The Difficulty of Being a Dog

by Roger Grenier

The forty-three lovingly crafted vignettes within The Difficulty of Being a Dog dig elegantly to the center of a long, mysterious, and often intense relationship: that between human beings and dogs. In doing so, Roger Grenier introduces us to dogs real and literary, famous and reviled—from Ulysses's Argos to Freud's Lün to the hundreds of dogs exiled from Constantinople in 1910 and deposited on a desert island—and gives us a sense of what makes our relationships with them so meaningful.

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs, France, Essays, Short Stories, Animals

139 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Roger Grenier was a French writer, journalist and radio animator. He was Regent of the Collège de ’Pataphysique.

In his youth he lived in Pau, where his mother opened a shop selling glasses. During the war, Roger Grenier attended Gaston Bachelard's classes at the Sorbonne before actively participating in 1944 in the liberation of Paris. He joined Albert Camus in the newspaper "Combat" then in "France Soir". Journalist, he followed post-war trials which inspired his first essay in 1949 "Le Rôle d'accusé". Radio animator, writer for television and cinema, member of the Gallimard board, he is recipient of the "Grand prix de l'Académie française" awarded to him in 1985 for his whole work, more than thirty works at that moment, novels, including two best-sellers "Le Palais d'hiver" of 1965 and "Ciné-roman", Prix Femina in 1972, essays and memoirs. He is best known in the United States for his work "The Difficulty of Being a Dog" (Les larmes d'Ulysse), translated by Alice Kaplan. He is still writing and is a busy conference attendee, speaking about his works, literature, Gallimard, or his friends: Albert Camus and Brassaï.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book might not be very well known, so unlike with all these other books I don't have time or need to write about, I feel I should say something about Roger Grenier's strange and beautiful little work. I learned of it from Alexander McCall Smith, who endorses it in 44 Scotland Street. I'll take anything McCall Smith recommends seriously. His canine character in the Scotland Street series, Cyril, is as convincing and endearing an urban dog as any I've come across in literature. Grenier's book is neither novel nor memoir, even though it purports to be about his relationship with his dog Ulysses. The original French title, Les larmes d'Ulysse, The Tears of Ulysses, may refer to Grenier's own dog—maybe to his sadness about his minimal role in this book. But in fact it refers to the moment in The Odyssey when Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman adaptation) has returned to Ithaca after about twenty years of war and wandering. Home at last, he finds his faithful hound Argo, too old to get up (I guess so; he must be more than 20 years old!), who nonetheless recognizes his master and wags his tail. Seeing this, Odysseus sheds a tear or two before going off to fight the suitors hitting on his (equally faithful) wife, Penelope. The French title, with its literary allusion, is much more appropriate than that of the English translation, since what Grenier does here is to assemble a literary survey of the representations of dogs in literature (especially French literature) and the relations of authors and dogs. Given that Grenier is a longtime editor for Editions Gallimard and a much-published author himself, a total book guy in other words, who better to offer such a bookish little book? The vignettes and almost aphoristic commentaries are compact, with occasionally more extended readings—for example of Virginia Woolf's Flush, of which I wholeheartedly approve. Descriptions of Paris and doing stuff with Ulysses? A few passages, but not as much as I'd like.

[SoulSurvivor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected . The author quotes writers , historical figures and petty aristocrates on their feelings toward dogs . Perhaps if I knew French or was better read I could have enjoyed this . At least it was short . I did enjoy some of the observations , Napolean in particular .

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had just lost my sweet Elvis (August 2017), the bloodhound shepherd mix my husband and I adopted in 2015 when he was eleven years old and, unbeknownst to us, my husband was 5 months away from death, when I chanced across a reference to this book. Being a confirmed Francophile and mourning Elvis, I ordered it immediately to add to my steadily growing pile of books about dogs. The Difficulty of Being a Dog traces, through dozens of literary references, human beings' relationship with dogs (and the occasional donkey or cat), mostly focused on how we both love and abuse this closest of animal companions. The vignettes vary greatly in length, some only a paragraph long, others running several pages, but each acquainting the reader with dogs in literature, French, English, American, Japanese, Russian ... and what their depiction says our our perceptions of them and our relationship to them. This is not a book about how dogs work ... and there are plenty of such studies now ... but of how dogs work for us, a companions, scapegoats, utilitarian objects, and, occasionally enemies. In a way, the book reminds me of the Wallace Stevens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," for its multiple perspectives on a single creature and its rather poetic approach to its subject. Published in French in 1998, it doesn't include my favorite literary canine, Cyril, the border collie with the gold tooth belonging to artist Angus Lordie in the wonderful 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith. I have a feeling Grenier would have included Cyril but, hélas, Cyril didn't make his appearance until 2005.

[küb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Köpek adlı şiirinde Rainer Maria Rilke köpek olma durumunu beş sözcükle özetliyor:
“Ne dışlanıyorlar, ne kabul görüyorlar.”

Ulis’in Gözyaşları Ya Da Köpek Olmanın Güçlüğü beni farkında olduklarımı okuyacağım diye baştan üzen bir kitap olması nedeniyle üzdü demiyorum. Ama üzücü kesinlikle. Doksan beş sayfalık kitapta kırk üç öykü var. Ve hemen hemen her birinde edebiyata konu olmuş köpeklerden bahsediliyor.
Edebiyatın, yazarların, toplumun evcil ve sokak hayvanlarını nasıl görüdüğünün ve hatta “Nasıl oluyor da bir köpekle aramızda kurulabilecek karşılıklı anlayıştan, diğer insanlarla aramızda var olan anlayıştan daha çok tatmin oluyoruz?” gibi pek çok sorgulamanın hikayeleri. Bir sürü kitaptan haberdar olmamı sağladığı için daha fazla hoşuma gittiği kesin.

[Katharine Holden · Rating 1 out of 5]

The purported charm of this book escaped me. Most of the dogs mentioned in it, literary or real, lead miserable lives and meet nasty ends due to their owners who philosophize much about dog nature but don't take much care of the actual dogs. Many of them are left behind casually or handed off like a newspaper. The individual stories/excerpts/memories are sad and dirty; the overall effect of them is ugly. The author's last story about his Malinois, which he obtains and arranges to breed to an Alsatian even though the author has no fixed address is awful, and the author seems not to recognize his role in the resulting train wreck. This book is the opposite of charming.

[Rogue Male · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Vaughn · Rating 1 out of 5]

imagine barthes writing about dogs.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dogs and their literary their literary or otherwise famous people. Lots of insight into the human condition.

[Jelena Djurkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bilo koji bibliotekar bi vam rekao da se knjige o mačkama mnogo bolje prodaju nego knjige o psima. Ne pitajte me zašto!"

Interesantna knjiga. Grenier ne piše o psima na uobičajen, sentimentalan način, već im pristupa kroz filozofiju, književnost i pojam čovjekovog odnosa prema životu. Kroz pregled poznatih pasa u književnosti, priče o psima poznatih ličnosti, ali i kroz lično iskustvo sa svojim psom Odisejem, autor istražuje kakvo zapravo mjesto pas zauzima u našim životima, istoriji i umjetnosti. Ne dira nas kroz emocije, već kroz ideje; ne teži da nas rastuži, nego da nas navede na razmišljanje.

Note: informacijski vrlo bogato, knjiga pruža pregršt preporuka za dalje čitanje. Stilski, nije neki veliki užitak; tipično francuski, skup misli i refleksija, više esejistički nego pripovjedački pristup.

[Tom Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

"And what if literature were a dog tagging along beside you night and day, a familiar and demanding animal that never leaves you in peace, that you must love, feed, take out? That you love and you hate. That hurts you by dying before you do, short as a book's life is, these days."

[Federica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Non riesco proprio a dare di più. Titolo molto lontano dal contenuto del libro, ma a prescindere il concetto all'interno è confuso e disordinato. Non c'è un filo logico. Molte informazioni buttate a caso. Non mi è piaciuto per niente.

[Sushil Goswami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interspersed with little nuggets - some heartwarming even without the knowledge of the various authors and literary figures that Roger here refers to.

[Laetitia F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je ne m'attendais pas à ça en commençant ce livre. Je ne sais pas à quoi je m'attendais mais pas à une liste d'auteurs qui ont parlé de chiens dans leurs écrits. Et ce n'est pas mon truc.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little too philosophically inellectual; in other words, a little too french.

[Sally Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting viewpoint & premise, especially at the beginning, but then the focus shifts & it drags.

[Yvonne Leutwyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some tidbits are cute, moving, fascinating, others justify behavior like letting your canine run wild and breed at will, or kill livestock and wildlife. Poetically written and translated (from French), but I did not care for the content of at least half of them.

[Sun Joo Ahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love dogs.. this is a memoir about a dog with unconditional love and loyalty.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short little essays - many dealing with ideas I've long been pondering about dogs and their owners. Much too French for me though. ;)

[Whitney Borup · Rating 2 out of 5]

I little too list-like for my taste. It was almost an annotated bibliography. But, still, it was about literary dogs, and nothing could be better.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming collection of non-sappy dog anecdotes, quotes, and memories. My full review here: http://thedoggerel.wordpress.com/2011...

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of Grenier’s dogs, of literary dogs, and of the dogs of other French intellectuals he knew. It’s short and delightful, and led me to other books to read.

[Arax Miltiadous · Rating 3 out of 5]

έχει μια δικιά του μαγεία να μελετάς την αφοσίωση και την ανιδιοτελή αγάπη που απολαμβάνει ο άνθρωπος από τους σκύλους.
Τρομερά συναισθηματικά πλάσματα, αλήθεια.

[Susan Honthumb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now have a long list of books I want to read.