Dog Culture: Writers On The Character Of Canines

by Ken Foster (Editor)

"Intelligent and witty . . . the writers clearly love dogs." -Dog World

"A worthwhile treat." -Dog Fancy

"Wonderful writing about the emotional geography between dogs and people." -Jon Katz
DOG CULTURE showcases celebrated contemporary writers and the dogs in their lives. Here are best-selling authors Nicholas Dawidoff, on needing obedience school as much as his dog, and Chuck Palahniuk, on the otherworldly job of rescue dogs. Rene Steinke describes the shameful gluttony of her boyfriend's dog; Pearl Abraham writes of sneaking a dog into her life in defiance of the Chassidic community in which she was raised; and Chris Offutt reminisces about the Kentucky dog of his childhood, locked out of the house, injured with buckshot, but still deeply loved. Elissa Schappell gives us the other side of the coin in her hilarious treatise against dogs.

Like the best writing on anything, each of these pieces are both about specific dogs and about all dogs, and, most importantly, about something bigger and more essential than dogs life, and how we choose to live it. With black-and-white images of the inscrutable canines that inhabit our landscape, this book will surprise and entrance, and make even the most skeptical dog observer see the world in a new way.

Genres: Dogs

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Ken Foster is the author of a memoir, The Dogs Who Found Me, which was a national bestseller. His collection of short stories, The Kind I'm Likely to Get, was a New York Times Notable Book. He is also the author of Dogs I Have Met, a collection of essays, and the editor of two anthologies, The KGB Bar Reader and Dog Culture. His work has been translated into German, Turkish and Arabic, and has appeared in The New York Times, Bark, Fence, The Village Voice, Newsday, Salon, and other publications. He lives in New Orleans.

Reviews

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting stories about dogs and what they mean to the people who's live they share.
Glad I read it, but not a keeper.

[Bridget Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a super short cute book of a collection of stories. I thought it was all dog lovers but there are two stories that are not quite dog lovers which threw me off a little bit. All the stories are different and cute in their own way. It was a cute read for anyone who loves dogs.

[Donna Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could have gotten more into this book, but some of the people's personalities bothered me and I couldn't really enjoy the stories.