Off the Leash
A Year at the Dog Park
گزارش تخلف
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
May 19, 2014
Dog enthusiasts will flock to this entertaining account of an unlikely canine lover’s ascent into full-fledged member of the neighborhood dog-park club. Gilbert, a TV critic for the Boston Globe, was “the last person on earth you’d have expected to find malingering at a dog park” until he marries a dog lover, and finds himself adopting a yellow Lab puppy named Toby. Gilbert becomes obsessed with training and having a well-behaved model citizen of a dog. Soon, dog and owner are inexorably drawn to the grassy fields of Amory Park, a dog park not far from their Brookline neighborhood. Slowly, but surely, he is drawn into the supportive subculture of the dog-park people, a whole range of characters. Hayley is a funny, outspoken graduate student with a Bernese mountain dog; Nash is in love with his golden retriever, Bertha; Drew, a “muscle-bound” hunk in his 30s, with his mutt, Chester, make an adorable pair, and Charlotte, the owner of an aggressive whippet, serves as the park’s villain, knee-deep in denial. Any dog owner who has ever stepped foot in the local dog park will recognize these types, and Gilbert is an adept storyteller, adding just enough intrigue (dog-on-doggie aggression, an attempt at person-on-person romance, the unfortunate realities of humping) to keep the pages turning. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary Agency.
June 15, 2014
The love story of a man, his new dog and the freedoms they both discovered through their relationship with each other.Centered on Boston's Amory Park, Boston Globe TV critic Gilbert takes readers into the thick of the dog world, where he and his yellow Lab, Toby, interacted with a variety of other dogs and their human handlers on a daily basis. Determined to train Toby to be an obedient dog, Gilbert writes, "[t]here, on the grass, I'd try to hold him back, to sober him up, to delay his play for just a second, and he'd fight my effort with every cell of forward energy in his irrational, hungry, impassioned body." Once released, Toby flew off as if he'd "seen heaven just ahead and would look up at me like I was a fool for not rushing there." More timid than Toby, Gilbert slowly eased into the fellowship of other dog lovers, mingling with women and old men alike, swapping stories and pondering the back stories of newcomers as he gradually fell in love with his dog-filled life. Gilbert explores many aspects of the dog-park environment, including the oftentimes-humiliating yet natural antics of the many varieties of dogs-e.g., humping, a hierarchal power play in action. Young dogs, old dogs, sick dogs, doggy toys, aggressive dogs and their owners, who refused to apologize for any fights, and humans who acted as ventriloquists for their dogs-all played a role in transforming Gilbert from a work-at-home critic, sheltered from the world by a screen, into a man devoted to his dog and his dog-loving friends.A lightweight, humorous tale of a new dog owner and the friendships he formed at the dog park.
COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
September 1, 2014
For TV critic Gilbert, a self-proclaimed homebody and introvert, the addition of an outgoing, active yellow lab named Toby to his family drags the author from his living room into the crazy and eccentric world of Boston's Amory Park, where both the dogs and people are characters. Gilbert chronicles his and Toby's first year as they learn the social intricacies of the dog park. The book balances humor and fun with loss and real-life lessons as dog and man grow and learn together. The park even has its own jargon, such as "poop mime," "poop delinquents," "poop rebels," "Charlottes," and to "bungee out," as well as proper greeting and play etiquette. Gilbert's portrayal of the people, such as Saul, who suffers from dementia, and Margo, the caretaker of the group, is honest and sincere. But the heart of the work is the relationship between Gilbert and Toby and what they learn from each other. VERDICT Dog people will love this journey and no doubt recognize some of the characters in Gilbert's warm and sincere story.--Lisa Ennis, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Lib.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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