Recommended to lovers of mythology, psychology, linguistics and of course, philosophy. But the story concluded with a delightful meditation on mortality, meaning, friendship and love-against the vivid picture of a prairie, the sun, and the smell of cooked lamb. The plot got a little confusing and thick in the middle and I was left wondering how the terms of the bet would unfold. They can communicate and work in exciting new ways but so can they manifest or fall prey to shrewdness and connivance, attitudes that end in division and violence. The canines befriend humans, deliberate institutions like religion and government, experience pain, begin to dream, and pray. The dogs-known by names like Atticus, Benjy, Bella, Frick, Frack, Majnoun, Max, Prince, Rosie, etc.-are suddenly capable of complex thought and emotion. “I wonder,” says Hermes, “what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.” To which Apollo replies, “I’ll wager a year’s servitude, that animals–any animal you like–would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence.” And so, fifteen dogs at a veterinary clinic find themselves endowed with the gifts of human consciousness and language.
Coach House Books Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis (2015, Coach House Books)įifteen Dogs is described as an “apologue”, that is “is a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson without stating it explicitly.” The action here takes place in modern-day Toronto, and revolves around a wager between the Greek gods Hermes and Apollo. Fourth and fifth are yet to be published. Pastoral (2014) was number one, The Hidden Keys (2016) was number three. The fictional quincunx is philosophical in nature, examining themes like faith, place, love, power and hatred. Today’s post is on a novel by Toronto-based Coach House Books ( Fifteen Dogs-which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2015-is the second in a planned series of five volumes by Trinidadian-Canadian author André Alexis (born 1957). I have decided to give more visibility to publishers by incorporating their names in my titled. Readers will be attracted to a cover but usually fail to appreciate those who are involved in the long process of its commissioning, editing, production and marketing. This is because I feel they are an overlooked lot. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you must have noticed that, when posting on books, I always take the time to introduce the publishers.
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