When, in 2005, that big yellow lab Marley scudded clumsily into people’s hearts—and onto the best-seller lists via John Grogan’s Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog—lots of authors suddenly saw dollar signs. Anna Quindlen pieced together a slim tearjerker about her black lab. There was Mark Doty’s Dog Years, a memoir of different dogs in his life, and Douglas Harlan’s I, Clovis: Memoir of A Good Dog. Scottish novelist Thomas Healy wrote I Have Heard You Calling in the Night (we called it "everything Marley & Me is not: smart, acerbic, laconic, with nary an ounce of treacle dripping through the muscular prose"). Books on dog behavior (Cesar Millan anyone?), dog potty training, dog fashion…you name it, and it got published.
This fall, hoping to capitalize once again on his pet’s fame, Marley’s owner John Grogan has a book out (though since Marley, um, went to the great fields in the sky at the end of Marley & Me, this time out Grogan was forced to write a pallid biography). And now Dean Koontz, of psychological thriller fame, is writing A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog. In this memoir, due out next summer from Hyperion, Koontz will tell the story of Trixie, his cherished golden retriever. (Trixie, you may recall, coauthored several books with her owner.)
Nonfiction about pets is, of course, nothing new (anyone else out there ever read John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley or J.R. Ackerley’s My Dog Tulip)? Maybe I’m just jealous that I didn’t manage to write best-sellers about my two fat, much-cossetted dachshunds, but I’ll take pet fiction any day: Stephen King’s Cujo. Jack London’s White Fang. Even Old Yeller, which I read in fifth grade and then sobbed over for about two weeks straight. Anyone else? Got a dog book you love—fiction or nonfiction?
More on canines:
Book review: ‘I Have Heard You Calling in the Night’
Going to the Dogs: Six Lovable Canine Flicks
I saw it, so you don’t have to!: ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua’
check out “The Dog who wouldn’t be” by Canadian author Farley Mowatt
“The Art of Racing in the Rain” – Enzo!
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be was a great book! I also remember reading Sounder as a kid and crying my eyes out.
Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass.
Sorry, I actually loved “Marley and Me”. I also rely a lot on “The Loved Dog” by Tamar Geller when dealing with my headstrong beagle.
“Where the Red Fern Grows.” I recently reread it, and I was crying so hard at the end, I had to put it down because I couldn’t see the words.
“Where the Red Fern Grows.” I recently reread it, and I was crying so hard I couldn’t see the words.
It’s popular to use positive reinforcement in dog training now. If you want to get to know the original, and real, dog whisperer read Jelly Bean versus Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and Psychological Dog Training by C.W. Meisterfeld. Too bad he didn’t get a PR person or we would be 25 years ahead of the curve in treating our companion dogs respectfully. Compare Meisterfeld philosophy with Cesar Millan dominance training. Millans training advice is a real threat to dog owners, children, and dogs.
Dean Koontz already has a great “dog book”, it’s called “Watchers”
You can’t leave out Watchers, which was actually written by Koontz. Best fiction dog book.
The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. I was so smitten by the earnestly eloquent Enzo (the dog who narrates the story) that my husband had to hide my car keys to keep me from heading straight to the pound to find an Enzo of my own.
Definitely Koontz’ Watchers. Still one of my all-time favorite books. Too bad they totally screwed up the movie version.
“books. Too bad they totally screwed up the movie version”
They completely screwed up the movie. Some network is going to wqise up and redo this as a TV mini – the RIGHT way. Travis is 38 in the book so how about Nicholas Brendon?! OK they’ll need to update it a bit to be pallatable to 21st century readers, but still …
PS excuse the typos, if I didn’t catch all’ My arthirtis is acting up. ☺
Gotta throw out additional support for Stein’s “The Art of Racing in the Rain.” Seriously, one of my favorite books of all time! Enzo is awesome and the book is beautifully written.
I love Where The Red Fern Grows. And I love love love The Trouble with Tuck. Marley and Me was OK, but I cringe at the thought of the movie.