Stray Dogs: Stories

by Rawi Hage

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZEFrom the internationally acclaimed author of the novels De Niro’s Game , Cockroach , Carnival and Beirut Hellfire Society , here is a captivating and cosmopolitan collection of stories.In Montreal, a photographer’s unexpected encounter with actress Sophia Loren leads to a life-altering revelation about his dead mother. In Beirut, a disillusioned geologist eagerly awaits the destruction that will come with an impending tsunami. In Tokyo, a Jordanian academic delivering a lecture at a conference receives haunting news from the Persian Gulf. And in Berlin, a Lebanese writer forms a fragile, fateful bond with his voluble German neighbours.The irresistible characters in Stray Dogs lead radically different lives, but all are restless travelers, moving between states—nation-states and states of mind—seeking connection, escaping the past and following delicate threads of truth, only to experience the sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing and often random ways our fragile modern identities are constructed, destroyed, and reborn. Politically astute, philosophically wise, humane, relevant and caustically funny, these stories reveal the singular vision of award-winning writer Rawi Hage at his best.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Audiobook, Contemporary, Anthologies, Book Club

216 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2022

About the author

Rawi Hage is a Lebanese Canadian writer and photographer.

Born in Beirut, Hage grew up in Lebanon and Cyprus. He moved to New York City in 1982, and after studying at the New York Institute of Photography, relocated to Montreal in 1991, where he studied arts at Dawson College and Concordia University. He subsequently began exhibiting as a photographer, and has had works acquired by the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Musée de la civilisation de Québec.

Hage has published journalism and fiction in several Canadian magazines. His debut novel, De Niro's Game, was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2006 Governor General's Award for English fiction. He was also awarded two Quebec awards, Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize at the Quebec Writers' Federation literary awards.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

When his father’s family had left their village in Palestine, the last thing his father had ever seen of that place was the road leading back to his house and a few stray dogs. We left, his father said, but the dogs stayed. And his father had looked behind at those strays and laughed. ~Stray Dogs

Peopled with countless expats (mostly from the Middle East; mostly working as photographers or academics; mostly living in Montreal), Stray Dogs is a collection of eleven short stories that I would categorise as slices of life. I’ve read, and for the most part loved, each of Rawi Hage’s novels, and while his writing at the sentence level in the short form is still of the highest quality, these stories (with the exception of maybe one or two) are missing that frisson of urgency or swerve that I so love in the work of my favourite short story writers (like Alice Munro or George Saunders). Interesting as slices of life, not quite to my personal taste for the format. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

The Iconoclast

After reflecting on this for a while, I concluded that while my work was indeed about ephemerality, it was not about the ephemerality of the self. Rather, it examined the ephemerality of the image of the self. Every hybrid was a partial death, an incomplete acquisition of the original.

A Lebanese academic who studies how photographic images appear in literature is challenged on the authenticity of his identity by a local while on a writing residency in Berlin.

Bird Nation

Lebanon’s renowned cuisine could well be considered one of the most diverse and healthy in the world. Well, without the wheat factor, of course. Wheat, or more precisely bread, is the country’s misdemeanour, perhaps even its unappreciated tragedy, alongside its unbearable rulers, noise, corruption, the constant threat of war and its mad traffic. It did not have to be this way.

An ironic, and ultimately fabulist, take on the condition of the modern Lebanese citizen. (One of my favourites in the collection, for the tone.)

Stray Dogs

In the car, she told Samir that his analysis of photography and Islam, a religion that forbade representation, could well be as offensive as his attempt to connect the meaning of Japanese photography to the ancient religion of Japan. If what you propose is true, then all meaning comes from history, and therefore our attempts to overcome the historical and social in our art have failed, and everything remains stagnant. Maybe in the Arab world that is the case, she added, but not in Japan.

In a family that might be considered “stray dogs” themselves (refugees from Palestine to Jordan, the father commutes to Saudi Arabia for work and the son now lives in Minnesota), a young academic — whose Philosophy thesis was written on photography — challenges his father’s, and the art world’s, orthodoxy.

Mother, Mother, Mother

Mother, Mother, Mother, I shouted as I banged at my parents’ bedroom door. She opened it wearing a flimsy, transparent robe that barely covered her thighs. My father lay under the quilt. I stood at the door and neither of my parents said a word. My mother did not go back to bed, and my father lit a cigarette, his lips transforming into a fuming locomotive hauling a chain of silent wagons, sliding doors open.

When an expat man learns that his mother back in Beirut has died, his memories of their family’s relationships unspool in unpredictable ways. Set against the backdrop of war, the story of this one family reveals quite a lot about the Lebanese experience.

The Whistle

When I was sixteen, I convinced my cousin to chase falling bombs in the streets of Beirut with me. The objective was to get a photograph of a bomb before it reached the ground or landed on a building, on a car, on a street — before it caused death and mayhem. The camera was his, but we shared its use. The car we drove in pursuit of falling bombs was my father’s. Our attempts to capture these images never produced anything. We sent the film off for development, but all we got back were photographs of blue skies, clouds, roads and the tops of buildings. The decisive moment — to use Henri Cartier-Bresson’s famous expression — was not determined by our visual anticipation of what would come into the frame of the camera; our moment was decided by the sound of the bomb’s whistle. My cousin and I stood on highways, or in alleys between buildings, aiming our lens towards the trajectory of whistles.

After taking a trip to Beirut and spending time with the cousin he hung out with as a kid, a Montreal-based man becomes depressed. While discussing it with a friend (a fellow former art student with whom he can knowingly agree “all photography is about death”), the surprising heart of the matter becomes clear.

The Fate of the Son of the Man on the Horse

Giuseppe stole a glance at the painting of the horse behind him and then at the man upon the horse. He hurriedly left the church by the back alley that led to his apartment. Perhaps one of his mother’s mysteries was in the process of explaining itself.

An unsuccessful Montreal photographer has his luck, and self-image, change after an unexpected visit from Sophia Loren.

Instructions for the Dance

He was known as the dancing photographer — although some thoughtlessly called him the Monkey for his camera antics, his shrill screams of “Smile !”, his endless clicking, clicking. And soon the owner of the studio, Mike Gold, was less in demand than his assistant.

Another story that seems to be about an expat Montreal-based wedding photographer, but as Anatol fled Communist Poland in his youth, this is really a story about what happens when he tries to go home again.

The Veil

I thought of Zahra. I thought of my son, and then I thought of my existence. I passed the days that followed in fasting and prayer. No veil shall obstruct your light. I repeated this chant until the veil dropped and you were revealed to me.

A British-educated Iraqi professor is brought to a secret location to help with some translations, and as he finds himself caught between East and West, between the reality of his country’s present and his personal past, he finds comfort in the lifting of the veil between himself and God.

The Duplicates

He was a master of analog photography and in private would often theorize on the role theology and the Enlightenment had played in the evolution of the medium. Al Awad believed that humans’ obsession with the passage of time, our insistence that existence must mean something, was merely an attempt to preserve an image of our fleeting reality.

Another Montreal photographer (this time an archivist at McGill), Basilidis Al Awad has his personal philosophies about the artistic value of photographic negatives challenged when working with a rare manuscript on loan from the Vatican.

The Wave

There is a disaster coming, and for the past twenty years I’ve been warning the authorities about it. No one believes me — but it will happen. It will happen tomorrow, July 9. The first tidal wave will hit the shore at 3: 45 p.m. sharp. The location? The Beirut shore. The tidal wave will decimate my place of birth, and I am excited to watch it happen.

A crockpot ex-professor of Geology (born in Beirut, educated in Calgary, working in Montreal) foresees the destruction of his birth city, but it might have more to do with wish fulfillment than science.

The Colour of Trees

The universe before his eyes, beautiful and wondrous as it was, did nothing to convince him that there was anything to discover beyond the self, the inner world that limited our relations with the outside world. How destructive and alienating, he thought, was that dialectical relation between the inner world of the self and the outer self of the world. Perhaps this was what lay at the heart of his decision to retreat to such a remote place. The best the outside world could offer the professor was the spectacle of a few changes and fleeting colours.

When a Philosophy professor retires to his dead wife’s rural cottage, a tragedy provokes an obsession with Heidegger in the professor (concerning the tyranny of technology and the aesthetic decline from a Michelangelo self-portrait to a modern cliffside cellphone selfie). This was probably my favourite in the collection; a really strong note upon which to end.

[Darryl Suite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep, melancholic, and philosophical, yet very easy to get through. My fave story is “Bird Nation,” a parable about Lebanese living; what an ending — wish there were more stories like this one. Memory and photography are major themes in this collection. Superb stories. Now I need to find my copy of his novel “Cockroach.”

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite authors, with his fifth publication, has released his first collection of short stories. I entered into it hoping for the same enchantment his novels all have – funky narration, the ominous lingering presence of danger, and history/politics/religion/war mixed together. While Stray Dogs has some of that, overall, I was a bit disappointed when comparing this collection to his novels.

His protagonists were Middle-Eastern men who crossed cultures and found their way to Canada; okay, not all of his narrators fit this description, but most fit part of it, if not the entirety. It seemed like Hage was drawing on a lot of life experience when he wrote this; Beirut and Montreal were both common settings. The collection seemed to speak to a general theme of globalization, as most of his narrators were uprooted at some point, but found or made good ‘homes’ elsewhere. Those who actually chose to live away from their homeland weren’t happier because of their choice as they faced their parents dying whilst in a different country, and other forms of isolation. Also, another running theme was the unknown dangers of technology; we even see one young couple die trying to take a selfie :P
Although these stories felt inspired from Hage’s personal diary, he also clearly did a lot of research for them. Many of his characters were scholars who conversed with other academics and intellectuals. There were Heidegger experts, photography enthusiasts, people who studied earthquakes & tsunamis, historians, and more. So while there was a lot that seemed to come from the author’s memory and general feelings/experiences of being an immigrant in Canada, I think he did a bit of research to cover the wide breadth of topics touched on, which I credit him for. Overall, it had the feel of a well-planned and carefully made collection; he did not just put this anthology out on a whim.

And yet, I can only say that I enjoyed 5/11 of the stories. My favorite was The Wave, which, although I liked, I can’t say has seared into my memory. Unlike his novels, I doubt I will ever look to re-read it. Many of his stories had to do with technology, particularly photography. While I enjoyed the philosophical musings of why we photograph and what a photo means, I couldn’t seamlessly read through all the photography jargon. It reminded me of A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean where, although the story is good, it seems better enjoyed if you go into it with fly-fishing experience, or at LEAST fishing experience… This was most true of Hage’ story, Duplicates.

Instructions for the Dance started off hot for me; I enjoyed reading of Anatol’s escape and thought the new life he’d made was realistic given his talents. It even made sense that he would have feelings for the woman who’d helped him flee, his childhood friend who wasn’t there at the station that day. But when the other guy, Bartek, who was barely mentioned, came storming in and completely took over the final four pages like a Shakespearean King coming to finish the play, I lost interest completely. It felt random. Maybe I missed what was leading up to that finale.

This anthology stands on its own just fine, but when compared to Hage’s wonderfully crafted novels, it doesn’t match up. Although it carries some of the same themes and ideas, it lacks the magic that makes his larger works so brilliant. I suggest reading this if you know that you love Hage, but if you are looking for an entry-point or a continuation of your Hage-journey, I'd look to a(nother) novel. Cheers.

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of the stories had that edgy for the sake of being edgy vibe and the similarities between some of the stories lowkey muddied the waters. Some of the stories were really solid though.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent craft and great narration, but in many of the stories I couldn’t help but feel an element of contrivance injected into it for no discernible reason, which, because they are so short, was enough to turn off my suspension of disbelief. Even with the small knowledge of the characters I would feel like it was an odd thing for them to have done, which perhaps is a hallmark of the author; I’ve only read one other book by them, I think.

You’d think with so little information you would be able to roll with whatever decisions and reactions a character has, but it had the opposite effect on me. It’s true that my short story “muscles” are basically atrophied next to the amount of thought and volume of content I’ve consumed for long form work, though. So it may well be a ��me” problem.

[Sam Goodale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sad, wonderful collection of stories. Sparse prose and intentional writing. I think it probably should’ve won.

[Tyler Jing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a small collection of short stories, though I found it quite difficult to finish this book swiftly. While there are many deeply thoughtful and poetic moments in these short stories commenting on various cross-cultural characters, I found each story to be rather un-engaging and with little resolve. Perhaps I need another read at this, but for now, this book has not left a huge impression on me.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

My one-star review means just what the attached rating says - I didn't like it. I'm not saying it's a bad book - clearly a lot of people found it a worthwhile read. I wish I'd started with another of the author's works. It might have just been the wrong time for me. I'm sure there's some kind of thread that connects these stories, but I didn't feel that. It felt like a random collection of scenes, some Kafkaesque, some sexual in a kind of icky, very male way, some kind of clever, but then I'd move on to the next story and feel like I was back at square one. It might all be some kind of wise metaphor, but it was lost on me.

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t love this short story collection. While many of the stories had potential, most were too short to really sink your teeth into!

[Adam Ferris · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The tragic self is all there is, and all that is around us is mere colour and illusion. These cameras of yours, these manifestations of our fraught relation to technology and the mechanization of the world, these deadly little devices should be abandoned. [...] The gaze within should contain no image of the outer world, but bear only a true reflection of the self, of what is always there, not a superficial overview of the self, but the self in all its depths."

The irony is not lost on me in posting this on a social media app that is simply a replication of the original work that is Stray Dogs. Spread over eleven short stories, Rawi Hage delves into the philosophical depths surrounding the human experience and our relation to art, and more specifically, photography. Referencing many great photographers of the past and ideas about the spirituality and practicality of photos, Stray Dogs asks us many questions about ourselves. How do I really see myself? How do I see the world? What is important that I see? Is it really that important how I'm seen? What is my relation to the medium?

"Rather, he considered that all photographs or "positives" possessed multiple personalities, split identities, reproduced as they were in the hundreds or even the millions, while only the negative retained its singular authenticity. But when does a photograph begin and end? When did God begin and end? "

Most of these stories deal with the diaspora of Middle Easterns in Canada which helps incorporate many dynamic political and cultural settings. Along with topics of love, and family, Rawi Hage has created a wonderfully cohesive collection of stories. Standout stories for me include, though are not limited to The Colour of Trees, Stray Dogs, Instructions for the Dance, and The Wave. After hearing Rawi Hage speak at the Giller Between the Pages event, I was very excited to read this collection, and Stray Dogs is my gateway book into exploring more of his past works such Deniro's Game and Cockroach. If you are a fan of the philosophy of art, short stories, and Middle Eastern culture and reflective reading than you will be just as pleased as me with reading Stray Dogs.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting more than immersive. Plenty of good characters, fascinating behaviours. Mostly revolving around well off Arabs, many of whom have lost a significant loved one. And are involved with photography in one way or another. Well written. But perhaps too expository. Thought-provoking scenarios, but one action didn’t seem to cause another.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic connection

[Lisa (addicted_two_words) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Laurie Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75
A wide range of short stories, with a wide range of emotions by a Canadian legend.

[Laleh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diverse collection of short stories with common themes such as photography, changing of perspective of oneself through passage of time and travel, academics in various Middle Eastern or Canadian settings.
The book's vivid imagery and concise sentences build up strong stories.
I loved the first story "Bird Nation" set in Beirut the most.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stray Dogs is a collection of lithe, playful stories, sometimes tilting toward surreal but always grounded in issues of real-world significance. Rawi Hage’s characters are restless travelers, seekers and strivers. Some are artists. Without exception they are intellectually curious, culturally astute and politically cognizant. Many of these tales of modern anxiety feature people who are discovering that long-held assumptions are mistaken or personal histories are fraudulent, or even that they have been misled by a notion or way of life held in reverence. In “The Iconoclast,” a successful writer narrates the unsettling story of Lukas, a German photographer who, amidst a newly formed sympathy for the oppressed, leaves behind a settled life, renouncing his art with the declaration that “the image is the root of all evil.” In the title story, Samir, a Jordanian philosopher and critic of conceptual photography, is invited to Japan for a conference. There he presents his paper, a comparative study of images of dogs taken by two master photographers—one Japanese, the other Czech. But, following his presentation, Samir is disheartened when audience members criticize his argument on cultural grounds, questioning the validity of his perspective as an Arab. “Mother, Mother, Mother” is narrated by a Lebanese man who, receiving notice that his mother back home has died, narrates the turbulent story of her life and his own childhood, describing without sentiment his mother’s obsessive vanity and damaging class-consciousness. And “The Fate of the Son of the Man on the Horse” tells the bittersweet story of unemployed photographer Guiseppe Cassina, an Italian living in Montreal, and how, in 1970, Guiseppe’s life is turned upside down when he receives an unexpected visit from the actress Sophia Loren and learns the shocking facts about his lineage. Throughout the volume, Hage writes with vigour and sly wit, creating narrative thrust with prose crowded with active verbs. The stories themselves are filled with surprising and abrupt twists and turns. Hage’s characters do not sit still for long. These are people constantly on the go, changing their minds, traveling far and wide, moving from country to country as they search for truth and understanding. Rawi Hage writes about people who act on the strength of their convictions. Driven by a crisis of identity or a conflict of ideologies, they jettison old beliefs and venture out to discover more about themselves and the world around them. This sounds daunting, but don’t be put off by the author’s weighty themes. For all the urgency at its core, Stray Dogs provides a quick, absorbing and highly entertaining read.

[MargaretDH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hage brings us a set of vignettes around (mostly) the Lebanese immigrant experience in Canada. Some of his characters return home, some are trapped in their new life and others range the world, but only in their memories.

Hage can really put a sentence together, and a lot of these stories were interesting. Unfortunately, for me, the didn't go beyond engaging me intellectually. It felt like my heart stayed quiet, and I missed that essential grabbing.

I picked this up because it was on the Giller shortlist, and it reminded me a lot of the collections detailing the immigrant experience that often end up on those lists.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. Stories #1 and #2 were not particularly engaging therefore did not set the stage for me to have patience with subsequent stories. When I got to the 3rd story I had to fast forward and the 4th story was no better. For me, I did not like the subject matter on sexual fantasy. It seemed out of place and wasn't sure where they were going with it.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most of the stories finished with me either wondering what I had just read or leaving an unfinished ending.

[Erika · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 57%.
This was just… super nope.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do we rate books? Based on the writing or our enjoyment. Perhaps their ability to show us something we are reluctant to inspect.

These stories are deep and as one other reviewer suggested deeply melancholic. I did not enjoy reading most of them. But they did encourage contemplation of contemporary schisms related to academia, technology and lives lived in the moment.

I did enjoy The Duplicates as a more fantastical exploration. I found some of the stories such as The Veil to be brutal but perhaps those are stories I don’t want to hear. Rawi Hage forces my eyes open and continues to challenge me to see a world I find hard to accept.

[Olivier]

C’est un recueil de nouvelles; y’avait du très bon et du très bof.
J’étais prêt à excuser certaines prétentions et perversions, mais le lecteur du livre audio qui prononce le nom de Walter Benjamin avec un ‘J’ dur ça ça ne passe juste PAS! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

[Mystic Faerie ✨️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars, rounded up)

[Océ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read it for school, very boring.

[Christall Beaudry · Rating 1 out of 5]

The audio just wasn’t good.

[Shiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am kind of disappointed after reading this collection of short stories. Maybe my expectations from a giller prize shortlist is too high but here we go with my review.

The melancholy feel of almost all stories made it hard to continue. It felt more like an existentialist book than a fiction. Characters had existential crisis in each short story. They were dealing with existentialist themes such as death, fear, absurdity, anxiety, etc. I would have given it a possible four stars if I was reading it as a philosophy read.

From “The Iconoclast”:
“I would allude to Barthes's aphorism in Camera Lucida that every photograph is an image of what has passed, and I would even dare to say that photography functions as a prophecy of death-overtly linking these observations to the title of Joyce's story, "The Dead."”

From “Stray Dogs”:
“When his father's family had left their village in Palestine, the last thing his father had ever seen of that place was the road leading back to his house and a few stray dogs. We left, his father said, but the dogs stayed. And his father had looked behind at those strays and laughed.”

From “The Whistle”:
“He didn't come with you of his own free will, did he? Marc asked. You dragged him along. You forced him. And he must have been terrified. He didn't want to die.”

From “Instructions For The Dance”:
“But Anatol, Anatol, you failed. You are a failure. You don't love your country. You only came back here because you had nowhere else to go. Ah, people's lives, Anatol, all of them so pathetic.”

2 stars
⭐️⭐️

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmmm I do like the writing in general and there are many strong aspects of the author’s writing but I just feel the stories were unfruitful. I think the short stories were intense and meaningful for sure but they were just too short to really leave an impact

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn’t read these back to back. I picked them up over the course of 3 weeks. I found a few of them really had a punch and you had to let it sit. But to me that is good writing. Each main character is the stray dog.

Congratulations on the being short listed for the 2022 Gillers. Absolutely worth a read.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly not as catching as Hage's novels, but well-imagined with landscapes, characters, and moments enjoyable nonetheless.

[Jed Palmater · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t finish this book. It felt like pretentious smut. I liked the philosophical exploration and dark humour but overall felt like a kink piece disguised as literature.