THE DOG WHO SPOKE WITH GODS

Name: THE DOG WHO SPOKE WITH GODS
Author: Diane Jessup
ISBN: 0-312-26662-6

by Diane Jessup ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001

Graphic scenes of animal torture make for a sometimes painful read, but the passion here can also make it worth the effort.

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The author of several books on dog behavior offers her first novel: a sharp indictment against the use of dogs in animal research.

Animal behaviorist Viktor Hoffman, who studies the rare feral dog, discovers a pit bull that has been surviving on its own in the forest and sets about tracking the dog’s actions. Injured in the woods, Hoffman is rescued by the dog, which he names Damien. But that doesn’t stop him from later attaching a bulky radio collar to Damien that (unbeknownst to the researcher) severely inhibits the dog’s ability to hunt. Hoffman eventually finds Damien nearly starved, the collar wedged between rocks. Feeling a sense of obligation, he saves the dog’s life, but only for a fate worse than death: Hoffman brings Damien to his university’s animal research lab, albeit with a note attached preventing any terminal studies. Vividly depicting Damien’s lot as a research animal, the author catalogues one horror after another: he's shocked, shot, and left to linger in a small cage for the rest of his life. Enter Elizabeth Fletcher, a pre-med student working part-time in the lab as an animal handler. The daughter of a researcher who himself experiments on dogs, Elizabeth has never had a pet and can’t fathom any special connection between the two species . . . until she meets Damien. The dog’s nobility (Jessup waxes poetic about the breed a bit too often) intrigues her, and soon she is secretly taking him out at dawn for walks and teaching him tricks. Very special tricks: when Elizabeth teaches Damien how to speak, she gets him to actually articulate human words. Later, though, she inadvertently puts him into the hands of evil Dr. Seville, who intends to use Damien’s miraculous skill to build his reputation—at any cost.

Graphic scenes of animal torture make for a sometimes painful read, but the passion here can also make it worth the effort.

Pub Date: June 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-312-26662-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.