Monday 23 January 2017

"Fifteen Dogs" by Andre Alexis

    Here is another book on the Canada Reads longlist.  It is not science fiction, but it is unusual.  It is called an apologue.
Apologue- definition: a moral fable, especially one with animals as characters.
  Yes, this book is about dogs licking, peeing, mounting and fighting.  Does that sound like an award winner?
   Well, it was published in 2015 and won the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in that year.
  It is the second book in a series of five that the author feels is "examining faith, place, love, power and hatred".
   Fifteen dogs are given the gift of human consciousness and language by the gods Hermes and Apollo.  Apollo thought that they would be more unhappy than humans if they had human intelligence.  The gods make a bet about whether the dogs will be happier at their death.  The dogs die one by one- mostly killed by the other dogs in the pack.  The gods also interfere in the lives of the last two dogs.
  I have no idea about this book.  I have read revue after revue praising it, but I saw absolutely no value in the whole book- just dogs licking, peeing, mounting and fighting.

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