A thoughtful and balanced look at what people require of their pets.
Journalist and novelist Katz (The Father’s Club, 1996, etc.) delves further into the canine territory he first explored in A Dog Year (2002).
Now that dogs work less at herding and the other skills they were bred for, he wonders, what kinds of work are they being asked to do? Correlating the skyrocketing pet population with excessive TV, Internet, and DVD use, Katz believes that dogs are being solicited to tend to Americans’ emotional needs in a society whose members feel disconnected from one another. He focuses on his hometown, Montclair, New Jersey, to examine the evolving human-dog relationship. We meet Sandra Robinson, a childless, separated, middle-aged woman who gets a dachshund puppy named Eleanor Rigby for all the wrong reasons; she wants it to resolve issues from her past and to serve as an anchor in the midst of enormous personal and professional changes. Ellie tries admirably to fulfill all these emotional needs, and everything’s fine until Robinson begins to recover her footing and starts to view the puppy as “demanding and whiney.” We also meet Betty Jean Scirro, an office worker who has dedicated her life to rescuing abused and abandoned dogs, then rehabilitating them in her small house until they can be adopted. (“What does it say about a country that’s developed an extraordinarily sophisticated and comprehensive structure for saving dogs, but no equivalent one for rescuing endangered or troubled people?” Katz asks.) Other encounters involve Rob Cochran, an overworked attorney who considers his Lab his best friend; terminally ill Donna Dwight and her Welsh corgi (this story alone is worth the price of the book); and 14-year-old Jamal Sutton, who has an abusive relationship with a pit bull. Although Katz owns two border collies and is clearly wild about dogs in general, he is troubled that owners try to deny or alter the very nature of animals to suit their needs.
A thoughtful and balanced look at what people require of their pets.Pub Date: May 13, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-50814-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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