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Spike of Swift River
Entertaining account of a runaway and a dog he eventually finds, while working in a lumber camp in Oregon. Story was set in the 1940's and gives an interesting glimpse of life at that time. O'Brien has mastered the art of holding the reader's attention.
- GenresDogs
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1942
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 28, 2024
I thought this book, published in 1942, was ok. One of my goals is to read all the 'Famous Dog Stories' series of books by Publisher Grosset & Dunlap, so I can check this one off the list.
In this book our hero Dan Kirk's father's logging company was swindled away from him by a J.P. Schwartz who owns the Great Western company. Dan hitches a ride as a hobo on a train to get revenge on Mr. Schwartz but gets kicked off and winds up in a place called Swift River.
After getting pushed off the moving train, Dan helps out a wounded stray dog 'Spike.'
“A hobo man and a hobo dog—and cripples at that. We make a good pair.”
They started off down the right-of-way together.
Not much I found too new and inventive in the book. There seems to always be references to the call of the wild animals have with a hint of it in this bit:
'Months later Dan was to remember this scene, and to realize then that it foreshadowed the kind of dog Spike was to become. In desperation and disillusion Spike had thrown off the yoke of man and had returned to the way of the wild; but in this moment of crisis it was not the way of the wild that guided him but the way of his more immediate ancestors—generations of proud Shepherds, who had found their justification for existence in being man’s helper and a guardian of home and field, Shepherds whose prime qualities were instincts for obedience and responsibility. It was probably this instinct for man’s companionship, even more than the miracle of the healed paw, that led the dog to trail behind this man, and yet even now Spike could not get over the strangeness of it. The problems of men were strange, too, and obedience was a master he had never been accustomed to.
There is a situation where the dog saves someone. Maybe a little different as it wasn't your usual direct save-
'Unwittingly or not, Spike was a hero.'
And later Dan falls into the ice and things look bad as he can't get a fire started so we have the almost obligatory Lassie going for help moment.
‘‘Something’s up, Wes,” Healy said. “Let’s follow him. Dogs don’t act that way for nothin’.
In Spike River Dan starts working with another logging company and has to come against J.P. Schwartz again.
To cloak my complaints in a way to not give anything away; in the middle there is something that happens that requires special training for Spike to help Dan. I thought that part broke up the story too much. Then while there may be a happier ending, it was a bit too coercive to me. Overall, only an ok book for me.
In this book our hero Dan Kirk's father's logging company was swindled away from him by a J.P. Schwartz who owns the Great Western company. Dan hitches a ride as a hobo on a train to get revenge on Mr. Schwartz but gets kicked off and winds up in a place called Swift River.
After getting pushed off the moving train, Dan helps out a wounded stray dog 'Spike.'
“A hobo man and a hobo dog—and cripples at that. We make a good pair.”
They started off down the right-of-way together.
Not much I found too new and inventive in the book. There seems to always be references to the call of the wild animals have with a hint of it in this bit:
'Months later Dan was to remember this scene, and to realize then that it foreshadowed the kind of dog Spike was to become. In desperation and disillusion Spike had thrown off the yoke of man and had returned to the way of the wild; but in this moment of crisis it was not the way of the wild that guided him but the way of his more immediate ancestors—generations of proud Shepherds, who had found their justification for existence in being man’s helper and a guardian of home and field, Shepherds whose prime qualities were instincts for obedience and responsibility. It was probably this instinct for man’s companionship, even more than the miracle of the healed paw, that led the dog to trail behind this man, and yet even now Spike could not get over the strangeness of it. The problems of men were strange, too, and obedience was a master he had never been accustomed to.
There is a situation where the dog saves someone. Maybe a little different as it wasn't your usual direct save-
'Unwittingly or not, Spike was a hero.'
And later Dan falls into the ice and things look bad as he can't get a fire started so we have the almost obligatory Lassie going for help moment.
‘‘Something’s up, Wes,” Healy said. “Let’s follow him. Dogs don’t act that way for nothin’.
In Spike River Dan starts working with another logging company and has to come against J.P. Schwartz again.
To cloak my complaints in a way to not give anything away; in the middle there is something that happens that requires special training for Spike to help Dan. I thought that part broke up the story too much. Then while there may be a happier ending, it was a bit too coercive to me. Overall, only an ok book for me.
September 19, 2023
Great Book first half seems kind of boring but if you stick through the last half makes up for it many times over it was a GREAT BOOK!!
May 30, 2013
I first read this as a kid and reread it to see why I liked it. Reading this as an adult, I found the upbeat ending not quite as believable.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews