“Doty, Mark: Dog Years”HarperCollins Publishing, March 2007I am one to favor stories about animals. I have always been an avid animal lover, and I enjoy reading stories about things that I can associate myself with. Stories about pets are definitely stories that I can easily lose myself in and, for a reader, that is an amazing feeling. Mark Doty’s Dog Years immediately delves directly into the topic of his novel: dogs. Any pet owner that reads this book will be smiling and nodding their head during the entirety of the first chapter. Doty discusses the life of a dog owner with shocking clarity and perfection. From the starstruck owner telling tales of their pet to an unappreciative audience to the reason why we seem to ventriloquize our pets (“Lola loves that ball!” Doty uses as an example), any pet owner that reads these examples and realizations Doty makes knows it’s all too true.But the novel isn’t about the way owners communicate with their pets. The meaning reveals itself to be much deeper and much more somber. The tale revolves around two dogs: Beau and Arden, and golden retriever and a black retriever. Beau was adopted as a sort of companion dog for Doty’s dying life partner. The calm Arden, the hyper Beau, and the striving couple make a family. The dogs bring comfort to the dying Wally, then to Doty after his partner passes. They fill the void that his partner left behind, and serve as a comfort to the lovely and heartbroken author. The dogs bring him up out of the rut of depression Doty has fallen into, and for a time everything is happy. A new partner enters the picture, and it’s amusing to read about Arden’s dislike of the new family, and the reader is content to bask in the little family’s happiness. But remember, this story is about the recovery from despair and finding hope – and it’s not over. The dogs become ill. Doty falls back into that crippling depression, the dogs echoing his past partner Wally’s decline. He is helpless against despair, and the loss of his dogs is seemingly the last thing he can take. The only thing that keeps him from ending it all himself, Doty reflects, is the idea of Beau suffering. His dog’s last days are heartbreaking for both author and reader, and I would be lying if I said some tears weren’t shed. Though Doty pulls through, with no little amount of melancholy.The eye-opening thing is, the novel really isn’t about the dogs at all. The dogs are merely a channel, a means for telling a story that Doty felt everyone needs to hear. It’s a tale about life and death, despair and hope. The story can be empathized with every type of reader: you don’t have to be a dog lover to really get this book, and, no matter what your interests are, this novel speaks to all about life and its ups and downs.
The first time I started to read this book, I gave up about 5 pages in. It's not an easy book, simply not one of those light, frothy human animal love stories that make us laugh and feel warm and ultimately make us sob at the end just before a few wonderfully uplifting final words. You need to read this one when you want to think and be challenged with new ideas and opinions. I came back to it this month just a few weeks after our own much-loved retriever died and in the middle of serious age related health issues for our elderly rescued street dog, as well as in a time of major work-related stress and self-doubt. Mark Doty isn't talking directly to me of course but I was now in the mood to listen and try to understandThe memoir is a human memoir, not the life of a dog. Mark was going through major changes in his life, the illness and death of a partner, a struggle with depression and grief and good old fashioned despair, the pain and shock of living in New York on 9-11, changes that he finds more manageable because of the two retrievers sharing his life. His dogs inspire him in every way, in thought, in deed and in wonder. He does not pretend to understand exactly what they think and feel, nor does he try to make them cute through personification. Instead he marvels at and revels in, or occasionally just finds solace in their uniqueness and their special gifts to him. The language here is fittingly beautiful and the concepts and ideas are fascinating if you're receptive to them. At times it is a very dark book, but if you've ever lived through the illness and loss of a loved one, human or otherwise, you'll recognise and identify with the pain and the search for a little reason behind the irrationality that is life. Towards the end, I was gulping for air as my chest ached with grief, knowing exactly how he must have felt. But I also know exactly why he would remember his dogs with great love and never regret the sadness of losing them
What do You think about Dog Years (2007)?
I’ll confess right up front that I’m a great fan of Mark Doty’s poetry and memoirs. This memoir is wrapped around dogs for which Doty displays a deep understanding. Although he tips perilously close to assigning them human thoughts, he never steps over the line. He allows dogs their own particularly canine dignity, without trying to make them human or assign to them mysterious, otherworldly qualities. If you were as disgusted with the novel, Edgar Sawtelle, as I was, this is the book to restore your faith in doggish literature.It’s a wonderful book purely on the level of exploring the love between us and our dogs, but it’s much more than that. It’s a meditation on life and death. On loss, and how we move beyond it. A wise and beautiful book.I listened to this as a recording, with Doty himself reading. He does an excellent job. I recommend it highly. But I was so taken with the book that I’m going to buy a print copy. I want to be able to linger over it, to go back and reread, to savor it slowly.
—Ruth
This book is so much more than just a reflection upon the meaning of dogs in our lives, which is a worthy subject in itself. As a poet, Doty is able to express what is most inexpressible about the nature of relationships between 2 beings - in this case man and dog - and he also delves into the deeper realms of what it means to be alive and connected to this world. I know I will return again to this book as there is so much more to absorb. Warning: keep a box of kleenex handy. Doty's willingness to expose his most raw and vulnerable feelings and experiences has cathartic effect upon me.
—Vid
I borrowed this ebook from my local library and pretty much read it in a single sitting. As Mark Doty shared his story I laughed, I teared up, and having recently lost my own dog, I related to it.Mark and his partner Wally, are dads to Arden, a black Retriever. Wally has AIDS and is bedridden and dying. He was the one closest to Arden and the dog now sleeps in his bed, rarely leaving his side.Although some thought it was not a good idea to bring a new dog into the house while his partner is terminally ill, Mark winds up going to the shelter and adopting Beau, an underweight, yet rambunctious Golden Retriever. Not too long after, Wally passes away leaving Mark and the dogs behind.During a time of devastating grief over the loss of his partner, Mark says his dogs gave him the will to live. They needed him to care for them just as much as he needed them. Mark gives glimpses of his daily life with his dogs and with the new man in his life, Paul, whom he starts dating a year later.As the years pass, dogs Arden and Beau both start to become ill. When Arden was sick and Mark described the visits to the vet and how he was trying to save him but deep down knew the end was near, I truly teared up. Then there were moments I laughed out loud, like when one woman took one look at Arden, who was obviously an older dog and getting towards the end of his life, and she makes a comment about how it's all part of the cycle of life. Mark shares the colorful reply that popped in his head but that would be too rude to say aloud. I'm not surprised to see the author has published poetry as there is a distinct poetic flair within this candid memoir. I also enjoyed the Emily Dickinson snippets and references throughout.Overall, I found Dog Years to be an interesting, heartfelt memoir and a lovely tribute to Mark's dogs. "Somehow, memory, seems to slight a word, too evanescent; this is almost a physical sensation, the sound of those paws, and it comes allied to the color and heat of him, the smell of warm fur, the kinetic life of a being hardly ever still; what lives in me."-at 79.8% e-copy, Dog Years: A Memoir by Mark Dotydisclaimer:This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any type of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers and authors I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I borrowed my copy of this book from the local library.http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/201...
—Bookworm
