A Dog Between Us

by Duncan B. Barlow

duncan b. barlow delivers tender shocks and the profundity of mercy in this poignant, delicate novel of loss and love. A Dog Between Us holds the reader between what can be said and what is unspeakable in our most vital relationships. this is an unforgettable novel of beauty and delirium.

244 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2019

About the author

Before writing, duncan b. barlow was a touring musician who played with Endpoint, By The Grace of God, Guilt, the aasee lake, The Lull Account, Good Riddance, and many more. His interviews about music and subculture have been published in academic texts, books, and magazines such as: Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, and Social Change on Rutgers University Press, and We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet Collected Interviews on Akashic., and Burning Fight on Revelation Records. He has one published novel (Super Cell Anemia) and two books forthcoming (Of Flesh and Fur on the Cupboard, 2016 and The City, Awake on Stalking Horse, 2017). His work has appeared in The Denver Quarterly, The Collagist, Banango Street, Calamari Press, The Apeiron Review, Meat for Tea, and Masque and Spectacle. He teaches creative writing and publishing at The University of South Dakota, where he is publisher at Astrophil Press and the managing editor at South Dakota Review. He has also edited for Tarpaulin Sky, The Bombay Gin, among others.

Reviews

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure where to begin this review. While most who follow my blog know I review mostly genre novels that are Science or Horror fiction. I have to know Duncan for many years, our first books were released by the same publisher and I have followed his career closely since the beginning. I can't erase my bias towards him as a great person and artist but his last two books have still found a way to surprise me with their strength and depth. After the brilliant mind-fuck noir that was The City, Awake my bar was really high. There was a lot about that novel that made it my jam, so when I read about this novel I was not as excited.

That being said I trusted Duncan Barlow and I am glad I did. On the surface, this doesn't sound like my type of book. An experimental character-driven story with no genre elements but grief and a feeling of dread through-out. for the record I don't just read genre, I love a character-driven novel as evidence check out my top ten last year with How to Set Yourself on Fire by Julia Dixon Evans. It also does two things I normally don't enjoy. This novel is first-person with time jumps and doesn't follow any conventional rules of grammar.

Normally if a writer chooses to write a whole novel without quotes for the dialogue that would annoy me. Very few writers can pull that kinda raised finger at grammar off besides Kathy Acker or Cormac Macarthy. In this narrative, it makes sense since the entire story is one of personal reflection by the main POV Crag. No one is speaking really. Crag is recounting the death of his father and their relationship.

A Dog Between Us is a thrill ride or filled with laughs. It is a novel soaking with emotional richness driven by raw and heartfelt prose. This is the type of novel that leaves you wondering how much of this is autobiographical? There are moments of gut-wrenching grief that is so powerful it is like an emotional knife's edge. The story jumps back in forth between touching and heartfelt love, clumsy disregard of youth and adult reflection.

Duncan Barlow will never be a mainstream artist he grew up in Louisville Kentucky's underrated punk and hardcore scene. He is known for his hardcore bands By the Grace of God and Endpoint, but it was his band Guilt that has no comparison. Probably Barlow's most personal band of the time it mirrors many choices he makes as an author. Experimental without being so weird that the artistry and skill are forsaken.

A Dog Between Us is as close to a mainstream novel as I suspect Barlow will give us. It is weird, just not as gonzo weird as past efforts. I loved this novel would consider a masterpiece like the last one. A Dog Between Us is Duncan Barlow's best novel to date even if I personally prefer The City, Awake.

[JJ Grindstaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout most of the pages of this book, I found something to relate to. Grief is a terrible thing, and even more of a horrid thing to try and put into words. Barlow encompasses it brilliantly. Moreover, he expresses the frustrations that comes along throughout the stages of a loved one's illness, to their death, and post-death. There's the surreal feelings as your life tries to go on even in the face of your grief, and people not knowing or understanding how to deal with your grief. Even the pain of feeling cursed, of having to deal with another trauma or tragedy too soon after a huge shock to your life, resonates with this reader in particular. While the narrator believes himself to be alone in his thinking, Barlow transcends the page and reaches out to his readers by expressing what many of us fear most: that we are alone and beyond repair.

This novel is raw and emotional, following a narrator I both relate to and empathize with on so many levels. A Dog Between Us is cathartic and hopeful even in its darkest moments. I highly recommend it as the next book you pick up.

[Caleb Michael Sarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will be reviewing on an upcoming episode of the Drunken Book Review Podcast.

[in8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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