Lee Harrington (2)

Despite a love of animals, I've always been a little scornful of the "cat/dog that changed my life" books. Everyone's pet has a story, I thought, that doesn't mean I want to read it. Anyhow, this title was free for a wee while and I figured I would give it a go. It sounded entertaining enough, and the dog is really cute. And I shall say - it had me hooked - I'm not normally much of a non-fiction reader, but I could not put this book down. I really enjoyed reading about Wallace's exploits, show more about the sense of helplessness from having adopted this poor, broken dog and then the sense of fulfillment when he became the dog that he should have been from the start. Wallace is certainly a charmer! The writer has a self-deprecating sense of humour, and a skill at focusing on just the right things - and despite a bit of repetition (I believe these were originally magazine editorials, hence the constant reminders on the size of the apartment, etc), her writing style was very engaging.

I only have one complaint about his book, in fact, and that is the editting. It's shocking, considering that this is not a self-publised title, but was released in book format via Random House and has been formatted in ebook by professions. They got the formating right, I'll give them that - but throughout the book there are words missing, badly editted sentences and the occasional wrong word used. No spelling mistakes that I could pick, but some of the sentence structures are a bit deformed. This distracted me rather from the charming plot and made me read and re-read several sentences, frowning as I tried to fix it in my head. And with the author reminding us frequently that she's an English Major and takes creative writing classes - you would think that someone would have picked up on these minor but irritating errors before it went to eprint.

Anyhow, grammatic niggles aside, I really enjoyed this book and I think it ended on a good note. Whilst the additional extract from "Rex part 2" made for very interesting reading, I think I would rather their tale ended, for me, on a happy note. Not with the animal dying, which seems to be the finale for most of this genre, but with the dog really living. show less

http://rexandthecity.net
In this humorous, moving, intelligent and startlingly original memoir, critically-acclaimed author Lee Harrington shares her story of love, loss, dysfunctional relationships, and the shelter dog who put things right. In 1997, Lee and her then-boyfriend Ed were on the verge of breaking up. Money was tight, their careers were floundering (Lee was an aspiring novelist: Ed was an aspiring documentary filmmaker) and their personalities, frankly, did not mix. Plus, they show more lived in a crumbling, cramped tenement apartment on the Lower East Side—for which they paid more than they earned. Tempers, needless to say, often flared.

Then, on a fateful day in August 1997, they decided on impulse to visit a nearby animal shelter, just to “look at” dogs. In a split-second decision that would change their lives, they brought home a troubled spaniel mix named Wallace. They quickly realized that this dog was more than they could handle—he was aggressive, fearful of humans, untrained and seemingly untrainable. For the first few months of their new lives with this aggressive animal, Lee and Ted struggled with the question—the reality—of whether they could realistically rehabilitate this dog (they even considered bringing him back to the shelter). They also struggled with the question of whether they could make it as a couple. Faced with a new responsibly, they bickered constantly, worried incessantly, cried daily (mostly Lee) and disagreed on nearly every aspect of how to handle the dog. Their disagreements ranged from how to train the dog to where he should sleep to what to feed him. But the one thing they could agree on was that they loved their dog. And slowly but surely, that love helped transform both the dog and the relationship. Both Lee and Ed, through the dog, learned how to love in new and fearless ways. And thus, by rescuing a needy spaniel, they ended up rescuing themselves. show less

http://rexandthecity.net

In this humorous, moving, intelligent and startlingly original memoir, critically-acclaimed author Lee Harrington shares her story of love, loss, dysfunctional relationships, and the shelter dog who put things right. In 1997, Lee and her then-boyfriend Ed were on the verge of breaking up. Money was tight, their careers were floundering (Lee was an aspiring novelist: Ed was an aspiring documentary filmmaker) and their personalities, frankly, did not mix. Plus, they show more lived in a crumbling, cramped tenement apartment on the Lower East Side—for which they paid more than they earned. Tempers, needless to say, often flared.

Then, on a fateful day in August 1997, they decided on impulse to visit a nearby animal shelter, just to “look at” dogs. In a split-second decision that would change their lives, they brought home a troubled spaniel mix named Wallace. They quickly realized that this dog was more than they could handle—he was aggressive, fearful of humans, untrained and seemingly untrainable. For the first few months of their new lives with this aggressive animal, Lee and Ted struggled with the question—the reality—of whether they could realistically rehabilitate this dog (they even considered bringing him back to the shelter). They also struggled with the question of whether they could make it as a couple. Faced with a new responsibly, they bickered constantly, worried incessantly, cried daily (mostly Lee) and disagreed on nearly every aspect of how to handle the dog. Their disagreements ranged from how to train the dog to where he should sleep to what to feed him. But the one thing they could agree on was that they loved their dog. And slowly but surely, that love helped transform both the dog and the relationship. Both Lee and Ed, through the dog, learned how to love in new and fearless ways. And thus, by rescuing a needy spaniel, they ended up rescuing themselves. show less

Of all the "women and their dogs" memoirs I've read recently, Lee Harrington's Rex and the City: A Memoir of a Woman, a Man and a Dysfunctional Dog (2006) was my favorite. When young New York City hipsters Lee Harrington and her boyfriend, Ted, adopt a dog from a shelter, they have no idea what they are in for. The dog appears to have been abused and when they adopt him from a shelter, he is terrified of everything and unable to bond with his new owners. Rex tests the somewhat unstable bond show more between Lee and Ted as they struggle with their own feelings about the dog and his role in their lives.

For my full review, see my blog: http://thejoieofreading.typepad.com/joannalongbourneblog/2008/12/index.html show less