Sharp Teeth

by Toby Barlow

Book Overview

An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing. Bent on dominance, rival factions are initiating the down-and-out of L.A. into their ranks. Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kindhearted, lovesick dogcatcher, and the object of his affection: a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061430242
• ISBN13: 9780061430244
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Love, loss, and blood

One may at first be put off by the notion of a werewolf novel as an epic poem. In the minds of many - too many - poetry is an aged, calcified form, difficult to penetrate, and approached not for fun but out of a sense of intellectual obligation. Yet any such concerns should be immediately thrust aside by any potential reader of Toby Barlow's clever, compelling debut novel, "Sharp Teeth." Barlow's plot, at its surface, is a straight forward modern werewolf tale - a pack living in LA under the command of Lark have big plans, having to do with dog pounds. From there the story branches our into many directions - a love story between a werewolf woman and the novel's protagonist, several survivors of a decimated pack dealing with their loneliness, and other wolves hungry for the vengeance of blood. The poetry in which all of this comes is delivered in language at once subtle and raw, visceral as Barlow's topic and modern his book's setting. For example, when writing about a lovers wonder about how well he knows his love. He worries that this Is beginning to feel like driving a car through the mountains, finding a great song on the radio and then as you pass out of its range hearing it flicker and fade. Snap, pop and then its gone. Or another musing Tomorrow she knows the tactics will have to change her luck has held three times and Lark has always said, luck is stupid as a cow and blind as a bat. What would you do to protect the love you have? Would you kill? Would you hunt to kill? Would you kill without mercy? And if you wouldn't Then how precious is your love? Yet for all of this pretty poetry, Barlow never forgets the tradition from which he springs, that Homer and Shakespeare never meant for their audiences to be left to a narrow band of dutiful intellectuals, but saw themselves as appealing to a mass audience. And so, like these predecessors works, "Sharp Teeth" offers no shortage of breathtaking violence, and lurid bawdy details, and fine humor (a group of dogs hustling cards being my personal favorite). Barlow milks moon and dog imagery for every drop of entertainment, all delivered to the reader in a spectacular package. Readers will recognize much of "Sharp Teeth" as familiar, a crime noir taken to the next level, with all of the twists, turns, and character archetypes one might expect. The crime boss down on his luck plotting his way back, his scheming second in command, the beautiful dame who isn't sure what love is, the haggard cop who thinks once too often about eating his gun. Yet again, Barlow's rich vivid language and his mastery of imagery bring all of these things to us in a way that is both fresh and rewarding. Readers who allow themselves to be put off by thoughts of epic poetry will be the loosers, never having enjoyed the bite of "Sharp Teeth."

A Poetic Love Child of Lon Chaney and Flannery O'Connor

An ambitous, fun read. Bridge playing werewolves and creepy Peter Lorre like meth barons populate an alternative LA that astutely mirrors and comments upon our "real" world visions, fears and fantasies of that city. Barlow maps the yearning of all creatures for connection, attachment and violence against the consequences of all those compulsions. Tossing off the story in free verse, Barlow's language isn't stuffy or poetically overdetermind but has a searching intelligence and rythmic integrity. He also has a keen ear for droll underplayed dialogue. Don't worry about Homer, think about the power of Stephen Crane's short verses being played out over a noir novel's length and mashed up with early Springsteen and enjoy the ride.

Spellbinding!

I work in a library and while processing this book for check out I would open it randomly and become absolutely engrossed. The free verse is simultaneously as flowing as straight prose, and as moving as poetry, some lines make you pause, breathe, back up and re-read just to savor their resonance in your mind. The werewolf/dog angle as well as the violent clashes between the gangs make this story not for everyone, but the underlying compassion and beauty of the verse are what you take away from the book. As mentioned in a previous review, I will probably have to read it again, as slowly as possible, just to savor the little details I probably missed the first time through. As near a perfect thing as any book I can think of.

A truly stunning debut

With Sharp Teeth, Toby Barlow has written one of the most stunning, compelling and at once violent and compassionate books that I can ever recall reading. Filled with passion, wrenched apart by unrequited love, written in plain verse that reads as effortlessly as breathing (or as a graphic novel without the graphics), it is almost surprising that the tale of Sharp Teeth is so contemporary and so real - especially when you consider the fact that it concerns rival gangs in Los Angeles (but think Robert De Niro's intelligently structured gang in the movie, Heat, not some bunch of fools) who just happen to be able to transform themselves into wolves and wild dogs who run in the canyons and arroyos of Southern California's nighttime wilderness. To call this a werewolf story is to reduce it to a pointless and totally insufficient label. Lark, its central character, is a man of finely tailored clothes and still more finely tailored thoughts and emotions. The Girl (for she is never named, nor should she be) that he loves is damaged and wild and finds feeling and brief solace in the arms of one Mexican-American dog catcher named Anthony, whose own soul is as complex and driven by passion as both the woman he loves and the man (Lark) who so completely and unconditionally loves her. There is savagery here, in the transformations from human to animal, and surprises, whether it be the iconic Surfer Pack, with its seductive Annie (filled with the warm innocence of a summer night, yet every bit as primal as those with whom she runs), or the Bridge Tournament in Pasadena, attended by the perfectly-named (like every single character in the book) gang members Cutter and Blue, which strikes echoes of Chandler and Hammett at their sly, dry, sardonic best. Or, for the sheer joy of the prose, take this, from when The Girl first meets Lark ("She's leaned on Lark for so long now/you'd think it was love"): "The talk went on until the moon disappeared and she bit her lip and looked down and knew that whatever it was, she would agree. But he kept talking, until she finally wanted it so bad, she could feel the night's darkness vibrating inside her." The intelligence and intent of the book can be sensed in the epigraphs that open each section of the narrative. For example, at the start of Book One, Walter Benjamin's "There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of barbarism," transposed with Warren Zevon's (RIP) "His hair was perfect." But perhaps the love and loss, the power plays and empathy and sheer manic energy of this explosive, wholly original modern day myth, are best captured by the quiet simplicity of this quotation from Plato, which appends Book Four: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Toby Barlow has done what all writers, not least all new writers, dream of doing: he has redefined a literary form and made it his own. And created magic in doing so.

Lucky to have been bitten early

Based on some British online reviews, I had already put Mr. Barlow's book on my wish list when, by stroke of luck, I landed an uncorrected proof from a local bookseller. With, then, the disclaimer that I am an avid poetry reader, I can still honestly say that anyone - poet hound or otherwise - looking for an engaging story, intriguing characters, hackle-raising horror or, as is my addiction, beautiful word-craft will love this book. It will be most appealing to those who love and respect dogs. Mr. Barlow rarely slings cliche, but when he does he plays with it enough that it doesn't rankle, but instead invites one to smile. The story never lagged, and with enough was left to the imagination that the book was impossible to put down (woe to me and my homework). Already I am, once bitten and not at all shy, eagerly awaiting his next effort.