Dogwalker

by Arthur Bradford

Tender and satiric, hilarious and humane, Dogwalker plunks readers down in a land of misfits and the circumstantially strange–where one young man buys drugs from a dealer who locks his customers in a closet, while another lands a cat-faced circus freak for a roommate, and yet another must choose between his pregnant wife and the ten-pound slug he’s convinced will bring him a fortune. And throughout these stories moves a divinely inspired collection of three-legged, no-legged, dogs that sing, that talk, and that give birth to humans. Brilliant, perplexing, and moving, this is a daring debut that strolls along society’s fringes and unearths strange beauty among its misfits

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Animals, Literary Fiction, Collections, Magical Realism, Anthologies

176 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2001

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dogwalker is a collection of short stories, some of which are entertaining, and all of which involve a pooch. Some were pretty good. Others just make me stare, while rotating my head this way and that, wondering what was going on. Overall, it was an interesting collection by a writer who seemed very young. The book was published in 2001. The author was born in 1969. Many of the stories here, maybe all, were written while Bradford was in his twenties. There is humor aplenty, and absurdity, perhaps a bit too much. The narrator is the same character throughout. I am ambivalent about this one. The extremity is sometimes very entertaining, but it also seems quite pointless at moments.



Bradford has had considerable success, as a writer and director, earning an Emmy nomination. He does live storytelling at The Moth and NPR’s This American Life

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seemed like a pretty simple trick to me. My friend Robert would hold the apple in his mouth while I, steady-handed, carved his initials into the piece of fruit with a chainsaw. "It only looks dangerous," I told Robert. "You have nothing to worry about."*

Yeah . . . you can probably guess that this doesn't end well. OR, maybe it does. You never can tell how an Arthur Bradford story is going to end. Sometimes a trip to the emergency room ends in death, but every now and then, it leads to a hot new romance. Yup. You never can tell . . .

Because I loved last year's Turtleface and Beyond: Stories so very, very much, I wasted no time ordering this book, Bradford's first collection of short stories. Here, he spins delightful yarns about strange humans and even stranger animals. His characters interact with giant slugs, glowing frogs, and dogs - such dogs, the BEST dogs - mutant puppies, talking dogs, and dogs that sing Billy Joel songs. There's a certain innocence to these stories. I love how his lackadaisical protagonists seem to bobble through life, just accepting whatever comes their way, no matter how offbeat and quirky things may become. I hesitate to use the word adorable to describe these tales, but, doggone it, it seems applicable. They're also fresh, weird, and funny as hell. If you're looking for something off the beaten path, this book could be right up your alley.


*From Chainsaw Apple

[Helen Power · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dogwalker is an off-beat collection of short stories that share a similar tone and style.  While some of the stories are realistic and others are outright outlandish, they feel like they could all be set in the same world—one that mirrors our own, but is a little warped, like we’re looking through a funhouse mirror and something isn’t quite right.  Some of the stories are ridiculous (dogs giving birth to babies?!), which makes for an entertaining read.

I appreciated the absolute strangeness of each story. I never knew where the stories were going.  However, some stories end abruptly, with seemingly no resolution or purpose to them. I both enjoyed this, since it added to the quirky nature of the book, and I didn’t like it, because I wanted to know what would happen next!

I do have a few criticisms of the collection. The main character is given a different name and backstory in every story, but it seems like he's essentially always the same person. While this can provide consistency for an anthology, it isn’t necessary.  The tone can be the same across stories with a little variety in the narrators. All the main characters seem to be men in their early twenties who are almost comically apathetic towards life. The tone could have been maintained had the main character been an eighty-year-old who was once optimistic and how sees the glass as half empty.  Also, women can be apathetic, too.

I enjoyed the twistedness of some of the stories, but I was never quite sure if “unsettling” the reader was what Arthur Bradford was aiming for.  The stories weren’t just ridiculous, some of them were quite violent and/or twisted, and this coupled with the main character’s apathetic nature made for an entertaining read.  But Did Bradford intend for his quirky literary creation to be perverse? Did he want us to be weirded out? After skimming through other reviews of the book, I didn’t really see any comments on the subject matter being “twisted”.  As a fan of horror, I thought that some of the stories, like “Chainsaw Apple” may have belonged in one of those horror or suspense anthology where characters do disturbing things, utterly unaware of how eccentric or psychotic they’re behaving.

Some of the stories are more entertaining than others, and I think it would be hard to find someone who loved each story equally.  I suppose that’s the nature of short story collections. Some are gems and others are duds. I’d say that this book is about 60% semi-precious stones and 30% ridiculousness, and 10% WTF did I just read?

I recommend this book if you’re in the mood for the strange and unexplained. If you’re looking for a quick read that somehow manages to be both light and dark, this is the book for you.


*I received a copy of this book from the author's publicist.*

[Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most pre-9/11 book on the planet. You know how Kafka writes these really bizarre events in a voice that acts like nothing is really out of the ordinary? Well, Arthur Bradford does that too, except instead of early 20th Century Prague/that dark, expressionistic netherworld we associate with Kooky Franz, Bradford flings us into Richard Linklater's Austin, which, for me, makes the stories a bit more fun. Bradford grew up with Yale money, but he gave it all up to hang out in the woods with Dennis Johnson, and it shows-- this is an alienated, fractured collection, like Jesus's Son, had Johnson come of age a generation later.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a rough one for me. These stories rely too often on shock and absurdity; they run to the weird and the gross and the cruel but fail to build that core of humanity or underlying meaning that makes the reader really care what ultimately comes of the lousy and/or bizarre situations in which characters find themselves. We never arrive at the heart of things; it's all deflection. Weird stuff happens; some more weird stuff happens; the end.

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glowing blurbs from The Three Big Daves (DFW, Sedaris, Eggers) and a Smith (Zadie), but this collection of quirky stories had the misfortune of being published in September 2001 - also, at least here, was filed at 813.6 the public library rather than up in fiction.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just reread this - really liked it. I ended up reading the whole thing in a day; I think the stories are best when together as a whole piece. I'd like to spend some more time thinking about the narrator...not sure what it is that I like so much about it, but there's something, beneath all the weirdness, that's really yearning and tender. There's a certain amoral quality to the narrator - though maybe that's not right, but there's a certain removed observance of things that anyone else would have a reaction to. And it's not the narrator doesn't feeling things, compassion, regret, sorrow. The narrator is often lonely and expresses that as such - it's not a miserable kind of lonely; he takes it in stride, simply stating that he is lonely, not that is a good or bad thing but simply that it is. For me it's one of those books that takes on a feel of sitting with a friend, sharing a pint somewhere, sharing good things you've seen or heard as well as honestly loneliness - too many of my conversations lack that kind of non-self-pitying talk of things not always being so good. It might be like that Modest Mouse line, "I like songs about drifters, books about the same, they both seem to make me feel a little less insane." It's comforting, and not in the sense that "at least my life isn't that bad," but in the sense that someone else feels the same way as you at times. I like talking with people that are a little lonely, a little sad, a little lost, and can talk about it straightforwardly, because we're all those things at one time or another. Anyway, a good read.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.examiner.com/review/dogwal...

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

why is it a lot of the books recommended to me are about dogs, my least favourite animal? (I'm a cat man).

quirky, funny - I lol-ed a couple of times at the sheer unexpectedness of it (the woman in the iron lung for example) - daft. A lot of dogs, maimed or mutated, but not big snarly ones. Most of the characters are similar - stoners who drift around. A lot of marijuana about, nothing wrong with that, but in the end too slight for me, despite some of the characters being rather nasty. Bill McQuill for example ties his landlady to a chair and shows psychopathic tendencies, I was getting interested in this but then it becomes just a bit too daft as he gets cut in two by a train - but not killed. In another a dealer has locked someone in a cupboard, all on a whim apparently. OK I can see there's fun to be had here, and some creepy elements but it didn't engage me beyond the reading of it.

[Peter Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You can't say there isn't weirdness in these stories," my mother just said.

Full disclosure: My brother-in-law wrote this book. I remember reading the stories for the first time. Pure pleasure.

[Zach Zoeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious, absurd, perfect.

[Melting Uncle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book opens with a quote from Richard Linklater’s Slacker
The tonal register of the stories is similar to a Linklater movie- casual yet philosophical, with a light touch, humorous in a dreamy way.
I can’t remember any Linklater movie where anything impossible happens- like an animal talking. So that’s where the stories here diverge from the Linklater parallel.
This book includes birth, death, prison, sex, blood, and lots of animals (mostly dogs.). There are so many layers of miscellany floating that it really strongly evokes the 90’s when so much was getting jumbled, repurposed, mixed together.
All of these stories seem to take place mostly in houses and cars in the USA, probably Texas. “Away from the big city,” in the words of Lou Reed.
My favorite story was “Chainsaw Apple,” where the narrator uses a chainsaw to carve his initials into an apple that somebody holds with their teeth.
Overall “Dogwalker” is positive, imaginative, engaging, honest, well-made.
The book was easy to read and I hope I don’t forget it anytime soon.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate dogs, just felt the need to say that after finishing this book. My main issue with Dogwalker is that the narrator is the same damn person in every story, always behaving in an apathetic, reaction-less way regardless of what's happening around him. Like the author wanted all the perks of writing in third person but while technically still having his "character" do the narration. He conveys only facts and almost no feelings, a perfect stoic, but I'm still supposed to feel something...apparently because he likes animals and tells me he's lonely. I don't know. Autism is never mentioned in the book outright, but I get the feeling that maybe the narrator was supposed to have some form of it, especially when taking into account the theme of disabilities in the book.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the one book I would recommend to someone who wants to know what I like about books.
This is a collection of stories that have pieces of normal life splashed with aspects of the bizarre, the exceptionally unlikely, and the completely impossible. Throughout it, the narrative is clever and crisp, never full of itself.
What if you had sex with your dog and the puppies were sort of half human? For instance. Fun, funny, and odd.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like sitting down with old copies of The Onion's Jim Anchower, on a barstool next to some stoned denizen of last decade's Austin, or just a younger Jack Handey. A very quick read and one which doesn't necessarily stay with you, but it makes for a fun night.

[Scott Neumyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this collection countless times. It's actually probably my favorite short story collection of all time.

[Darin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorites. I reread it often and have given it to friends as gifts. Arthur Bradford is brilliant.

[Nuttawat Kalapat · Rating 3 out of 5]

คนหัวหมา
ผู้เขียน: อาร์เธอร์ แบรดฟอร์ด
ผู้แปล : ปราบดา หยุ่น
สำนักพิมพ์: สำนักพิมพ์อิมเมจ
มิถุนายน 2546
.
.
“คุณจะต้องคิดว่าผมแปลกแน่ๆ หากผมบอกคุณว่าผมร่วมรักกับหมาของแฟนมาได้ระยะหนึ่งแล้ว แต่นั่นยังไม่ใช่ความลับพิลึกที่สุดของผมหรอก” (หน้า 136)
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ขอโทษจริงๆครับ แต่ผมอ่านเล่มนี้ เเล้วไม่เข้า ใจ และโคตร งง 55 เรื่องราวมันโคตรจะแนวทดลองเขียน หรือมันอาจจะดีมากๆ แต่ผมตีความแนวนี้ไม่ไหวจริงๆ ผู้เขียนล้ำเกินไป และ ไม่เข้าใจว่า ทำไมผู้แปล ถึง เลือก เล่มนี้มาแปล
.
มันแปลก และ พิสดาร ผิดธรรมชาติ เหนือจินตนาการ และ ใช้คำหยาบ ในสำนวนการแปลแบบตรงๆ โต้งๆ ซึ่งผมจะไม่บอก 55 พิมพ์ที่นี่ไม่ได้
.
.
เรื่องสั้นเท่าที่ผมจับใจความได้นั้น เกี่ยวกับชายหนุ่มที่มีชีวิต ในเมืองใหญ่แห่งนึงในสหรัฐอเมริกา ชายหนุ่มมีเพื่อนฝูงและ คนแปลกๆ รอบตัวรายล้อม
ตัวอย่างความแปลก
1.รูมเมทนิสัยแปลกที่บอกไม่ได้ว่าเป็นคนดีหรือไม่ดี
2.หญิงสาวเจ้าของลูกหมาประหลาด 12 ตัว

วันหนึ่ง ชายคนนี้ กลับหมดอารมณ์ทางเพศกับ แฟนตัวเอง แต่กลับไปปึ๋งปั๋งกับสัตว์เลี้ยงเจ้าหมาตัวหนึ่งที่เลี้ยงไว้ซะงั้น หมากลายเป็นคนคนกลายเป็นหมา งงไปหมด
.
-

ความเห็น
- คอ่นข้างมึนมาก
- เข้าถึงยาก
- ขออภัยครับ 55

คะแนน 5.5/10
ยังไม่แนะนำเท่าไร

[Magdalyn H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the narration of this book, even though it could prove confusing at times. However, the blending of lines between fantasy and reality made the voice of the stories work-- they could've very well all been told by the same person, and that would've worked in the crazy world that Bradford created. The hazy, objective details read in a way that mirrors how I wish I could write while high. There was a strong sense of American gothic and absurdist humor in the way that odd and wild events were presented alongside mundane, everyday experiences.
Minus one star for literal bestiality!! Luckily the book was solid enough that I was able to look past that, as I don't think it was written with any malicious or gross intent...just as a really, really weird plot device.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember where I picked up this book, which was published in 2001. I know why I picked it up--the pic of the dog on the cover, a dog with soulful eyes. So this is a perfect example of reading a book because you were attracted by the cover!
It turns out to be a collection of bizarre, even surreal stories, which are satirical and humorous--and a little shocking. Dogs are featured in many of the twelve stories, but not all. None of those stories would be what I would consider to be great dog stories. Anyway, it was a fast read and somewhat entertaining.
The one story that may stick with me is "Chainsaw Apple." I thought it had hilarious moments--and I liked the ending...And I don't know what that says about me, that I liked that story!
2.5 STARS rounded up to 3.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been one star had I not chuckled mildly a few times while reading. Think of my rating as a rounded-up 1.5.

I want fiction like this to have some sort of accurate genre tag—Flippant Lit, perhaps? These stories gave me the same shivers of discomfort (and rage? fear? nausea? claustrophobia?) that I get reading the literary abortions of Miranda July. They’re at once silly and smug, the ultimate hipster combination. That David Sedaris, Zadie Smith, and David freakin’ Foster Wallace all gave (sincere?) advance praise for this short collection will haunt me for years to come.

What is the appeal of books like this?

[Mlhoganjr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read a book of short stories like Dogwalker. It is in a class completely of its own: full of mutants, strange slacker characters, kidnappings, and lots of dogs and a few dog-human hybrids. It's science/literary/stoner fiction. Bradford writes from a point of view and in a style that calmly navigates the bizarre, scary, and sometimes gravely immoral people populating this book. It is anchored in a certain time and place that fit the themes: Austin, TX and surrounding areas in the 90s (there's even a Richard Linkletter quote as a preamble).

[Shalyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but I found nothing in it worth reading. The stories are told in the voice of a simpleton and have all the senselessness of a fairy tale but with none of the purposefulness of conveying a message of any kind. Based on other reviews, I thought at the very least this would be a collection of stories with dogs, but not all of the stories have dogs in them, and in the stories where dogs are included, they are treated very poorly. I don't recommend this book for anyone, but particular not for people who do like dogs. :(

[Edith Campo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este es un conjunto de historias cortas que incluyen a un perro. Creo que intentan desagradar al lector, pero después de leer a Roupenian, parece que Arthur Bradford se queda en el intento. Además, no hay nada de contenido en cada relato, simplemente situaciones absurdas que avanzan y se paran sin más. Hay gente que dice que es un escritor divertidísimo, yo no le he encontrado la gracia. De hecho, lo mejor del libro es que es corto, porque cada historia es tan parecida a las demás y tan irrelevante, que lo que me quedaba no me despertaba ningún interés.

[Felix Christie · Rating 3 out of 5]

what da hell!! picked this book up on a whim from an op shop based on the strangeness of the blurb and having heard nothing about arthur bradford before. it’s the kind of weirdness i love - the dialogue felt so stilted and unnatural which is my favourite thing in odd narratives like this. there was something very slight that was missing that kept me from fully loving it but glad i picked it up nonetheless - excited to read more arthur bradford stuff!

(rating would be 3.5 stars if goodreads would allow it)

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this collection of hilarious and odd stories. I’m also a big fan of the author’s other collection Turtleface. Arthur Bradford’s stories elicit from me a strange little scratchy he-he-he laugh like Ernie from Sesame Street. One of his most impressive accomplishments as a writer is creating this unique state of reality in his stories in which the everyday and humdrum mix seamlessly with the completely absurd.

[Mike Del Vecchio · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is pretty good, although as it progresses the quality drops. I found the final story in the book disgusting and unreadable. Although the final story is undoubtedly meant to be tongue-in-cheek, I couldn't even read it. The story about the chainsaw was pretty half-baked too, if you ask me.

The author has a good style and the way he writes is what you strive for. He gives perfect descriptions in very few words. The stories are short and they do make you think a bit, afterwards.

[Ysaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome collection of short stories that will all inevitably leave you thinking "What the hell am I reading?" The common theme that strings them all together invariably shocks the reader into desensitization, and suddenly you find yourself relating with the narrator more than you would like. "This is insane...but let's move on." Insanity becomes the new normal, and that's just fun.

[Mackenzie Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

So odd and there’s nothing expected about each turn of plot and story. It almost feels like everything and nothing has meaning. That anything you get from the stories are all projections of your own thoughts and feelings and nothing about a statement the author it making.

Fascinating and exciting. A great book to have everyone read and discuss because nothing and everything makes sense.

[Randi Vance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky, beautiful nonsense.

So delightfully eccentric - completely and utterly absurd. Yet, I gobbled it up. Each nonsensical page more delicious than the previous ones. An excellent read for those times when you crave words on pages but aren't in the mood for commitment. I wish there was more!