Review by Booklist Review
Debut essayist Shaw tracks her life through the dogs that have inhabited it. From Easy, recalled in the foggy early-childhood memory of her parents' "first baby," to Otter, the pup she brings home hoping to soothe the painful death of Booker, who'd been like her own first baby, Shaw finds more than just companionship in dogs. They reflect eras of life, ways of connecting to the world, and even function as extensions of herself. Shaw's language is lyrical and contemplative, whether relating small moments of intimacy or big feelings. This is a quiet, heartfelt, and memorable work that cuts right to the quick of the unique bond between dogs and their people. As she tries to cling to the fleeing present, a feeling of sadness pervades; we all know how dog books end. "What is a dog?" she asks, "Maybe a dog is a second chance." And lucky for us humans, and much like those ever-forgiving canines, we get those second chances again, and again, and again.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Shaw debuts with a beautiful paean to dogs in this touching memoir recounting the canines who changed her life. When she and her husband Matt put their 15-year-old wolfdog Booker to sleep in 2015, she reckoned with the fact that "I've always felt safest, among the soft, oystered muzzles of dogs." After a year of mourning with her family, she decided to spend a week in what she refers to as the "Dog House"--alone with her two cats and two dogs, "where I can be less human for a while, more beast"--while her husband and kids went on vacation. In heartbreaking, lyrical prose, she meditates on the dogs "that shepherded me into adulthood," motherhood, and her decade of "hard-earned" marriage. Her first dog, an Afghan hound named Easy, was considered less a pet than a sibling to Shaw, who grew up an only child. When Easy died early of cancer, her family cycled through dogs, including two terriers named Agatha. However, Shaw's story never strays far from Booker and his "lion-sized heart," and the ways he taught her bravery and strength in the face of great loss. "He was my baby-dog-nonhuman-person-wolf. We were, every one of us in that house, in love." Dog lovers, take note and grab some tissues. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In her first book, Shaw reflects on the meaning of canine companionship and how dogs transformed her life. After the family dog, Booker, died, a grieving Shaw began contemplating not only what her beloved canine did for her, but also the fears that had been her constant companions. The author was an only child, and her mother's Afghan hound, Easy, became her first "Dog-Sister" and helped her navigate the space between loving parents who avoided strong emotions. Later, a Scottie named Agatha 2 became the first canine to get "lodged in my heart." The pair grew so attached that the author herself was almost indistinguishable from Agatha 2, with relationships to her "humans" that mirrored those her Scottie had with them. Yet Agatha 2 could not save Shaw from the anxiety that gnawed her from within and manifested as "horribly ravaged fingernails" in an otherwise well-groomed adolescence. Her first teenage love, Josh, taught her how to intimately know herself but caused her guilt for spending time away from an aging Agatha 2. Her dog's death coincided with a cancer diagnosis for Josh's mother and high school graduation. Shaw decided to break up with Josh, and when she fell in love again, it would be with her future husband and Booker, a dog she realized had united the "Dog, Girl, Woman, Wife, Mother," only to shatter her with his death. "Just as Booker's life so exquisitely fused my separate selves," she writes, "Booker's death left me splintered all over again." Forced to confront her anxiety, Shaw came to understand that the only way to remain whole was to "let in the dogs" of her own fears and feelings. This poignant and gracefully written memoir amply embraces the complexities of the human-dog relationship in a uniquely personal way, and it's also a moving story of self-acceptance. A dog lover's warmhearted delight. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
