Painting the Dog: The Best Stories of Leon Rooke

by Leon Rooke

Leon Rooke is one of Canada's preeminent fiction innovators, a master of the short form, and a literary godfather to scores of writers. Here, for the first time, is the quintessential selection of his best short fiction, culled from a prodigious career and 15 story collections. In these beautiful affecting stories, both bittersweet and hilarious, Rooke mines the rich and often turbulent field of domestic life, of relationships between men and women, and of the fragile dislocations of young children. Included are classics such as The Birth Control King of Upper Volta , The Women's Guide to Home Companionship , and Early Obscenities in the Life of the World's Foremost Authority on Heidegger . Always fresh and original, these timeless stories push the boundaries of the traditional short story form. Painting the Dog is vintage 17 highly original tales brimming with whimsy and wit, pain and poignancy, and the author's endlessly astonishing and electric imagination and riotous humour.

Genres: Short Stories

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2001

About the author

He is a Canadian novelist.

Reviews

[Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guy is real. He is imaginative with time and space. He is a kook. I laughed some but mostly
I was blown away. Recommend.

[Evan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really enjoyed A Good Baby by Leon Rooke so I decided to read this collection of his short stories. There were some that I liked, but enough of them just sort of rambled after painting a picture of dysfunctional relationships. Some ended and left me wondering what the point was or was the point that there was no point. He paints vivid pictures of life, but it seems filled with despair. Maybe I will go back to this book at a later date, but for now, after reading about half of the way through it, I think I will give up.

[J. E. Hewitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories are not my cup of tea. They are well written and if you love short stories you'd probably find them engaging enough. I found them overly planned and too purposely quirky to feel "real."