Last Days of the Dog-Men: Stories

by Brad Watson

Book Overview

A collection of stories about people and dogs--dogs as companions, as accomplices, and as victims of human ruthlessness--captures various aspects of the human personality in connection to the instinctual personalities of dogs.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393039269
• ISBN13: 9780393039269
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 146 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Not especially for dog-lovers, but no less magnificent.

Brad Watson's collection of stories in Last Days of the Dog-Men possess a kind of restless ennui that is frequently attempted but rarely captured so poignantly. In his Southern-gothic style, Watson explores characters in relation to dogs in each of his stories, though sometimes this exploration takes a back seat. The stories aren't always directly about dogs; moreso they are stories with dogs in them. Read, and find the perspective of a guide-dog waiting to cross the street, the perspective of an old woman living with her dead husband's dog, the perspective of a man having a dinner party while a dog is dying beneath his house. Watson doesn't use archetypes here -- there is rarely a "man's best friend"-trotting-through-a-field-of-flowers to be found in the entire book. We meet smart dogs who can balance meat on their nose, dumb ones that bark until eventually they can't remember what they're barking about, guide dogs, dying dogs, dogs with old ladies as owners, greyhounds that come between relationships, and chocolate labs in a Darwinian struggle over the creek bed. This book isn't so much for dog-lovers as it is just a book where dogs happen to be a motif. There are several stories where dogs are shot, drowned, or given up. Thus, it isn't so much the loving portrayal that might be expected, but nonetheless I think it explores many facets of dogs' character, however unglamourous or cruel that can sometimes be. Even as a cat-lover, I thoroughly enjoyed every story.

GOOD WRITING IS A READER'S BEST FRIEND...

...and this collection of stories - each of which deals in some way with `man's best friend' - is good writing from start to finish. Every single story in this collection is compelling and well written - and some of them are absolute jewels. Watson's characters are drawn with care, embodying realism as well as the author's empathy for them. The cadences of their speech - and thoughts - are perfect. Their lives are at once flawed and filled with wonderful things - rather like the lives of each of us. Watson's use of the dogs in the stories to bind them together as a whole is a gentle and natural one - it never comes across as contrived.`Last days of the dog-men' and `A retreat' offer poignant and painful looks at how our lives can spiral downward when relationships come to an end. As easy as it would seem for these stories to be maudlin and depressing, Watson never allows that to happen. The humanity of his characters remains strong, even in their seemingly darkest hours - whatever we might think about them, and what actions brought them to their sorry states, they are never less than real. `Agnes of Bob' and `Bill' are touching portraits of couples - widows and the dogs with whom they live after the deaths of their spouses. The relationships between the women and the dogs are as unique as those that develop between close friends. `Seeing eye' gives us a glimpse of not only the practical aspects of the assistance a guide dog offers to a visually-impaired owner - Watson manages to get inside the relationship and reveals deeper aspects of it than might appear at a casual glance. `A blessing' is a little surreal - a couple attempts to acquire a new dog, and an evident wrong turn leads them to the home of a man who is extremely odd and malevolent.The only two stories I have to say that I didn't enjoy as much as the others would be `The wake' - which seemed to me to be a little `forced', and reminded me of the old song by the Velvet Underground, `The gift' - and `Kindred spirits', in which a man tricks his friends into becoming accomplices in a crime he has committed. Even this last story had many redeeming qualities, however - and I certainly can't dismiss the collection because of these two quibbles.Watson's prose is strong and gently descriptive - so much so that I often found myself smiling at his talents, discovering that I had, over the course of a few pages, come to picture characters and whole scenes in my mind without noticing where he was leading me. I've heard lots of good things about his novel THE HEAVEN OF MERCURY - and after reading an excerpt from it in the stellar collection STORIES FROM THE BLUE MOON CAFÉ, and then the excellence contained in LAST DAYS OF THE DOG-MEN, I'm looking forward to it even more.

A Jewel of a Book

This is a very fine book, containing writing of such finely chiselled precision that I'd often find myself stunned into introspection by the power of Watson's insight or a particularly poignant turn of phrase. This doesn't happen often; it's the power of deep music or a great painting to stop you right there! to think it out. Watson's use of the dog to illuminate the spirit of humanity and its tangle of desire is sublimely realized. He deftly avoids reducing the dog or its humans to Obvious Metaphor, a move that would have been all too easy if he'd conceived this relationship as Hallmark-type schmaltz. The people and dogs in these pages transcend mere caricature; they become more than the sum of the words used to describe them and achieve something like living. It's an uncanny evocation of the complex world of pain, desire and loss that lurks just beneath the patina of everyday memory and dull rationalization. Like some animal supersense, Watson's writing cuts through the veneer of the commonplace to examine the crux of our most important matters. Watson gives us ourselves, unprettified and naked, shivering with emotion and memory and the ugly afterbirth of the various tragedies that compose the fabric of our lives. These are stories to be cherished and enjoyed.

Memorable, indeed unforgettable stories.

Watson's using Dogdom as a point of reference for human yearnings and frustrations is a master stroke. Though his blending of hilarity and pathos might be called a characteristic of Southern Lit., his voice and his insights are unique. This book is a "keeper."

A classic-to-be in the horror genre

This is another book review by Wolfie and Kansas, the boonie dogs from Toto, Guam. Human reviewers seem to have trouble placing the stories in Brad Watson's "Last Days of the Dog-Men" in the proper genre, describing these little gems as literary fiction. To dogs, however, these stories belong in the horror genre. In practically every story, a dog is murdered. From a canine viewpoint, these stories are what we would expect from Edgar Allen Poe if he had decided to use dogs as victims in his stories.Watson's treatment of his canine characters is surprisingly good for a human author. Our only complaint is that he nonetheless spends more time developing his human characters. While he handles them well, they are intrinsically less interesting than dogs. Perhaps in his next collection, Watson will dispense with the noncanine animals of primate derivation and focus exclusively on dogs