Dog Years: A Memoir - Heartwarming Story of Love & Loyalty | Perfect for Pet Lovers & Dog Owners | Great Gift for Animal Enthusiasts

Mark Doty in DOG YEARS has written a sometimes sad and always deeply moving beautiful memoir about loss, grief and the comfort that animals, in this instance Beau, a golden retriever, and Arden, a black retriever, bring to the sick and dying and those who remain. Mr. Doty is nothing if not opinionated: sentimentality is a mask for anger; "compassion for animals is an excellent predictor of one's ability to care for one's fellow human beings;" "no death equals another;" "the wounds of loss, the nicks and cuts made by our own sense of powerlessness, must form a sort of carapace, an armor." The kindgom of heaven may be "the realm of paradox, "attachment and detachment," memory and forgetfulness, "everything and nothing." Whether you agree with Mr. Doty's conclusions hardly matters although he is convincing and persuasive. What is just as important is that the reader is swept along by the writer's precise and beautiful language. (We should expect no less from a first rate poet.) So on September 11 the hole in the north twin tower reminds him of "an unfamiliar continent in a school geography book. A version of Australia." New York is a "pierced city." An old woman who runs a kennel in Key West has a voice "shredded by decades of Chesterfields." An old house in Provincetown has "straggly irises" in the yard. Furthermore, Mr. Doty strews gems from the greatest of American poets, Emily Dickinson, throughout his narrative. Just as his canine friends overlook nothing on their daily scavenger hunts, Mr. Doty's reader must use the same care for he skims this book at his peril.Whether you are a dog lover or not, DOG YEARS is not to be missed. It is in the league of other recent nonfiction books on grief: Elizabeth Edwards' SAVING GRACES: FINDING SOLACE AND STRENGTH FROM FRIENDS AND STRANGERS, Joan Didion's THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING and Calvin Trillin's ABOUT ALICE. It reminded me of another poet Wendell Berry's fine short story "Mike" about the death of a dog and is every bit as good as my favorite nonfiction book by Doty: STILL LIVE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON; ON OBJECTS AND INTIMACY.Reading Mr. Doty is always a joy, regardless of his subject matter.