At forty-seven, Gil has reached a relatively happy period in his life as the world’s oldest twenty-two-year-old man. In exchange for doing the odd carpentry and construction job, he gets paid to live rent-free in Los Angeles at the glorious summerhouse of rich retirees who are never there. It’s a world of solitary splendor spent mainly in the company of his four dogs, Cheney, Fruity, Dinky, and Jimmy, the alpha and the only one of the four that Gil has raised from a pup.
Because Gil is the kind of guy who understands his dogs far better than he understands any of the people in his life–including his girlfriend, Sara, who is an “animal communicator” (albeit one that the dogs make fun of)–he is not particularly surprised when he stumbles upon Jimmy delivering lectures on canine manipulative techniques to the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood. (For example, the always effective “Nose down, eyes up” is a surefire path to permission to sleep on the bed.) Soon Gil begins to see dollar signs in the idea of turning Jimmy and his advice into a “brand” that he can merchandise on the Internet.
Their collaboration has barely begun when Jimmy makes a shocking He’s adopted. And not only is Gil not his real father, they’re not even the same species. In the identity crisis that ensues, Gil hears the last thing he wants his favorite dog to that Jimmy wants to be reunited with his birth mother, a bitch owned by the woman who emptied Gil’s bank account, his pension plan, and his plans for the future–Gil’s sexy and still seductive ex-wife, Eden, now remarried, wealthy, and living in Malibu.
When the rich retirees who own Gil’s house return for an indefinite period, Gil must decide what to risk a new relationship disaster by trying to live in a tiny house with his good-hearted on-again, off-again girlfriend, Sara, or relive an old relationship disaster by getting reinvolved with his flirtatious ex-wife, with her new husband, Jimmy’s birth mother, and their Malibu guesthouse.
In this hilarious new novel, Merrill Markoe offers uncanny insight into the bonds between hounds and humans, as well as their respective ideas of the way that love and family are supposed to work. Nose Down, Eyes Up is a revealing examination of the interspecies power of love, sex, family, and real estate and why everyone–on two legs or four–deserves to have his or her day.
Wow, what a disappointment from an author I really, really like. With an ingenious idea first introduced in her previous book, I was so ready to love this book. Love this book forever. Yes, it was funny (this woman can't help but write funny), but the protagonist was so morally bankrupt that I couldn't in any way be sympathetic to him. He is a lying skank, who is only honest and loving with his dogs. In fact, the novel is populated with some very, very ugly people, and, unfortunately, I count the protagonist as one of them. Yes, it is extremely difficult to write a character with warts that remains sympathetic, but she pushed this character too far. In an attempt to take some of the dross off of his character, she makes the truly nice people in the novel objects of his scorn. What ends up happening is that the reader doesn't like ANY of these characters, with the exception of the dogs. I kept wincing as this jerk kept piling on the lies. After a certain point, these lies were pointless or so self-serving that his abrupt epiphany at the end of the book seemed out of nowhere. This protagonist was surfing very close to the edge of being a sociopath as far as I was concerned, so the resolution of the novel felt forced. This book (as so many others I've read recently) desperately needed an editor. Markoe's humor often walks the line, and an editor would have kept her ON that line, as opposed to what we have here, which is someone who has tumbled over the line and the humor starts to become mean-spirited and more mockery than anything else.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Markoe's female characters, from girlfriends to ex-wives to mothers -- are self-absorbed, annoying, and awful. There are no exceptions, beyond the possible love interest alluded to for the next book. I would be surprised if that one didn't start out with the male protagonist already enumerating her flaws. Since I don't plan to read more of Markoe's books, I will mericifully never know.
If you can suspend your disbelief and accept that Gil can hear dogs talking, you'll enjoy this book.
One day, he hears his dog, Jimmy, giving a class to his three other dogs and dogs from the neighborhood about how to get their people to do what they want, including a session on "edible or inedible."
Jimmy soon discovers, to his horror, that he's not Gil's biological son, and asks to be introduced to his birth mother and siblings, who unfortunately live with Gil's ex-wife and her new husband. (And she's got some ideas regarding getting her paws on Gil again)
Temporarily displaced from his work/home, Gil ends up staying in her guest house, supposedly to remodel it.
His girlfriend, Sara, is an animal communicator, and the dogs laugh at her because she gets it totally wrong every time.
When Gil stumbles upon his alpha dachshund Jimmy lecturing the neighborhood dogs on canine manipulation techniques, his life is profoundly changed. That is, if you consider Gil's first instinct to exploit his newfound knowledge by starting a pet blog to kick-off the sale of silk-screened T-shirts a profound revelation. The only redeeming quality about 47-year-old, bitterly divorced, layabout Gil is that he understands his dogs far better than the women in his life. If not for the laugh-out-loud dialogue between Gil and his four dogs, Jimmy, Cheney, Fruity, and Dinky, this book would possess little redeeming value.
As an animal lover and a dog owner, I found the first section of the book containing the interaction between Gil and his dogs both heartwarming and hilarious. I laughed out loud during several moments. But then, illustrating a dog's personality is going to be humorous no matter how you write it. However, despite the truly enjoyable first part of the book, including such memorable pearls of canine wisdom as "Is it pee inside, poo inside?" and "Everything can be eaten", the story suffers from an unfortunate overload of dislikable, shallow, greedy, and selfish cast of human characters that sour the latter plot, which focuses more heavily on human than canine antics--predictably Gil's trouble with women.
Drama starts when Gil accidentally runs into his sexy ex-wife at a convenient store while collecting a six-pack for beer-thirty--a longtime tradition for the lately-out-of-work, blue-collar handyman who conveniently lives in the empty summerhouse of rich retirees in exchange for household maintenance. Startled by the encounter with the woman who cleaned out his bank account during their divorce five years ago, Gil succumbs to Eden's overly enthusiastic greeting by giving her his phone number.
When Gil's cunning canine manipulator Jimmy discovers the shocking family secret that Gil is not his biological father, his traumatized reaction (sprinkled with a heavy dose of "nose down, eyes up") persuades a reluctant Gil to call his ex-wife and owner of Jimmy's mother Gypsy to facilitate a reunion between mother and son. Meanwhile, his landlords call unexpectedly to announce their return to the summerhouse, which forces Gil to vacate the premises and move in--grudgingly--with his well-intentioned albeit clueless "animal communicator" girlfriend Sara, whose recent desire to deepen their relationship is rubbing commitment-phobic Gil the wrong way.
Predictably, Gil begins an affair with his vain and horny ex-wife Eden under her rich husband's nose after accepting Eden's carpentry job offer to fix-up the guest house. Tack on the undercover P.I. Eden's husband has hired to spy on her who blackmails Gil, and his troubles are only beginning. Meanwhile, friction with his suspicious girlfriend Sara exacerbates Gil's stress over the affair, which he spends the majority of the novel complaining about. In fact, a large extent of Gil's dialogue had a tendency toward crudeness, which grows tiresome to read. Readers who don't enjoy frank discussions of sex or profanity may find themselves horrified by some of the saltier scenes Gil details while en flagrante delicto with Eden or Sara. When Gil moves into the guest house is about the time when the story shifts focus and the dogs take a backseat to Gil's screwed-up love life after Jimmy decides he prefers the company of his canine family to Gil. (No big surprise there.)
It was difficult to get through the second half of the story once the dogs lost the limelight and the humor alternated from doggie frolic to sexual shenanigans, but the ending is, if not the most desirable, at least realistic. Gil's soujourn to visit his mother as a way of avoiding Sara seemed an unnecessary diversion from the main story to illustrate Gil's contemptible personality as he complains about his family, particularly his mother, and picks up a sexy high-school classmate for a one-night-stand. Returning home at the onset of the California wildfires separates Gil from Jimmy when he can't get to the guest house to rescue him.
I hesitate to recommend this book because overall, it really isn't a very good story. Yes, parts of it are funny, but the overly long detour from Gil's interaction with his dogs to Gil's deplorable behavior as he selfishly manipulates the women in his life cannot maintain the same vein of light-hearted humor. Perhaps the author intended to compare human vs. canine manipulation by shifting the focus of the story, but the contrast does not make for very gratifying reading.
That being said, if you're an animal lover and don't mind stories with contemptible characters committing depressing acts of betrayal merely as a literary device for situational humor, then you will probably enjoy this story. It IS funny, at least the first half, though I doubt I will buy another book by this author given the cynical depiction of human interpersonal relationships that is such a big focus in the story.
Bottom line: there are better dog books out there.
Gil was the most infuriating characters that I've ever read about, I love dogs and that is why I find myself picking up a book with dogs in the cover, and then when you read that the main character one day stumbles into his dog delivering lectures to the other dogs of the neighborhood I just figured this was going to be a light silly read, but no no no, this story had no point what so ever, it was just a 47 year old acting like a horny 16 year old!
SPOILERS AHEAD:
This dude was the worst! The worst at being in a relationship, the worst pet owner, and the worst decent person ever, the entire book he just kept making a fool out of Sarah, from the very beginning when they have a big fight as soon as he thinks that things between them are over he says "I want her back", then he keeps cheating on her and complaining that she is a nice human, then at the very very end when he sees her with another man, he suddenly realizes how much he loves her and lets her know it, then she calls back the very next day and now he doesn't want her anymore, like what the hell is wrong with you dude?! And then we have the reason I almost gave it 1 star (edit: I gave it 1 star 😬) and I was filled with anxiety for the last couple of chapters, he is the WORST pet owner ever! I mean, the book was supposed to be about the bond between him and his dogs and let me tell you that it was NOT!, he let them everywhere whenever and with whomever, I wasn't even half way through it and the dogs stopped been relevant, and the cause of my anxiety was that he almost let his favorite dogs burn to death on an a house by himself, just because once again he "couldn't" control himself when he had minimal interaction with a woman, so if you still want to read this book, you've been warned and good luck.
My aunt lent me this. I kind of absolutely hated the main character and the women he surrounded himself with. Dog groomer was cool, Milt was good. The dogs were GREAT though. Adorable and pretty funny. Dink was easily my favorite. It was also nice to watch the main character grow a little. Even though he seemed to have issues taking responsibility. Happy he turned out a little better but I can’t exactly say I was rooting for him either.
A humorous, funny, comical, light read with Gil Winowiscz and his four dogs, Jimmy, Cheney, Dink, and Fruity. Gil raised Jimmy from a pup. The other three are rescues. The amazing part is that Gil dogs can talk. Jimmy is the alpha dog who teaches dogs in the neighborhood and his family how to manipulate your owner and get what you want. The conversations Gil has with each of his dogs are personal, eye-opening, and philosophical as well as hilarious on how a dog thinks and lives versus mankind.
Gil is forty-seven years old and is still trying to live is twenty-three year old self. He goes from one bad decision to a worst decision to an impossible situation all with his four dogs in tow. Excellent funny read.
Quotes:
At first she claimed she didn't want anything from me but her freedom and her clothes. That was before she hired a lawyer. Turned out, all those things she didn't really want, she took anyway.
" Inside the van is still inside, even though the van itself is outside. Do not even think about peeing inside my van."
Silence and solitude were like a couple of long-last friends, I missed desperately.
Watching the sunrise over a highway that stretches out ahead always seems to offer a boundless sense of possibility and optimism.
My carelessness had destroyed a life that meant more to me than my own.
This book had higher reviews on amazon than it should have! It started off extremely amusing when Jimmy began talking to the neighborhood dogs. There was so much potential for canine chaos. But instead, this book became much more about Gil, when it gives the impression that it's going to be just about dogs. Also, the "voices" of the dogs weren't very creative. While I agree that little dogs like Dink probably DO say "I love you I love you I love you," it made her, Fruity and Cheney extremely one-dimensional in their own little ways. Jimmy was at least an interesting alpha dog, and while I enjoyed the tense plot near the end of the book involving Jimmy and his family, I was pretty disappointed in the rest of the book's characters. They all seem very one-dimensional and the dialogue isn't distinct or even remotely interesting. This seemed reminiscient, though not quite as clever/witty as Duck Duck Wally. My apologies to the author...better luck next time?
Ms. Markoe firmly and successfully places a dog's behavior and attitudes within the context of a hugely funny story. Family and relationship dynamics play well. We pity Gil at times, but I think most of all, we identify. Conversations with canines come off as some of the best. "Beer-thirty," indeed.
I added this book to my to-read list eons ago and finally got an audio version to listen to as I drove to and from work assignments. I don't remember what originally attracted me to it, probably that one of the major characters was a dog. So, in essence this is a coming of age story, of an adult - figuring out what it means to love, how to negotiate relationships, and how to be an adult, and a little bit of karmic retribution thrown in for fun, along with something of a dog's view of the same. For the most part, I enjoyed the story, though I wasn't crazy about the degree of manipulation Jimmy employed, the stereotyping of the dog's personalities, and the stereotyping that men are largely led around by the Id and their penis.
2/5 If misogyny was portrayed as a character in Eyes Up, Nose Down, Gill would be its poster child. He is such a loathsome, shallow, duplicitous turd of a man that it’s hard to reconcile the loving dog-parent described in these pages with the worst boyfriend/partner who continually jerks his partner’s chain, failing to commit to her, while constantly seeing the grass over the fence as being greener, fresher, more desirable. The only aspect of Gill’s life that doesn’t warrant irksome eye rolls is his interaction with his much loved dog Jimmy. Gill is not funny; nor is Sara, Evie, the “nephew”, the new husband, the architect, Gill’s brother or mother of anyone but Jimmy the dog. This book wasn’t poorly written a waste of my time.
This book did make me laugh sometimes. However, upon finishing it, my main thought was that I couldn’t believe an adult female wrote this. The protagonist was such a “typical” brainless adolescent male stuck in a 47-year-old body. I did NOT find that to be the least bit humorous. A man who heedlessly jumps from relationship to relationship and can only think of females in terms of sex. Yeah, not funny... All too common in this world.
I did appreciate the dogs’ thoughts and opinions. However, reading one of this woman’s books was enough. I have removed the other book by Merrell that I had on my TBR listing. Though this cover image was cute!
This sounds like a cute book...but really it is filled with unlikeable human characters. Gil, the main character somehow realizes he can understand when his dogs talk. (How/why is never explained.) His dog Jimmy, who he has had since a pup is devastated to learn that they are not blood related, that he is adopted and demands to meet his biological birth mom. Who just happens to belong to Gil's ex wife. Do you see where this is going? Gil is nothing but a scumbum, thinking only with a different part of his body than his head. I only finished it to see what happened to the dogs.
Everything regarding the dogs was funny, entertaining and kept me reading. Everything about Gil's life had the opposite effect. I sometimes just wanted to skim through the "adult" situations so that I could get to the dogs again. I think Markoe is a gifted writer if writing through the eyes of a dog (though I tended to disagree with some of it). It was humorous and sometimes seemingly right on target, but when writing about a 47 year old man, I've read better.
Chosen by my book club even my love for dogs could not diminish my disgust for the narrator. While there are events and a timeline, the main character is such a jerk (Dave?) that even his dogs' devotion couldn't redeem the story. Strong writing, vivid characters and clever insights drift along with no universal lesson or theme to make putting up with him worth the time... though you do fall in love with some of the dogs...
I can’t say much because it could lead to spoilers. The main character was the epitome of every bad boyfriend you’ve ever read about. I had to peek at the end to see if he seemed any more likable or I wouldn’t have finished it. Ended up seeing something about the dog that made me keep reading, instead.
I didn't identify with any of the characters - not even the dogs! I loved "Turning in Circles", so thought this would be great - but grew tired of the repetitive language, plot and such.