The Color of A Dog Running Away

by Richard Gwyn

Lucas, a musician and translator living in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, comes home one day to find a cryptic invitation to a local art gallery slipped under his door. When he appears at the appointed time, he sets in motion a series of improbable, seemingly interconnected events that disrupt his previously passive existence. He meets the alluring Nuria and they begin an intense love affair. He is approached by a band of Barcelona’s mythic roof dwellers and has a run-in with a fire-eating prophet. But when he and Nuria are kidnapped by a religious cult with roots stretching back to the thirteenth century, Lucas realizes that his life is spinning out of control.

The cult’s megalomaniac leader, Ponteuf, maintains that Nuria and Lucas are essential to his plan to revive the religion. While Nuria is surprisingly open to Ponteuf and his theories, Lucas is outraged and makes his escape. Back in Barcelona, Lucas wanders the streets in a drug-and-alcohol-induced haze, pining for Nuria and struggling to make sense of what happened to him. He recounts his improbable adventures to his friends, who are wholly entertained by the story and deeply doubtful of its truth, a skepticism that is exacerbated by Lucas’s tendency to use the third person and flaunt different narrative styles.

A love story, tale of adventure, historical thriller, and evocative tour of Barcelona, THE COLOR OF A DOG RUNNING AWAY is a dazzling blend of the surreal and the ordinary, a novel that beguiles and disturbs in equal measure.

Genres: Fiction, Spain, Novels, Mystery, Gothic, Friendship, Modern

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Richard Gwyn was born and grew up in south Wales. While studying anthropology at the London School of Economics, he became interested in the threatened cultures, languages and music of peripheral communities. He also harboured ambitions as a poet and made several luminary appearances at punk gigs in the late 1970s, including a memorable support act to The Cure. Turning his back on beckoning stardom, a confusing period followed, during which he lived in London and worked as a milkman and sawyer. Then, after sustaining an injury in an industrial accident, he moved to Crete and bought a six-metre fishing boat, describing himself as a refugee from Thatcherism. For the next nine years he travelled on and around the Mediterranean forming enduring links with people, places and wooden boats. The prospect of permanent self-imposed exile seemed likely. However, after a long, revelatory walk across northern Spain, he decided to return to Wales. He settled in Cardiff, where he married Rose Pallot, and their two daughters were born. In 1993 he began a study of illness, language and the body, an interest which he pursued professionally until 2003, resulting in the publication of two books, Communicating Health and Illness (Sage, 2002) and Discourse, the Body, and Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). He teaches at Cardiff University, where he is Director of the MA in Creative Writing.

Richard Gwyn’s poetry includes One Night in Icarus Street, Stone dog, flower red/Gos de pedra flor vermella (both 1995), Walking on Bones (2000) and Being in Water (2001). He is also the editor of an anthology of new poetry from Wales titled The Pterodactyl’s Wing: Welsh World Poetry, launched at the Hay Festival in 2003. He has published poetry in translation from Spanish, Catalan and Lithuanian, has read his work at many venues internationally, and has collaborated extensively with visual artists in Britain, Spain and France. He is a regular columnist for Poetry Wales, reviews books for The Independent and has discussed his work on TV and radio. His first novel, The Colour of a Dog Running Away (2005), set in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, is published by Parthian in the UK, Doubleday in the USA, and has been translated into many languages. His second novel, Deep Hanging Out (2007) is published by Snowbooks. His most recent books are Sad Giraffe Café (2010), a collection of prose poems, and The Vagabond’s Breakfast (2011) a memoir.

Reviews

[Candice Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. The writing style was unique and beguiling. The story unfolded in colours before me, reminding me of the beauty of language. This is a love story for a person, a place and possibility.

[Zaki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won't be reading this again, that's for sure. I didn't find the characters interesting. The plot was pretty bland and the writing is unfledged with tedious details.

[Greg Bascom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book in May 2007 for a good reason, which I immediately forgot. Eighteen months later, I blew off the dust and read the flyleaf. It's about some guy in Barcelona who receives an anonymous postcard that leads to a torrid love affair with Nuria and their abduction by a religious cult, from which he escapes but she stays, and he returns to Barcelona where, in a drug and alcohol induce daze, he tries to figure out what happened. The flyleaf also mentions roof dwellers and a fire-eating prophet. Except for the last 23 pages of the novel, that synopsis tells the story. Nevertheless, the tale has elements of a mystery.

THE COLOR...is the first novel by a poet. I classify it as general fiction with perhaps a literary treatment, I say perhaps because I'm too lazy to understand poetry and I suspect there is meaningful theme in this story that other readers will grasp. That theme is likely related to a statement by the character Igbar Zoff on page 70: "The point is that out of any situation, whether disastrous or not, can spring unforeseeable benefits." I think the author was foretelling.

This being a first novel I proceeded with caution. For quite many pages, the author seemed to be painting the seedy characters and backstreets of Barcelona where tourists should not go or they will be mugged. Indeed, a tourist mugging is the first scene after the prologue. There are other scenes unrelated to the plot or subplots. Descriptions are sensual, adjectives used liberally, poetically perhaps. But it is interesting. The author lets us see, feel and smell Barcelona's dirty underwear. At times, the author approaches magical realism but then decisively withdraws. It might be surreal, but he makes it plausible.

And it works. The flyleaf told us the plot, so with patience and fortitude we wait while the author carefully constructs a foundation on the rubble of Barcelona, which teaches us to accept quirky happenings. So by the time the bald-headed megalomaniac drips water on the trussed up protagonist-narrator lying in a coffin, we are certain it could happen.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book; just rather inconsequential. I picked it up mostly because it takes place in Barcelona.

[Miss_otis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book committed my number one pet peeve, which is that it failed to make me care about the characters, and also failed to make me see why any single character liked or cared about another.

I didn't see any reason that Nuria would actually be in love with Lucas, almost every character seemed to be very impressed with how painfully bohemian yet full of jaded ennui he/she was; the human connection between Lucas and his "friends" was all but invisible, only one character (Eugenia) drew my interest in any way and her role was relatively minor. The characters seemed to be voluntarily isolated not only from each other, but from the world at large, and I'm not certain why they would ever have become acquainted in the first place.

I found the dialogue unrealistic, even for characters who are meant to be "artistic" (and therefore could be excused from a bit of pretentiousness) and there are several unwieldly exposition dumps, which is another pet peeve.

The description of Barcelona was good and not more detailed than it needed to be, though having never been there, I can't say if it's an accurate picture of the city.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Um. . .

Well. . .

I guess parts of this book were good. I think the title would more be more correct if it were, "The Part of My Life in Which I was Drunk 24/7: and then I wrote it down, added an ending and published it."

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of talk, little coherent plot, and characters that the reader learns nothing about. I think this author likes to show off. Many high minded sounding thoughts and conversations, but they really don't fit together to make a story or tell an interesting point of view.

[Tony Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can understand a lot of the more negative views posted here. The book is often quite pretentious and positively dripping with fashionably existentialist naval-gazing and obscure, enigmatic characters and situations - but I still liked it, dammit! I'm a sucker for off-beat novels with skewered love stories and loads of calculated bohemian angst.

Most of all I like it because it reads like a tribute to my favourite novel, John Fowles’ The Magus - another book with a glamorous European location, a selfish, quasi-intellectual hero, a mysterious, manipulative girl, and an older mentor/madman playing god and indulging in dangerous mindgames. I don't return to many books these days, but with this one I just might.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hypnotic and mysterious, though nearly to the point of cliche. Walks a fine line, anyway. Overall, sexy, witty, dreamy, and a worthwhile read.

[Savannah B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere in the 2.5-3 star range. Frustratingly, this novel had the bones of an interesting story that I feel like a more skilled or experienced novelist could have made far more, or more evenly, compelling and successful. I was drawn in by the seedy, lusty depiction of a bohemian Barcelona in the 90s, and the mysterious and ultimately fascinating, I thought, premise around Lucas and Nuria’s abduction was quite intriguing. So much so that I was initially able to overcome the author’s failure to make the protagonist and Nuria feel like real people that I cared very much about. When the author chose to structure what should have been the most engaging part of the story as a recounted synopsis told after the fact by Lucas to friends on a drug and alcohol bender, I felt like things fell irredeemably flat. Ultimately we are ‘told’ nearly everything and ‘shown’ very little, and I was left feeling like I read a synopsis of an interesting story and made to sit through long, inane scenes detailing someone’s decent into nearly deadly substance abuse without even being able to feel much chagrin or sympathy for them.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising start, but doesn't grip
I thought the start of this book was promising, with a good account of the meeting in the museum and its aftermath, but it fell apart after that. I found the whole central section to be completely nonsensical, and began to wonder if some sort of contrived homage to The Magus (a much better book, I think) was being developed. I also found the repeated accounts of what Lucas had to eat, drink, wear, ingest etc tedious, probably because I'd stopped caring about him. This book was bought for me because I love Barcelona, and there are some flashes of the gracefullness of that city here (as in Shadow Of The Wind), but too often it descends into a list of street names, with little description of the scenery for those who can't remember which side of the Ramblas they're on.

Originally reviewed 20 December 2006

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you love Barcelona, you have to read the book which seems to visit every dive in that entrancing city. It seems to me that the author must be drawing on his own experience as an alcoholic and drug user as he depicts the protagonist's wanderings back and forth across the Ramblas and the old city. But that is in the latter part of the novel.

The novel begins with a wondrous love affair that Lucas has with the mysterious Nuria and then the story swerves into his abduction by a bizarre neo-Cathar reincarnation, burning-at-the-stake cult that seems almost but not quite his own drug-induced hallucination. Even with all that, the novel is oddly engaging and I look forward to reading Richard Gwyn's subsequent novels.

[Jasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's well written and it draws you in, though the denouement of the 'thriller' section around two thirds of the way through is very sketchily done and seems to belong to another book (an 'airport' novel perhaps). What's more, I didn't like the central character, Lucas, and it annoyed me that we're supposed to like him (well, I think we're supposed to like him).

I was left scratching my head, which isn't a bad thing. If pressed for an explanation {SPOILER ALERT], I'd say that Nuria, Pontneuf and the aristocrat with the green suit were all working in unison to lift Lucas out of his dissolute lifestyle. I may be mistaken, but I think he's become a sort of Cathar at the end.

[Jacquie Bullard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag for me. In the beginning I felt sort of lost, wondering what was the point of it all, but then again, maybe that was on purpose so I could experience the protagonist's lack of direction. Somewhere in the middle, my attention got hooked and then I was interested in the direction of the plot but I can't say that most of the characters were very compelling or interesting. Then I got to the end and was not satisfied. Maybe I just didn't get it? Or perhaps the author wanted to leave the meaning of the ending to the readers' imaginations? Gwyn is a poet, so perhaps the ending reflects his poetic sensibility in that it isn't supposed to be super obvious what it all means.

[Des · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because it was there, and it was interesting and quick enough that it was worth finishing. However, for a book about orchestrated coincidences, there were sure a lot of loose ends. It's almost as if the publishing deadline approached, so the author just stopped writing. Time's up, pencils down. The ending was unsatisfying and seemed unfinished. The narrative and characters evoked no emotion in me other than the enjoyment of vicarious living in Barcelona.
I wouldn't seek out this book specifically, but if you have a few hours to kill and this book is already near at hand, there are worse ways to spend your time.

[Keith Barger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this enough to share it, and what I mean by that is that I'm going to leave my physical copy of the book in a random coffee shop in Phuket with a message inside inviting the next reader to read and "pay it forward." I finished reading it on my flight from Shanghai to Phuket, and it was the best thing I could say about that Spring Air flight -- other than the fact that we landed safely. This book isn't my typical genre, but I did want to know how the plot would unfold.

[Cath Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Beautiful evocation of the city of Barcelona, which I have never visited. And the Cathars have fascinated me in the past, though that part of the story is something of a rabbit hole...

It seems somehow in keeping with the nature of the narrative to have read some of it at dead of night, unable to sleep, recovering from a debilitating cold.

[Hortense · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cor de burro quando foge é o nome do título em português

[Ankita Dey · Rating 1 out of 5]

One book I don’t want to pick up again.
The bland narrative was so mundane. Felt to capsize my attention and I had to shelve the book. One of my worst read book

[Evan McCarville · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would’ve been good at about 175-200 pages

[Alex Iverson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a long time ago, but did thunk it was solid. Out there, kind of whacky, but engaging.

[Jordan Forster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Gwyn's debut novel is a tale of obsessive love, intrigue, and drug-fuelled nihilism set in modern Barcelona. The tale concerns Lucas, a Welsh-Spanish musician and writer, who embarks on a passionate love affair with the mysterious Nuria. The lovers are then kidnapped by a religious cult, whose leader whose motives are more sinister than appearance suggests. Lucas escapes alone, but, back in Barcelona, descends into drug and alcohol fuelled oblivion as his search for Nuria becomes evermore futile. These three, seemingly separate tales and themes, are skilfully woven into a whole as the novel reaches its climax.

Gwyn's prose-style is economical, never descending into unnecessary ebullience, and allowing the characters, situations and locations to speak for themselves. The early infatuation with Nuria informs the later obsession and destitution, but Lucas' moral apathy and detachment from the world around leads the reader to question the veracity of his account. After all, isn't the narrator a writer by trade, and at the beginning of the novel Lucas informs the reader that he is writing his story, alone, from a rural medieval tower.

The novel abounds with characters that Gwyn (Lucas?) introduces and utilises with wonderful effect, whether to add some humour, add to the intrigue or even question the narrator's account, and never at any point feel false or overbearing. The mark of a talented and skillful storyteller. This is a brilliant and compelling debut.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a sense of anything being possible in this very poetic, superbly written book set in Barcelona. You never really know where it's going next (unless it's to another bar: there can't be too many drinking joints in the Gothic quarter that aren't frequented during the story). The supporting cast - members of the expat community - are described in colourful and hilarious fashion, and the descriptions of Barcelona itself are perceptive, and a joy to read: "There was an edge of muted excitement in the air. Barcelona often seemed like that: a city on the brink, infatuated with its own improbability. I loved these twisting alleys, the syncopated snatches of music drifting out from open windows, the long shadows, even the perpetual odour of an antique drainage system overlaid with sand, cement and cheap cigar smoke."

The story reminded me very much of one of my favourite books, John Fowles' 'The Magus', in the sense that neither the reader nor the narrator can quite figure out what is going on. It achieves exactly the right combination of reality and the surreal. Like 'The Magus' I suspected there would not be an explanation for everything come the end, and just like 'The Magus', I didn't care. Writing as good as this I can go on reading indefinitely.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow - what an odd little book. Its been picking up praise in the press and even became Waterstones word of mouth book for the summer.

I read it and was quickly immersed in the settings, style and characters of a beneath the surface modern Barcelona.

The main protaganist is Lucas who is writing his story of how he responded to a card pushed under his door and met a woman at an art gallery.

They start on a love affair but then he gets kidnapped by a group living in the mountains that believe that they are resurrected cathars who were murdered in the 13th century. His girlfriend is there as well and they live for a while in peace until it all gets nasty and he is tried for the treason of crimes supposedly committed in the 13th century!

He escapes and holes up with a number of expats drinking and relating the story, revealing more and more.

High on style and atmosphere - it ultimately fails as a thriller and becomes a chore to plough through. Which is a shame.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such an on-the-fence kind of book that writing a coherent review could be tough: On one hand, I love the whole Cathar gambit. When Lucas is trapped in the Refuge with the frustratingly charismatic Pontneuf, the pages flew by. But I had to admit that a lot of Gwyn's writing struck me as pompous and overblown, faux-edgy and bombastic. The pages upon pages of reckless boozing made me feel like I was reading James Frey all over again. Although the unreliable narrator aspect of the novel kept the plot intriguingly questionable, I felt Gwyn pushed COLOR OF A DOG into excessively clever and precious territory with his stabs at meta-textuality and zany characters.

[Issy · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know how sometimes you read a book and there are good parts and bad parts - this book wasn't like that. This book was simultaneously both good and bad. Sometimes reading it was like listening to the echo of a gorgeous melody that you can't quite hear. There was something in the way of this book being great but a can't quite place it.
The book had three parts, the first and last ones belong to one genre and the middle to another. The middle part demanded a tight plot and the the last part wrapped things up in a crumpled newspaper tied with dental floss.
I'd like to give this author another go though.

[Shawn Bird · Rating 2 out of 5]

We're off on vacation to Barcelona, so I thought I'd read some books set there to get into the spirit of the place. The cover is intriguing. The title is curious. But the words. The words are confusing. There are Cathars and reincarnation. There are roof-people. There are rabbits and there is a lot of inebriation. It starts and ends with a Miro postcard. I didn't get it. The protagonist was pathetic and uninteresting. I kept reading and reading waiting for the threads to come together and the plot to make sense. It never did.

I wish I could have those hours back. I have other things to read.

[The Final Chapter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Low 1. This is a turgid overlong exploration of the main characters' alcohol and drug-infused nihilism, which no doubt reflects lengthy background research on the author's part. This possibility may explain the absurdity and historical inaccuracy of associating a Cathar sect with a code of violence. The introduction of the 'roof people' is such an obvious reflection of 'creative-writing' workshops, because there is no explanation for their interest in such a sozzled loser. Dire, dire, dire. Best for the author to return to the hotel mini-bar and refrain from producing such tosh.

[Patty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do you understand the title of this book? If you do, then maybe you will get something out of this book. Or maybe I didn't take enough drugs while I was reading it???

I chose it because it takes place in Barcelona. The setting was pretty much the only thing I liked about the book. There was a lot of smoking, drinking, and taking drugs and then experiencing weird stuff - including being kidnapped by a religious cult. It ended without really shedding any light (discernible to me anyway) on the story.

[Zoë MacGechan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tripe. Don't waste your time.

The characters, plot and language are all underdeveloped and extremely uninteresting. Nuria's character is wholly inconsistent, Lucas is mental and his friends irritating - so who really cares what happens to them? The plot attempts to be original, but merely batters cliche with elements that are ordinarily left out because they're so dull. The language would be great - if this was a GCSE English assignment.

Thank god it was fairly simple to read so it was over and done with quickly.