enjoyed with Trixie, and explained it so well that even someone who has never enjoyed the company of a dog will understand why our canine companions are singular--as is this book. ** This may help explain why Dean's book resonated so deeply with me: After five years of caregiving for my mother-in-law in our home on a 24/7 basis, my wife felt bereft, with no one to look after and care for and fuss over. So we "adopted" a neighborhood cat that used to live two doors down. The cat slept on her bed at night and sat next to her all day on the couch, and became an integral part of her life. But when the cat went back home to our neighbors who counted him as an integral part of THEIR family, my wife soon realized that she missed the cat's constancy, the relationship of bonding with the cat that curled up o

TEN Stars! Magnificent-Fun-Thoughtful-Sad-Life Affirming

While I had heard of the author Dean Koontz I had never read any of his books. Until this gem entered my life. Have no dog in my life, just one heck of a special cat who has kept me sane since my husband died unexpectedly. But friends and family have dogs whom I adore. When I first got the book I being an animal lover assumed it would be much like other animal books I have read and owned. It isn't. Its so unique and wonderful in so many different ways. The author and his wife have no children and are according to some of their friends even slightly obsessive compulsive when it comes to liking order and cleanliness. Thus when they considered getting this wonderful dog named Trixie they were questioned if they could handle he unclean ways as dogs as well as cats can be a tad unkept at times. Thankfully they got her and what a blessing she would become. And not just to the author and his wife, but everyone the dog encountered. Its truly amazing when one encounters an animal who has the human sense to do certain things. Like how she refused to use home property for her bathroom. Or how when she developed an allergy to wheat and beef and would throw up, she would give fair warning and then head to the stone floor to throw up since it made for easier clean up. Or how when visiting a friend she just knew that a specific musical figurine was a gift from a beloved male that was the subject of the conversation and as such she got it and hid it under the table in order to have it play at the right moment. Loved reading how she would stop, pause and look at the author or his wife in a way that they understood her unspoken thoughts. How she had such a keen almost angelic sense about things. Even when she died. Its a truly wonderful NON sappy book that will make you laugh, smile, think, cry and in the end be blessed in ways you never even imagined. Also reminded me of why I like animals more than many people.

A heartwarming tribute to a joyous dog

I love Dean Koontz's fiction, and I found this heartwarming nonfiction tribute to his late golden retriever, Trixie, just as absorbing as any of his novels. It portrays Trixie's life with the Koontzes, and her death, but mostly her life and the amazing impact she had on the lives of Dean and his wife, Gerda. This innocent, joyful, intelligent, uncannily mysterious, dignified, fun-loving dog, retired before the age of three as a service dog with Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), became part of the Koontz family in 1998. I was surprised to find out that many of Koontz's dog novels, including "Watchers," had been written before he ever had a dog; obviously he already had an affinity for canines. He and Gerda had been supporters of CCI for eight years before adopting Trixie. I loved Koontz's account of how Trixie's intelligence and sense of wonder revealed that she had a soul, and restored his and Gerda's own sense of wonder. Trixie made it evident that dogs are not mindless mechanisms operating solely on instinct, as some animal behaviorists would have us believe, but rather that they do think, possess intuition, experience emotions similar to ours, have a sense of humor, and even a spiritual dimension. Of course, there is real sadness in the account of Trixie's last days, and her death, and it brought me to tears. But there's also gratitude for the joy she brought to the Koontzes' lives, and hope that her spirit survives. On the whole, this inspiring memoir is joyous, delightful and lively, and much of it is very funny. I highly recommend this book to all dog lovers and to readers who enjoy Koontz's dog stories.