The Cowboy Dog

by Nigel Cox

When Chester Farlowe’s father is killed, Chester is forced to leave the vast cattle ranches of New Zealand’s central volcanic plateau for the badlands of urban Auckland. Henry Stroud, proprietor of the I Fry takeaway wagon, takes him under his wing and rechristens him “Mr. Dog.” Still full of anger six years later, Chester sets out to plot revenge on his father’s killer and finds that he must contend with Boss Lennox, the Sultation Kid, and the seductive and inscrutable Miss Peet before he gets to the showdown. This mythical story reconfigures the New Zealand experience with an absorbing coming-of-age tale.

204 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Bella xx · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit strange and all over the place. On the one hand it read like a long poem dedicated to old westerns. The way Cox brought the western to New Zealand (I love when Stroud pointed out that we don’t have snakes after we saw many throughout the novel) was surreal and a lot of fun. I also loved the repeating images of the dark bird and humming pylons. On the other hand, this read like a long poem that was too long. The repeating images meant that at times the plot felt really circular and meandering, and took away from the shocking elements in it. Ultimately I’m glad I gave this a go and got the unique experience of reading a kiwi western.

[Kim Boyd]

I lost this book along the way, will finish if i find it again

[Ryan Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange and hallucinatory, with at-times gorgeous writing. The cowboy setting and aspects of the story, prose, and characters (including one named the Kid) recall Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian", but it never is able to evoke the profound, biblical morality of that brutal masterpiece. The last third devolves into an inscrutable mishmash of archetypal tropes and a rushed ending. Also really didn't appreciate the way Cox wrote his women characters. There are only two in the book, a world-wise siren who teaches our boy the ways of the world (meaning mostly sex), and a literal siren (radio pop singer) turned cowgirl whose greatest influence is when our cowboy envisions her naked multiple times in hallucinations.

[Dead John Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to New Zealand way back when it was a much simpler, much easier, place to be, and coming from the other side of the world, it was full of wonder: glaciers, geysers, earthquakes, and more.

And then I drove on the Desert Road and felt the mystery that resides in that one spot of New Zealand where you can feel the dreams peeling away and you come to the very essential part of yourself. It is neither a friendly nor hostile place so much as an alien place and I believe it is the very heart of the country.

This is the second time I've read this book, many years apart. I can't remember what I wrote before as I am not that guy I was then.

Where to start .... well, it's not your usual Kiwi, unease, unresolved, unfinished piece of work, No siree, this has a beginning, a middle and and end, a mighty fine end too.

Not for the fainthearted, or the cynics, this book will give you nothing until open up to it. It is not a novel, it is an odyssey, a boy's journey to manhood, not leaving the past behind so much as coming back to it from the other side, resolving old issues that not only wont go away but are in fact what he is made of.

In that Kiwi way of nothing being spoken of directly, except in this book it is shown, not spoken, from a place beyond the tyranny of words. Part dreamscape, part landcsape, part escape.

Set in a mythical New Zealand which is just like this one but different. The boy grows up on a cattle ranch (of the cowboy type) just along the Desert Road, you'll find coyotes, wolves, chuck wagons, Mexicans, all tucked away in this mythical landscape where songs connect the very things that matter, Roy Orbison is very much in existence in these parts.

I loved every page, I shed a few tears for the sheer beauty of the poetry that make up the bulk of the writing, I had a huge smile on my face as the words unfolded inside me like flowers pushing up from below. I could go on......

But here's 2 bits:

"When I was 18 I came into my anger."

"The Desert Road. There are places on that road where it bends back on itself, and dives, and goes down to where something closer to the raw heart of the planet is exposed."

[Andrew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great. Written as an allegory perhaps. Not real but not fantasy. Story of coming of age, love and revenge but a western in New Zealand. Full of great writing and deep thoughts.

[Momo · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Aotearoa was a strange western

[Matt Vickers · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unusual mish-mash of frontier tropes placed in Aotearoa. Hugely imaginative with some damn fine writing. I'm uncomfortable with saying that I liked it, though I suspect that's purely a matter of taste.

[Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

just couldn't get into it

[Laura]

Thank goodness thats over. The story was weird but some of the writing was do beautiful. This just doesn't align with my tastes but I could see how someone else could be into it.