Muttropolitan

“The New Yorkers” by Cathleen Schine is a dog lovers’ novel – weaving its complexities about dogs and lovers who live in a variegated village on a Manhattan block. The book’s characters seem fresh, despite their age-old burdens of isolation and longing.

Jody is a schoolteacher who saves her best self for high thread-count sheets and her beloved pit bull, Beatrice. Everett is an emotionally pinched middle-aged chemist whose inner joy tumbles out when he baby sits for a puppy. And George is an aimless twentysomething bartender whose career path reveals itself when he tames a lunging Rottweiler. These are just a few of the people – and pets – you meet in Schine’s absorbing tale of modern manners.

Dog Lady recommends this wholeheartedly – for the graceful writing, the brisk storytelling, the piquant insights, and the dogs of all descriptions. Beatrice, Howdy, Kaiya, Jolly and their fuzzy ilk leap off the pages as harbingers of happiness and hope.

You could easily click to Amazon and buy "The New Yorkers." Better yet, amble over to your favorite independent bookshop and purchase a copy. Along the way, you might run into your true love -- on two legs or four. Schine's memorable book celebrates these sort of yip-yap miracles of mating.

Posted by Dog Lady at September 7, 2007 01:21 PM