A warm, writerly homage to the consolation of dogs.
A dog-loving novelist, poet, and memoirist adopts an exuberant puppy.
One winter, British-born Canadian writer Humphreys kept a journal recounting her life with Fig, her third vizsla in the last 22 years. Traditionally the hunting and companion dogs of Hungarian aristocrats, the smooth-haired vizslas, writes the author, “are the only dogs without an odour. They are athletic and extremely bonded to their humans. Vizslas are intelligent and adapt well to new situations and places. Also, they are exceedingly good-looking and have been called the super models of the dog world.” Her first was Hazel, and her most beloved was Charlotte, a calm, intuitive, companionable dog, who had just died from cancer. Besides chronicling the “wild, unknowable demon” that was Fig, Humphreys offers a tender elegy to Charlotte, with whom she had “the most intimate relationship with a dog” that she ever had. The author also shares fond memories of the dogs with whom she grew up. “My dogs have all had strong characters,” she writes, “and I have learned from them that to have traits that are admirable is as good as having traits that are likeable.” Many other writers, Humphreys discovered, have found dogs perfect companions: Virginia Woolf, whose “mongrel terrier” Grizzle accompanied her on daily walks over the South Downs; Thomas Hardy, whose aggressive fox terrier, Wessex, often ripped the trouser legs of guests; James Thurber, who included some of his 14 dogs in his drawings and stories; Gertrude Stein, who doted on her poodle, Basket; and Alexander Pope, who had a Great Dane named Bounce. Dogs, who “live very firmly in their bodies,” have liberated Humphreys by allowing her to cross from the life of the mind to the physicality of the body, a process that, “while jarring at first, actually opened up the writing process for me.” The book includes photos of writers and their canine companions.
A warm, writerly homage to the consolation of dogs.Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-60388-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
