A Dog's Life

by Michael Holroyd

Eustace is undisputed patriarch of the Farquhar family. That is, he would be if everyone stopped mumbling, let him get on with his shaving and find his way downstairs.

It’s not Henry’s fault that he snores and that his marriage has collapsed. Or that he failed to get into the cricket team. But he has made up for it and is now a faster motorist than ever he was bowler. He is a good father too and one day, when he wakes up from day-dreaming, his son Kenneth will thank him.

It is good that Anne sleeps with a whistle in her mouth – how else could she terrify the burglars? As for Mathilda she would love to like her mother, but prefers going for long walks with the dog.

But what will happen to them all if the dog dies?

A devastating postscript follows the story. Placing this eccentric family in isolation after two world wars and at the beginning of our aggressive financial culture, it turns comedy into tragedy. This novel brings a very personal addition to the biographer’s remarkable career.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Michael Holroyd is the author of acclaimed biographies of George Bernard Shaw, the painter Augustus John, Lytton Strachey, and Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, as well as two memoirs, Basil Street Blues and Mosaic. Knighted for his services to literature, he is the president emeritus of the Royal Society of Literature and the only nonfiction writer to have been awarded the David Cohen British Prize for Literature. His previous book, A Strange Eventful History, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2009. He lives in London with his wife, the novelist Margaret Drabble.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/michae...

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with this book and found it pointless. I really didn’t get it. May be it was just me? I just couldn’t find the humour in it but pleased I read it. Got to the prologue and I thought ‘no, I can’t handle this either.’ Such a shame as I saw the author explain the book at a literary festival at Henley and it prompted me to buy it, as his story seemed interesting.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

First written in 1953, but only published in America as Holroyd’s father threatened to sue if it appeared here, this really rather pointless novel is partially based on the author’s own eccentric family. A length postscript – which is actually more interesting than the novel – explains the book’s genesis and history and fills in more detail about Holroyd’s writing life. The action, such as it is, takes place over 24 hours in the house of a cast of rather one-dimensional and vaguely comic characters and is centred on the illness of the family dog. Nothing much happens and the characters don’t develop, remaining one-dimensional and repetitive throughout. It’s readable enough, even quite amusing on occasion, but its publication adds nothing to Holroyd’s reputation – indeed for me it diminishes it – and I really don’t understand why he and his publishers have decided to revive it. It’s not bad but it’s certainly not good.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was wonderfully written, with occasional turn of phrases that made me chortle aloud. However the plot was slow and the characters not very likeable.

[jayz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly funny & poignant.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars because of the postscript. It would be one star without that.

[Komal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the saddest comedy I've ever read. Written eloquently and ending somewhat abruptly, A Dog's Life is the detail of a day in the Farquhar household's stagnant lifestyle. Laugh-out-loud funny at times and melancholic at others, this book is a beautiful read with a pace you will have no trouble keeping up with. 3.5 stars.

[Sally Hitchin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book in the Goodreads Giveaway.

This book has a strange cast of characters with no real purpose and no character. I ultimately didn't care about any of them and as a result it took me ages to finish it. "Not my cup of tea"

[Clare Hardy · Rating 2 out of 5]

just found this book a little slow for me was still very readable but didn't go anywear

[Rosemary Macdonald · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this one, characters did not appeal and I felt no empathy for them at all.

[Andrea Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful!

[Stephen Edison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Average read, nothing special....