Dog Years : A Memoir
Author(s): Mark Doty
A Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Israel Fishman-Stonewall Book Award for Nonfiction
"Tender and amusing. . . . Doty brilliantly captures the qualities that make dogs endearing." -- The New Yorker
When Mark Doty decides to adopt a dog as a companion for his dying partner, he brings home Beau, a large, malnourished golden retriever in need of loving care. Joining Arden, the black retriever, to complete their family, Beau bounds back into life. Before long, the two dogs become Doty's intimate companions, and eventually the very life force that keeps him from abandoning all hope during the darkest days.
Dog Years is a poignant, intimate memoir interwoven with profound reflections on our feelings for animals and the lessons they teach us about living, love, and loss.
Review(s):
“Tender and amusing…Doty brilliantly captures the qualities that make dogs endearing.”
“Life-affirming, lyrical, and profoundly affecting…Only Mark Doty could have written a dog book...that covers so much ground.”
“Potent and expressive...The weight of Doty’s adoration for his pets is expressed with...eloquence throughout.”
“This is Doty at his best....Doty does in fact make the unsayable sayable, bringing the ungraspable within our reach.”
“A tender reflection on love and loss, this is MARLEY & ME for the cerebral.”
“Doty pays loving tribute to two retrievers…DOG YEARS is a warm, thought-provoking discourse.”
“A wounding yet arresting memoir about living with his dogs…Doty’s gorgeous prose and piercing meditations...are simply sublime.”
“Lyrical and sensitive…Doty poetically expresses what many have felt but few can articulate.”
“Doty is at his best…exploring the mirrorlike quality of a dog’s gaze or the inextricable duality of hope and despair..”
“A meditation on how we can live with hope…Dog Years wrestles with the Big Questions.”
ISBN: 9780061171017