One Good Dog

Normally, a story about a guy who was raised in foster homes, made it to Harvard to do an MBA and then turned himself into a rich, privileged asshole who manages by fear and is wound so tight that the anger that he feeds daily was bound to explode at some point, wouldn't be my thing. Why should I care whether a single act of violence by a man like that brings his over-privileged, emotionally hollow world down around his ears?

Can you feel my lack of empathy? Maybe even my contempt? Perhaps I shouldn't look too closely at my own often anger-driven working life or I might see unpleasant similarities that trigger my dislike for this guy.

Yet I read the whole book, had my emotions twisted and enjoyed it. I never really got to like Adam March, show more even when he earned ex-assshole status and joined the human race. What kept me reading was the dog. Him I cared about.

The dog is a pitbull-cross who was raised in a cage an trained to fight to the death. Not pretty, especially with scars and not needy either. He's an independent dog and proud of it. Yet, unlike me, he is willing to give Adam March a chance.

The chapters in "One Good Dog" alternate between a first-person narrative from the dog and a first-person narrative from Adam March. It's perhaps a sign of the quality of the writing that I was engaged in March's story even when what he thought, felt and did annoyed me. The dog chapters skillfully avoid fluffy Disney anthropomorphisation while still helping me getting inside the living-in-the-here-and-now world of the dog.

If you're a dog person, you'll love this. If you're not a dog person, you may begin to wonder why that is.

I recommend the audio version of "One Good Dog". The dog and March each have their own narrator and both of them do a great job. show less

One Good Dog by Susan Wilson shows the power of connection to change lives and bring us to our best selves. I found it really hard to sympathize with Adam March's loss of wealth and social standing even as his story progressed through facing his losses and dealing with a past that he'd worked so hard to suppress he'd adopted the role of the man he wanted to be instead of the man he was. In fact, I related more with the chapters told the dog's point of view. I felt his pain. I felt his desire to change. I felt his will to survive. I felt his need to serve a purpose. The dog represented everything I wanted to feel for March but struggled to feel. Wilson pulled me into the lives of the characters to the point I wanted to influence their show more decisions and push them to do the right thing. One Good Dog illustrates how easy it is to let perception lead to biases based on the superficial parts of life. show less

This was one of those books that I grabbed from the free day at the library book sale without a second thought. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Seeing the main character get knocked down from his lofty perch and lose everything that he had worked for made me feel for the man, especially seeing how his teenage daughter treated him. At first, I was annoyed with his attitude about things, but as the story went on, I enjoyed getting to see him develop and move past the obstacles that his history placed in front of him.

The chapters where we read from the viewpoint of the dog were surprisingly well written. I expected them to be cheesy and just kind of thrown together, but I was wrong. They were some of my favorite show more parts. I love dogs myself so seeing things from this dog's point of view tugged on my heart strings.

The ending actually made me shed a tear or two. I would definitely give this one a read if you enjoy stories where people are forced to pull themselves up by their bootsraps and with the help of four-legged companions :) show less

KIRKUS REVIEWWilson (Summer Harbor, 2003, etc.) goes straight for the emotional jugular with a tale of two battle-scarred survivors, one human, one canine, learning mutual need and trust.Man and dog rehabilitate themselves and each other in his shrewdly engineered tale of twin catastrophes and redemption. Adam March?s fall from grace is self-made, the inevitable collapse of a Don Draper?esque life built on the rocky foundations of concealed origins. Destabilized by the thought that his estranged sister, last seen 40 years ago, has re-entered his high-powered, high-maintenance existence, Adam loses self-control and commits ?a self-immolating act of breathtaking nihilism?¥he slaps his personal assistant. Instantly he jeopardizes show more everything: marriage, job, wealth and social standing. Recast as a nobody, sentenced to community service in a homeless shelter while attending anger-management therapy, Adam must learn some humility. Chance is a pit bull mix born into brutality and bred to fight. Man and dog don?t exactly bond when Adam accidentally reprieves Chance from the pound (he was looking for the missing pet of a distraught homeless-shelter denizen), but over time their relationship warms up, encouraged by an attractive local pet-shop owner. A third-person account of Adam?s story alternates with Chance?s dog?s-eye perspective as each character touches bottom and is redeemed by his counterpart in the other species. The story closes in a rush of reconciliation, a sob or two, and wiser, happier humans and canines all round.An irresistible, if one-dimensional, cocktail of salvation and sentiment. show less

I was pleasantly surprised that I liked this book- honestly I thought it was going to be cheesy. Well, it was a little- towards the end- but for the most part, it was pretty good. It's (obviously) about a dog. And a man, a powerful executive from unfortunate beginnings he’d prefer not to remember, pretty much built his life up from nothing and is proud of that. One day in a fit of arrogance and anger he strikes his secretary and gets charged with assault. In the ensuing lawsuit, he looses not only his multiple homes and most of his assets, but his wife and daughter, ending up seeing the latter only once a week. He’s ordered by the court to do community service at a homeless shelter. He finds the work there demeaning and unpleasant show more to say the least. Resentful and constantly defensive (in a just barely subtle way), until the dog comes into the picture. Then things slowly start to change.The dog is a pit bull type that was raised in a cellar, trained to fight, and bears the scars, both mentally and physically. When animal cruelty investigators bust the place, he manages to escape and wanders the streets for a while until getting caught again and put in the shelter. Where he’s in the last cage of the row- fated to be euthanized. But the two have an unexpected encounter, and the dog finds himself in this man’s care. Unlikely as it seems- the man lives in a small apartment and has never cared for a pet before- they gradually build a relationship. At first the ex-executive wants to hand the dog off to someone else, but he soon realizes the dog doesn’t have any other options. And then when an opportunity does come to get rid of the dog, he finds he doesn’t want to anymore. He’s surprised to his teenage daughter thawing towards him, because of the dog, and starts to chat with people he sees every day in the neighborhood, even make a few friends (with folks he never would have given more than a nod or glance, before). Chance just might bring more good into his life than anyone ever expected. And give him the ability to become a different person. This story is really heartwarming. A bit cheesy, but not overwhelmingly so. It helped that things happened at a constrained pace, that seemed more realistic (no sudden overhaul of character, instant flip just because of the dog). Some chapters are told from the dog’s viewpoint, which were my favorite parts. show less

This was one of those books that I grabbed from the free day at the library book sale without a second thought. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Seeing the main character get knocked down from his lofty perch and lose everything that he had worked for made me feel for the man, especially seeing how his teenage daughter treated him. At first, I was annoyed with his attitude about things, but as the story went on, I enjoyed getting to see him develop and move past the obstacles that his history placed in front of him.

The chapters where we read from the viewpoint of the dog were surprisingly well written. I expected them to be cheesy and just kind of thrown together, but I was wrong. They were some of my favorite show more parts. I love dogs myself so seeing things from this dog's point of view tugged on my heart strings.

The ending actually made me shed a tear or two. I would definitely give this one a read if you enjoy stories where people are forced to pull themselves up by their bootsraps and with the help of four-legged companions :) show less

A man damaged by life who absolutely did not want a dog. A dog damaged by a life in the dog fighting pits who absolutely did not want a man. The story takes turns being narrated by Adam, the man who struggles with family, his past and his one misguided act which cost him everything and Chance, the dog who escaped the dog fight arena. Can two broken souls heal each other? I know I am a soft touch when it comes to animals but I loved it. This book is a must read for fans of THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN and MARLEY AND ME.