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I Thought You Were Dead: A Love Story
For Paul Gustavson, a hack writer for the wildly popular For Morons series, life is a succession of obstacles, a minefield of mistakes to stumble through. His wife has left him, his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, his girlfriend is dating another man, he has impotency issues, and his overachieving brother has invested his parents' money in stocks that tanked. Still, Paul has his friends at Bay State bar, a steady line of cocktails, a new pair of running shoes, and Stella. Beautiful Stella. With long sleek legs, kind eyes, lustrous blond hair. Their relationship is the one true bright spot in his world. She offers him sage advice on virtually every topic. And she only wets herself every once in a while.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published April 13, 2010
33 people are currently reading
1015 people want to read
About the author
Pete Nelson
43 books29 followersPete Nelson lives with his wife and son in Westchester, New York. He got his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1979 and has written both fiction and non-fiction for magazines, including Harpers, Playboy, Esquire, MS, Outside, The Iowa Review, National Wildlife, Glamour, Redbook. He was a columnist for Mademoiselle and a staff writer for LIVE Magazine, covering various live events including horse pulls, music festivals, dog shows, accordion camps and arm wrestling championships. Recently he was a contributing editor and feature writer for Wondertime, a Disney parenting magazine.
He's published twelve young adult novels, including a six-book series about a girl named Sylvia Smith-Smith which earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. His young adult non-fiction WWII history, Left For Dead (Randomhouse, 2002) about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis won the 2003 Christopher award as was named to the American Library Association's 2003 top ten list.
His other non-fiction titles include Real Man Tells All (Viking, 1988), Marry Like a Man (NAL, l992), That Others May Live (Crown, 2000) and Kidshape (Rutledge Hill, 2004). His novel The Christmas List was published by Rutledge Hill Press in 2004. He wrote, with former army counterintelligence agent Dave DeBatto, a four book series of military thrillers, including CI: Team Red (2005), CI: Dark Target (2006), CI: Mission Liberty (2006) and CI: Homeland Threat (2007) published by Time-Warner. A More Unbending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighters' Struggle for Democracy in WWI and Equality at Home, was published in 2009 by Basic Civitas books. His novel, I Thought You Were Dead, will be published by Algonquin in 2010. He also has two CDs out on the Signature Sounds label, the first entitled The Restless Boys Club (1996), the second called Days Like Horses (2000).
He's published twelve young adult novels, including a six-book series about a girl named Sylvia Smith-Smith which earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. His young adult non-fiction WWII history, Left For Dead (Randomhouse, 2002) about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis won the 2003 Christopher award as was named to the American Library Association's 2003 top ten list.
His other non-fiction titles include Real Man Tells All (Viking, 1988), Marry Like a Man (NAL, l992), That Others May Live (Crown, 2000) and Kidshape (Rutledge Hill, 2004). His novel The Christmas List was published by Rutledge Hill Press in 2004. He wrote, with former army counterintelligence agent Dave DeBatto, a four book series of military thrillers, including CI: Team Red (2005), CI: Dark Target (2006), CI: Mission Liberty (2006) and CI: Homeland Threat (2007) published by Time-Warner. A More Unbending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighters' Struggle for Democracy in WWI and Equality at Home, was published in 2009 by Basic Civitas books. His novel, I Thought You Were Dead, will be published by Algonquin in 2010. He also has two CDs out on the Signature Sounds label, the first entitled The Restless Boys Club (1996), the second called Days Like Horses (2000).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 292 reviews
September 23, 2010
Warning: there is a dog on the cover of this book. There is a dog in the book. There is a dog living in Paul’s apartment, and she is a special dog. Don’t ask me if the dog dies. I already know you don’t want to read another book in which the dog dies. So don’t ask, because the book isn’t about the dog. The book is about Paul. Just as in Garth Stein’s “The Art of Racing in the Rain” and Susan Wilson’s “One Good Dog” Nelson has pulled the old bait and switch. There is a dog (and I won’t tell you if he dies, so don’t ask), but the book isn’t about the dog.
Paul is just a regular guy leading a regular life. He’s suffering the pain of a recent divorce, his father has just had a stroke, his girlfriend is dating Stephen in tandem with him (they can be totally honest with each other!), and his over-achieving brother still intimidates him at the tender age of adulthood.
This book will resonate with the pseudo-alcoholics amongst us. Those of us who don’t drink whiskey for breakfast, but wake up with a dull ache in the head from the “just one drink” we had the night before will see ourselves in Paul. While Paul doesn’t “hit bottom”, never goes to an AA meeting, and doesn’t need rehab, he gains a little self-awareness each time a family secret is revealed, an ex-wife or lover moves on, or he sees an old drinking buddy for who he is. It’s a story of recovery without the stumbling drunk.
PS Because I know you so well, I know you’re dying to ask if the dog dies. I relent! You can ask…but I won’t tell.
Paul is just a regular guy leading a regular life. He’s suffering the pain of a recent divorce, his father has just had a stroke, his girlfriend is dating Stephen in tandem with him (they can be totally honest with each other!), and his over-achieving brother still intimidates him at the tender age of adulthood.
This book will resonate with the pseudo-alcoholics amongst us. Those of us who don’t drink whiskey for breakfast, but wake up with a dull ache in the head from the “just one drink” we had the night before will see ourselves in Paul. While Paul doesn’t “hit bottom”, never goes to an AA meeting, and doesn’t need rehab, he gains a little self-awareness each time a family secret is revealed, an ex-wife or lover moves on, or he sees an old drinking buddy for who he is. It’s a story of recovery without the stumbling drunk.
PS Because I know you so well, I know you’re dying to ask if the dog dies. I relent! You can ask…but I won’t tell.
December 17, 2024
He drew a deep, slow breath and focused on the beating of his own heart until a freight train split the night silence, blasting toward Brattleboro, making the house shake. He wondered who was driving the train and whether they were headed toward home or away from home. Did the engineer know where love goes when it dies, or how it was possible that hummingbirds can cross the ocean while words can fail to fly half a pillow's distance?
A beautiful, sweet story filled with humor and wisdom. The relationships presented in this novel are emotionally connected to the reader. I loved the conversations that Paul has with his dog, Stella and the subtitle A Love Story . I Thought You Were Dead is indeed a love story in more than one aspect.
I like how the author points out that he is not the Pete Nelson who writes books about treehouses. I also happen to own Treehouses of the World by that other Pete Nelson.
I am very happy to have read this book. This was among the interesting books I bought when Borders closed in 2011. I now own both a printed hardcover copy and an audio book.
Read in 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2024
Related Work: Anna Karenina
Favorite Passages:
Two of Them Going Nowhere
"I'm home," Paul said, letting himself in and closing the door to keep out the cold.
"I thought you were dead," the dog said. Her name was Stella, and she was a mixed breed, half German shepherd and half yellow Labrador, but favoring the latter in appearance. . .
Stella had no sense of permanence and therefore assumed Paul was dead whenever he was out of sight, hearing, or smell.
_____
"Just thinking," Paul said. "If you could be a vegetable, what vegetable would you be?"
"Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?"
"There's been some debate. Why would you be a tomato?"
"To get next to all those hamburgers," the dog said.
"But if you were a tomato, you wouldn't want to eat hamburger."
"Of course I would. Why would I change, just because I'm a tomato?"
"You'd want tomato food. This has got to be the stupidest conversation we've ever had," Paul said.
"Actually, this is fairly typical," the dog said.
_____
"I'm just a bowl of Iams to you, aren't I? That's all I am."
"You're more than a bowl of food, Paul. You're a dish of water too. You even pick up my shit." Sometimes she'd crap in the middle of the sidewalk downtown and turn and say, "Be a dear and get that, would you, Paul?"
_____
How difficult it was now to remember her siblings. She could remember running wild through the weeds, usually last in the order, but it never bothered her to be last, as long as she had someone to run with. She remembered a farm and, vaguely, a fat man playing the banjo in the twilight, singing:
What you gonna do when the liquor runs out, sweet thing?
What you gonna do when the liquor runs out, sweet thing?
What you gonna do when the liquor runs out?
Stand around the corner with your mouth in a pout,
Sweet thing, sweet thing, sweet thing.
Come Home, Waffle Belly
Brrzzlfft!
"Is she divorced?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't want to see someone who wasn't."
King Carl
She looked puzzled.
"These," Paul said, reaching across again and grabbing Stella's fur behind her collar.
"That's my neck," she said.
"Hackles are the feathers on a chicken's neck."
"Do I look like a chicken to you?"
_____
"It's human nature. You just always think you want more. And then you get more and that makes you want more still. It's better to be content with what you have."
Exile in Beersville
"What kind of shitty son doesn't know when his own father's birthday is? I'll bet he knows when yours is."
"Well, he was there when I was born," Paul said. "If I was there when he was born, I'd probably remember too."
_____
"Cash always makes for a thoughtful gift. Just so you know."
The Secret Life of Jimmy Carter
"I'd like to report a dog - it's not doing anything, but it made me really happy just to look at it . . ."
_______
"What does it feel like?" she asked.
"What does what feel like?"
"Drinking. I'm just curious."
"It feels good. It relaxes you."
"What do you need to relax from? You don't do anything."
"From stress."
"What's stress?"
"What's stress?" Paul said. "Hmm. Well. You know when you see another dog coming toward you on the sidewalk, and he looks big and mean with his fur on the back of his neck, so you get the fur up on the back of your neck too?"
"Horripilation."
"That's stress."
"Oh." She watched him as he swallowed. "So is there a big dog somewhere nearby or something?"
"No," Paul said. "That was just an example for you. Human beings have a lot of other things that stress us out."
"Like what things? You're lying in a tub of hot, soapy water, doing nothing as far as I can tell."
"Like stuff that happens. During the day. So people who have stressful days come home and get themselves a drink to unwind."
"After the big dog has gone away."
"Right."
"Wouldn't it make more sense to drink before the big dog gets to you?"
"I suppose."
"I mean, after the big dog is gone, where's the stress?"
"You have a good point," Paul said. "That's the difference between you and me. For you, when the big dog goes away, your fur goes back down and you forget all about it. People keep our fur up long after the big dog goes away."
"Why?"
"Because we're more highly evolved."
Stella had to think a moment.
"You know, the more you tell me about evolution, the less I understand it. Evolution means improvement, right?"
"Right."
"So thinking a big dog is there, when in fact there's no big dog there, is an improvement?"
"Not in and of itself," Paul said. "But we have a better long-term memory than you do. That's an improvement, but it makes it harder for us to forget the big dogs we run into every day."
"And that's why people drink?"
"Some."
. . . .
"I don't know," Stella said. "Because you don't seem very happy. Especially not when you're drunk. Then you seem really sad. Is feeling sad feeling more like yourself?"
Forward or Back?
"If you had a time machine, where would you go? Forward or back?"
Pretzel Logic
The future was easier for her to believe in, except that it was a fantasy.
_____
______
He drew a deep, slow breath and focused on the beating of his own heart until a freight train split the night silence, blasting toward Brattleboro, making the house shake. He wondered who was driving the train and whether they were headed toward home or away from home. Did the engineer know where love goes when it dies, or how it was possible that hummingbirds can cross the ocean while words can fail to fly half a pillow's distance?
Time
It didn't matter if he thought about the past, the present, or the future, because each bore a particular kind of sadness. The past seemed the safest place to dwell, but it was like swimming in a river flowing unstoppably into the now and the next, neither of which held much joy or promise.
When
The leaves turned yellow and orange and red, then dropped from the trees. The wind blew the leaves up and down the streets of Northampton, past the Smith girls wrapping themselves in more layers of clothing each day, past the black-clad crow babies furtively slipping one another controlled substances in shadowed doorways, past the sidewalk glad-handers and street-corner preachers, pas the shopkeepers eyeballing and thumbnailing their storefront windows in advance of Christmas, pas the cars with their bumper stickers, past the houses and the factories, and out into the autumn landscape. The November rains fell as if they would never stop, and the roads turned slick and sharkskin shiny. The days grew short, and the nights long, as the stars slowly wheeled into their winter positions.
Every Mother's Child is Gonna Spy
Paul remembered seeing O-Rings in bars around town and thinking, "Boy, that guy has a problem - every time I go to a bar, he's there." It had eventually dawned on him that seeing O-Rings in a bar meant that he was in a bar too.
_______
He suddenly realized what should have been obvious. All his friends were alcoholics. All of them were flawed and human and pathetic in their own way, all of them determined to keep the party of their lives going, all lost in their own small universe, their personal quest for the next best time, the next happy hour or happy minute or happy moment, and they were good people, and he loved them and wished them well, but they weren't part of his world anymore. More to the point, everything in Paul's new world was changing, and nothing in this world was.
I Thought You Were Dead
______
". . . the future is open ended."
"This is really huge, then," he said. He felt like those people who reported near-death experiences, where suddenly a while light beckons at the end of a tunnel, except that in this case it wasn't the hereafter waiting beyond the portal - it was the here and now.
random unplaced quotes
"How goes the struggle?" he asked Paul, wielding his chopsticks expertly while Paul used a fork. "Still working into the wee small ones? What's the new project? One of those Idiot books, right?"
"Morons," Paul corrected him. "The Idiot books are a bit more technical than ours."
"Those Idiot books are a great gimmick. What's this one about?"
"Nature."
"Nature for Morons?" Carl said. "God, are you perfect for that."
_____
He was five foot eleven, with decent posture, standing up, but with a tendency to slouch when he was sitting down, particularly in movie theaters, where he was usually quite uncomfortable, mostly owing to his not having an ass. He wished he could say he'd worked it off, better yet that he'd laughed it off, or lost it in Vegas, but the sad fact was that he'd been born without one, part of his heritage. For centuries, his Viking ancestors had rowed boats across the wine-dark seas of the North Atlantic seated on hard wooden planks - no doubt it was a question of erosion more than of genetics or evolution.
In compensation for his hereditary asslessness, he had decent looking legs, though a bit bowed. His feet were well shaped but his little toes turned in and tended to grow calluses and to blister if his socks were too thin. Structurally, his left leg was sound but his right knee was shot . . .
_____
"He took me to a Celine Dion concert."
"Oh, no," Paul said, feeling more optimistic. "I'm so sorry."
"It gets worse. For her encore, she brought up Michael Bolton for a special guest duet. They don't have that much cheese in all of Wisconsin."
_____
"Humans and dogs had learned to love one another, in a way that no other two species have ever learned to love one another. Out of all the other animals on the planet, there's never been another example of two species that decided to love one another."
"Not cats either."
"No, not cats," Paul said. "People love cats and cats certainly enjoy people, but cats don't lay down their lives and die for people the way dogs do. Cat's don't swim out into lakes and pull drowning children ashore, or run into burning buildings, or leap into the darkness when they hear a threatening noise. And if a person dies in a cabin in the woods, and there's a cat in the cabin with him, the cat will eat the human's dead body rather than starve to death, but a dog would starve to death too, rather than betray the friendship. Some people say that makes cats smarter, but I say that makes dogs better."
"So if you died, I couldn't eat you?"
"You wouldn't want to"
_____
"Are you all right? You seem sort of quiet."
"I'm good," he said. "Maybe I just used to be louder."
_____
The sky was a mat of slate, but there was no wind.
"I hate running into the wind," Paul told Carl. "It feels lie the whole universe is against me."
"What makes you so sure it's not?" Carl said, smiling.
A beautiful, sweet story filled with humor and wisdom. The relationships presented in this novel are emotionally connected to the reader. I loved the conversations that Paul has with his dog, Stella and the subtitle A Love Story . I Thought You Were Dead is indeed a love story in more than one aspect.
I like how the author points out that he is not the Pete Nelson who writes books about treehouses. I also happen to own Treehouses of the World by that other Pete Nelson.
I am very happy to have read this book. This was among the interesting books I bought when Borders closed in 2011. I now own both a printed hardcover copy and an audio book.
Read in 2014, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2024
Related Work: Anna Karenina
Favorite Passages:
Two of Them Going Nowhere
"I'm home," Paul said, letting himself in and closing the door to keep out the cold.
"I thought you were dead," the dog said. Her name was Stella, and she was a mixed breed, half German shepherd and half yellow Labrador, but favoring the latter in appearance. . .
Stella had no sense of permanence and therefore assumed Paul was dead whenever he was out of sight, hearing, or smell.
_____
"Just thinking," Paul said. "If you could be a vegetable, what vegetable would you be?"
"Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?"
"There's been some debate. Why would you be a tomato?"
"To get next to all those hamburgers," the dog said.
"But if you were a tomato, you wouldn't want to eat hamburger."
"Of course I would. Why would I change, just because I'm a tomato?"
"You'd want tomato food. This has got to be the stupidest conversation we've ever had," Paul said.
"Actually, this is fairly typical," the dog said.
_____
"I'm just a bowl of Iams to you, aren't I? That's all I am."
"You're more than a bowl of food, Paul. You're a dish of water too. You even pick up my shit." Sometimes she'd crap in the middle of the sidewalk downtown and turn and say, "Be a dear and get that, would you, Paul?"
_____
How difficult it was now to remember her siblings. She could remember running wild through the weeds, usually last in the order, but it never bothered her to be last, as long as she had someone to run with. She remembered a farm and, vaguely, a fat man playing the banjo in the twilight, singing:
What you gonna do when the liquor runs out, sweet thing?
What you gonna do when the liquor runs out, sweet thing?
What you gonna do when the liquor runs out?
Stand around the corner with your mouth in a pout,
Sweet thing, sweet thing, sweet thing.
Come Home, Waffle Belly
Brrzzlfft!
"Is she divorced?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't want to see someone who wasn't."
King Carl
She looked puzzled.
"These," Paul said, reaching across again and grabbing Stella's fur behind her collar.
"That's my neck," she said.
"Hackles are the feathers on a chicken's neck."
"Do I look like a chicken to you?"
_____
"It's human nature. You just always think you want more. And then you get more and that makes you want more still. It's better to be content with what you have."
Exile in Beersville
"What kind of shitty son doesn't know when his own father's birthday is? I'll bet he knows when yours is."
"Well, he was there when I was born," Paul said. "If I was there when he was born, I'd probably remember too."
_____
"Cash always makes for a thoughtful gift. Just so you know."
The Secret Life of Jimmy Carter
"I'd like to report a dog - it's not doing anything, but it made me really happy just to look at it . . ."
_______
"What does it feel like?" she asked.
"What does what feel like?"
"Drinking. I'm just curious."
"It feels good. It relaxes you."
"What do you need to relax from? You don't do anything."
"From stress."
"What's stress?"
"What's stress?" Paul said. "Hmm. Well. You know when you see another dog coming toward you on the sidewalk, and he looks big and mean with his fur on the back of his neck, so you get the fur up on the back of your neck too?"
"Horripilation."
"That's stress."
"Oh." She watched him as he swallowed. "So is there a big dog somewhere nearby or something?"
"No," Paul said. "That was just an example for you. Human beings have a lot of other things that stress us out."
"Like what things? You're lying in a tub of hot, soapy water, doing nothing as far as I can tell."
"Like stuff that happens. During the day. So people who have stressful days come home and get themselves a drink to unwind."
"After the big dog has gone away."
"Right."
"Wouldn't it make more sense to drink before the big dog gets to you?"
"I suppose."
"I mean, after the big dog is gone, where's the stress?"
"You have a good point," Paul said. "That's the difference between you and me. For you, when the big dog goes away, your fur goes back down and you forget all about it. People keep our fur up long after the big dog goes away."
"Why?"
"Because we're more highly evolved."
Stella had to think a moment.
"You know, the more you tell me about evolution, the less I understand it. Evolution means improvement, right?"
"Right."
"So thinking a big dog is there, when in fact there's no big dog there, is an improvement?"
"Not in and of itself," Paul said. "But we have a better long-term memory than you do. That's an improvement, but it makes it harder for us to forget the big dogs we run into every day."
"And that's why people drink?"
"Some."
. . . .
"I don't know," Stella said. "Because you don't seem very happy. Especially not when you're drunk. Then you seem really sad. Is feeling sad feeling more like yourself?"
Forward or Back?
"If you had a time machine, where would you go? Forward or back?"
Pretzel Logic
The future was easier for her to believe in, except that it was a fantasy.
_____
______
He drew a deep, slow breath and focused on the beating of his own heart until a freight train split the night silence, blasting toward Brattleboro, making the house shake. He wondered who was driving the train and whether they were headed toward home or away from home. Did the engineer know where love goes when it dies, or how it was possible that hummingbirds can cross the ocean while words can fail to fly half a pillow's distance?
Time
It didn't matter if he thought about the past, the present, or the future, because each bore a particular kind of sadness. The past seemed the safest place to dwell, but it was like swimming in a river flowing unstoppably into the now and the next, neither of which held much joy or promise.
When
The leaves turned yellow and orange and red, then dropped from the trees. The wind blew the leaves up and down the streets of Northampton, past the Smith girls wrapping themselves in more layers of clothing each day, past the black-clad crow babies furtively slipping one another controlled substances in shadowed doorways, past the sidewalk glad-handers and street-corner preachers, pas the shopkeepers eyeballing and thumbnailing their storefront windows in advance of Christmas, pas the cars with their bumper stickers, past the houses and the factories, and out into the autumn landscape. The November rains fell as if they would never stop, and the roads turned slick and sharkskin shiny. The days grew short, and the nights long, as the stars slowly wheeled into their winter positions.
Every Mother's Child is Gonna Spy
Paul remembered seeing O-Rings in bars around town and thinking, "Boy, that guy has a problem - every time I go to a bar, he's there." It had eventually dawned on him that seeing O-Rings in a bar meant that he was in a bar too.
_______
He suddenly realized what should have been obvious. All his friends were alcoholics. All of them were flawed and human and pathetic in their own way, all of them determined to keep the party of their lives going, all lost in their own small universe, their personal quest for the next best time, the next happy hour or happy minute or happy moment, and they were good people, and he loved them and wished them well, but they weren't part of his world anymore. More to the point, everything in Paul's new world was changing, and nothing in this world was.
I Thought You Were Dead
______
". . . the future is open ended."
"This is really huge, then," he said. He felt like those people who reported near-death experiences, where suddenly a while light beckons at the end of a tunnel, except that in this case it wasn't the hereafter waiting beyond the portal - it was the here and now.
random unplaced quotes
"How goes the struggle?" he asked Paul, wielding his chopsticks expertly while Paul used a fork. "Still working into the wee small ones? What's the new project? One of those Idiot books, right?"
"Morons," Paul corrected him. "The Idiot books are a bit more technical than ours."
"Those Idiot books are a great gimmick. What's this one about?"
"Nature."
"Nature for Morons?" Carl said. "God, are you perfect for that."
_____
He was five foot eleven, with decent posture, standing up, but with a tendency to slouch when he was sitting down, particularly in movie theaters, where he was usually quite uncomfortable, mostly owing to his not having an ass. He wished he could say he'd worked it off, better yet that he'd laughed it off, or lost it in Vegas, but the sad fact was that he'd been born without one, part of his heritage. For centuries, his Viking ancestors had rowed boats across the wine-dark seas of the North Atlantic seated on hard wooden planks - no doubt it was a question of erosion more than of genetics or evolution.
In compensation for his hereditary asslessness, he had decent looking legs, though a bit bowed. His feet were well shaped but his little toes turned in and tended to grow calluses and to blister if his socks were too thin. Structurally, his left leg was sound but his right knee was shot . . .
_____
"He took me to a Celine Dion concert."
"Oh, no," Paul said, feeling more optimistic. "I'm so sorry."
"It gets worse. For her encore, she brought up Michael Bolton for a special guest duet. They don't have that much cheese in all of Wisconsin."
_____
"Humans and dogs had learned to love one another, in a way that no other two species have ever learned to love one another. Out of all the other animals on the planet, there's never been another example of two species that decided to love one another."
"Not cats either."
"No, not cats," Paul said. "People love cats and cats certainly enjoy people, but cats don't lay down their lives and die for people the way dogs do. Cat's don't swim out into lakes and pull drowning children ashore, or run into burning buildings, or leap into the darkness when they hear a threatening noise. And if a person dies in a cabin in the woods, and there's a cat in the cabin with him, the cat will eat the human's dead body rather than starve to death, but a dog would starve to death too, rather than betray the friendship. Some people say that makes cats smarter, but I say that makes dogs better."
"So if you died, I couldn't eat you?"
"You wouldn't want to"
_____
"Are you all right? You seem sort of quiet."
"I'm good," he said. "Maybe I just used to be louder."
_____
The sky was a mat of slate, but there was no wind.
"I hate running into the wind," Paul told Carl. "It feels lie the whole universe is against me."
"What makes you so sure it's not?" Carl said, smiling.
August 17, 2011
There's a growing glut of anthropomorphic books narrated by dogs or featuring dogs carrying on human conversations. This is one of them. But, fortunately, this low-key novel is more than just that gimmick, which quickly moves from center stage to become a background element describing a man's journey in recovering from his divorce, alcoholism and damaged relationships with his family. The novel won't knock your socks off, but Nelson's writing is clear and taut and, despite the smart and conversant dog, it has the feel of authenticity.
May 15, 2015
Every once in awhile, one finds a book that speaks to them. It's not advertising hype that made one pick it up and read it. Just a quiet little innocuous book with a dog on the front. So maybe it was the dog that made me pick up this book. It's not about the dog tho, it's about relationships. Paul is recently divorced and is sharing his girlfriend, reluctantly, with Stephen. Paul's father has had a debilitating stroke and his older brother still intimidates him as tho he were still a pre-teen. His friends are all bar flies and Paul himself is no stranger to alcohol. And his best friend is Stella, a dog who talks to him, gives him advice and knows him so well. The story was hysterical, cunning, heart-breaking and memorable.
June 28, 2010
I was reading The Passage by Justin Cronin and needed a break from it's intensity so I picked up I Thought You Were Dead by Pete Nelson. It's a one sitting read and really, just a nice story, great for a hot Sunday afternoon. If you're looking for something sweet and non-threatening this book will fill the bill. It's a love story, written by a male author, which in in itself is a bit unusual. Nelson competes well with his female competition and can be proud of his effort in this genre.
Paul Gustavson is a divorced writer, author of a series of books called "for morons". His father has suffered a stroke and Paul doesn't know how to deal with this. He still hasn't come to terms with family issues, particularly rivalry with his older brother. He's met a woman who is seeing him and another guy, not helping his ego. The only thing really going for him is his love and poignant relationship with his dog, Stella. She is his one true friend, loyal to a fault. Stella is a remarkable character and you can't help loving her too. This is a story of losing oneself and then finding that self once again. It's an easy read but not benign. I liked it.
Paul Gustavson is a divorced writer, author of a series of books called "for morons". His father has suffered a stroke and Paul doesn't know how to deal with this. He still hasn't come to terms with family issues, particularly rivalry with his older brother. He's met a woman who is seeing him and another guy, not helping his ego. The only thing really going for him is his love and poignant relationship with his dog, Stella. She is his one true friend, loyal to a fault. Stella is a remarkable character and you can't help loving her too. This is a story of losing oneself and then finding that self once again. It's an easy read but not benign. I liked it.
September 12, 2015
Quando a Crise bate à Porta:
À boca dos "entas" Paul vê a sua vida invadida de problemas: é o divórcio, é o pai gravemente doente, é a namorada que anda com outro, é a sua tendência para procurar conforto na bebida...
Enfim, é a crise dos quarenta a bater-lhe à porta!
Mas nem tudo é mau na vida de Paul.
Stella, um misto de Labrador e Pastor Alemão é o seu Sol de cada dia!
Está lá sempre, ouve-o, conforta-o e aconselha-o, guiando os seus passos na direcção certa.
Ao que parece, quando a crise nos visita , dá um certo jeito ter um cão para lhe apontar a saída...
À boca dos "entas" Paul vê a sua vida invadida de problemas: é o divórcio, é o pai gravemente doente, é a namorada que anda com outro, é a sua tendência para procurar conforto na bebida...
Enfim, é a crise dos quarenta a bater-lhe à porta!
Mas nem tudo é mau na vida de Paul.
Stella, um misto de Labrador e Pastor Alemão é o seu Sol de cada dia!
Está lá sempre, ouve-o, conforta-o e aconselha-o, guiando os seus passos na direcção certa.
Ao que parece, quando a crise nos visita , dá um certo jeito ter um cão para lhe apontar a saída...
June 9, 2011
So far so good, then again, I talk to my dog, too. I think he talks back.
Wonderful novel. Simply wonderful.
Take page 133, one of my favorite moments in the novel:
"What did the Zen masters do at a time like this? Did their hearts break like everyone else's? Did they drive by their ex's new house at two in the morning? . . . He wondered who was driving the train and whether they were headed toward home or away from home. Did the engineer know where love goes when it dies or how it was possible that hummingbirds can cross the ocean while words can fail to fly half a pillow's distance? And on those cold winter nights when snow obscured the tracks, did he ever lose faith? That the rails would still be there, that the bridges would hold, that there really was a Vermont, that there really was a train, and that the clickety-clack he heard wasn't just the sound of his own heart, moving away from him in the night. growing fainter and fainter, beat by beat."
I sobbed at his father's needing absolution from his own father, and Stella's passing. And I cheered at Paul's recovery from himself.
A must read for writers, poets, those who've been in love and abandoned, those who've hit the bottle a few times too hard or lost a pet they loved as much as life. It's a particularly good read if you're in a state of recovery from being abandoned.
But I didn't like the ending. That felt exactly like something an editor would want you to do, to tidy things up. I did like the wonderment, the hope at the end with the dogtracks. For some reason, I wanted him to leave New England and go back home to stay, to work on his recovery with his father's recovery and then have it end with his decision to stay.
Wonderful novel. Simply wonderful.
Take page 133, one of my favorite moments in the novel:
"What did the Zen masters do at a time like this? Did their hearts break like everyone else's? Did they drive by their ex's new house at two in the morning? . . . He wondered who was driving the train and whether they were headed toward home or away from home. Did the engineer know where love goes when it dies or how it was possible that hummingbirds can cross the ocean while words can fail to fly half a pillow's distance? And on those cold winter nights when snow obscured the tracks, did he ever lose faith? That the rails would still be there, that the bridges would hold, that there really was a Vermont, that there really was a train, and that the clickety-clack he heard wasn't just the sound of his own heart, moving away from him in the night. growing fainter and fainter, beat by beat."
I sobbed at his father's needing absolution from his own father, and Stella's passing. And I cheered at Paul's recovery from himself.
A must read for writers, poets, those who've been in love and abandoned, those who've hit the bottle a few times too hard or lost a pet they loved as much as life. It's a particularly good read if you're in a state of recovery from being abandoned.
But I didn't like the ending. That felt exactly like something an editor would want you to do, to tidy things up. I did like the wonderment, the hope at the end with the dogtracks. For some reason, I wanted him to leave New England and go back home to stay, to work on his recovery with his father's recovery and then have it end with his decision to stay.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2010
SO many factors into picking up this book - first you cannot discount the cover. The cover is simple and irresistable. Second, pretty much any book about dogs has me hooked. And third, the main human can talk to his dog?! I couldn't wait to devour this book!
Paul is a single divorced guy, average joe, a writer and doesn't give himself enough credit for his ability, but he's got a wonderful friend named Stella. She, as in most dogs, understands him better than he does himself. Paul's life is thrown for a loop when his father has a massive stroke and he goes home to see the family. Paul's other relationships are also discussed, the bottle, a sporadic girlfriend that chooses to yank him around more than actually give him a serious relationship. As Paul's relationship with his father comes to a head after the stroke, he finds some serious clarity in his life.
I simply loved this book. I loved how the book flowed, the conversations between Paul and the dog weren't overembellished. There were no sci-fi factors into their discussions or explanations of how it even happens. It's just a given: Paul and Stella the dog can talk to each other and understand each other, no matter what. I liked how Pete Nelson wrapped up things with Stella, Paul's father, Paul's brother and the rest of the family. Ok ok and I liked how he wrapped up the relationship with the girlfriend too. There was nothing overdramatic or unbelievable about the conclusion. It was simple, peaceful and left me content as I had just finished a wonderful story from a great new writer I haven't yet discovered!
Paul is a single divorced guy, average joe, a writer and doesn't give himself enough credit for his ability, but he's got a wonderful friend named Stella. She, as in most dogs, understands him better than he does himself. Paul's life is thrown for a loop when his father has a massive stroke and he goes home to see the family. Paul's other relationships are also discussed, the bottle, a sporadic girlfriend that chooses to yank him around more than actually give him a serious relationship. As Paul's relationship with his father comes to a head after the stroke, he finds some serious clarity in his life.
I simply loved this book. I loved how the book flowed, the conversations between Paul and the dog weren't overembellished. There were no sci-fi factors into their discussions or explanations of how it even happens. It's just a given: Paul and Stella the dog can talk to each other and understand each other, no matter what. I liked how Pete Nelson wrapped up things with Stella, Paul's father, Paul's brother and the rest of the family. Ok ok and I liked how he wrapped up the relationship with the girlfriend too. There was nothing overdramatic or unbelievable about the conclusion. It was simple, peaceful and left me content as I had just finished a wonderful story from a great new writer I haven't yet discovered!
May 10, 2012
Sempre tive uma estranha fobia a cães. Nunca fui mordida por nenhum, mas também a probabilidade de isso acontecer era muito baixa visto eu nem sequer me aproximar deles. E quando me aproximava fugia! Até que uma cadela me fez mudar isso. E me conquistou! E este livro fez-me pensar nisso. Fez-me pensar no bem que nos faz termos uma amizade com um animal de estimação que parece que nos ouve e que nos compreende e que está sempre lá quer estejamos felizes, tristes ou cansados. A história é linda e tem aquela mensagem de que todos nós somos bons em alguma coisa, todos nós merecemos ser felizes e um dia, mesmo que hoje pareça impossível, a vida nos dará grandes surpresas!
August 24, 2010
I Thought You Were Dead; Pete Nelson
(a WONDERFUL audio book experience)
Paul Gustavson's life seems to be going in the wrong direction. Paul's a writer of the "For Morons" series; his wife has divorced him, his girlfriend is seeing someone else, his sex life has more downs than ups due to recent impotence problems, and his father has suffered a serious stroke.
Depressed, he eats too much junk food, is getting seriously out of shape, drinks a little too much, and spends a little too much time in a dirty, smelly bar called The Bay State, located in western Massachusetts. Even his dog Stella thinks this bar is too dirty and smelly to spend time in.
You see Stella, is Paul's aging Lab and Shepard mix dog; she is wise beyond her years, and has a masterful vocabulary. A dog with amazing insight and sensitivity, Paul's furry therapist of sorts, discusses issues about, relationships, life, death, and whether dogs are smarter than wolves. Stella's insight, is exactly what Paul needs when he is feeling lonely, unloved and depressed. And, it is Stella that causes Paul to get his life back on track, and to sort out his life and mend his relationships with his father, brother and find joy in life once again.
MY THOUGHTS - Josh Clark is the most amazing reader. Your heart will melt as you listen to Stella's calming dog voice. It is pitch-perfect, and it is the banter between Paul and Stella that makes this book so special. I think this book would be good if you chose to read the print version, but if you enjoy audio books -- seek this one out. Dog lover or not, it is a story to be enjoyed -- funny, touching, heartfelt and memorable. DON'T MISS IT!
(a WONDERFUL audio book experience)
Paul Gustavson's life seems to be going in the wrong direction. Paul's a writer of the "For Morons" series; his wife has divorced him, his girlfriend is seeing someone else, his sex life has more downs than ups due to recent impotence problems, and his father has suffered a serious stroke.
Depressed, he eats too much junk food, is getting seriously out of shape, drinks a little too much, and spends a little too much time in a dirty, smelly bar called The Bay State, located in western Massachusetts. Even his dog Stella thinks this bar is too dirty and smelly to spend time in.
You see Stella, is Paul's aging Lab and Shepard mix dog; she is wise beyond her years, and has a masterful vocabulary. A dog with amazing insight and sensitivity, Paul's furry therapist of sorts, discusses issues about, relationships, life, death, and whether dogs are smarter than wolves. Stella's insight, is exactly what Paul needs when he is feeling lonely, unloved and depressed. And, it is Stella that causes Paul to get his life back on track, and to sort out his life and mend his relationships with his father, brother and find joy in life once again.
MY THOUGHTS - Josh Clark is the most amazing reader. Your heart will melt as you listen to Stella's calming dog voice. It is pitch-perfect, and it is the banter between Paul and Stella that makes this book so special. I think this book would be good if you chose to read the print version, but if you enjoy audio books -- seek this one out. Dog lover or not, it is a story to be enjoyed -- funny, touching, heartfelt and memorable. DON'T MISS IT!
August 24, 2011
Paul is kind of a sad sack. He drinks too much, he can't seem to make his love life work, and he has awkward relationships with his father and brother. The only thing really going for Paul, is his dog Stella.
Nelson asks the reader to accept the fact that Stella and Paul have two-way conversations. Not like the conversations in Kerasote's "Merle's Door", where the author supposes what Merle is trying to tell him, but actual conversations where Paul talks to Stella and she talks back.
Stella is the steady voice of reason in Paul's life, and the conversations between the two of them are the best parts of this book, and where it really shines. Nelson's prose is easy reading, but I found the first third of the book to be just too full of info dumps (blocks of text that explain the backgrounds of people or situations) but once all the groundwork was laid, the book was quite enjoyable.
The unfolding of Paul's relationship with his dad is touching, and a testament to how little most of us understand about our parents.
Throughout the story, Paul struggles with his love relationship, which is a confusing 3-person situation. (not confusing to the reader, but confusing to Paul). I so wanted him to dump the girl, because even though Nelson presents her as a no-nonsense fair-minded person who marches to her own drummer; I saw the character as a game player messing with Paul's head, and I wished the drummer she was marching to would knock her upside the head with his sticks.
Nelson asks the reader to accept the fact that Stella and Paul have two-way conversations. Not like the conversations in Kerasote's "Merle's Door", where the author supposes what Merle is trying to tell him, but actual conversations where Paul talks to Stella and she talks back.
Stella is the steady voice of reason in Paul's life, and the conversations between the two of them are the best parts of this book, and where it really shines. Nelson's prose is easy reading, but I found the first third of the book to be just too full of info dumps (blocks of text that explain the backgrounds of people or situations) but once all the groundwork was laid, the book was quite enjoyable.
The unfolding of Paul's relationship with his dad is touching, and a testament to how little most of us understand about our parents.
Throughout the story, Paul struggles with his love relationship, which is a confusing 3-person situation. (not confusing to the reader, but confusing to Paul). I so wanted him to dump the girl, because even though Nelson presents her as a no-nonsense fair-minded person who marches to her own drummer; I saw the character as a game player messing with Paul's head, and I wished the drummer she was marching to would knock her upside the head with his sticks.
March 29, 2012
Why I wanted to read it: Since I've decided to dive into audio books this year, I have been religiously (seriously) going through Diane (Bibliophile by the Sea) and JoAnn's (Lakeside Musing) past posts about their favorite books they've listened to. Both of these wonderful ladies write such thoughtful and well constructed reviews and they have not steered me wrong. I picked this one from Diane's blog because I'm a huge dog lover and thought the whole concept of a dog being able to communicate with its owner was so very clever!
Source: Purchased from Audible.com
I loved the narrator on this audio. He did such a great job of delivering Paul's voice and making him at times sound so sad, and then so very pathetic! I also thought he nailed Stella's character perfectly. She just came across to me as a dog with huge personality. I believed it when Stella spoke and what came out of her mouth had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion.
At first glance this book could really sound dumb...I mean talking dog and all, right? That is so not the case. This is such a touching story and I cried on more than one occasion. It's really all about the human experience of love, loss, family, forgiveness, and moving on.
I found myself rooting for Paul and I loved how he tried to reach out and have a relationship with his father even though it was via IM on the computer and his father was limited in answering yes or no to Paul's questions.
Stella is an old soul. I loved her so much...her story made me cry.
This was one of the best audio experiences I've had to date and the story itself was wonderfully articulated by Josh Clark. I loved listening to this one daily and I honestly didn't want the story to come to an end. If you're looking for great audios, do yourself a HUGE favor and visit Diane and JoAnn's blogs. You will not be disappointed!
Source: Purchased from Audible.com
I loved the narrator on this audio. He did such a great job of delivering Paul's voice and making him at times sound so sad, and then so very pathetic! I also thought he nailed Stella's character perfectly. She just came across to me as a dog with huge personality. I believed it when Stella spoke and what came out of her mouth had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion.
At first glance this book could really sound dumb...I mean talking dog and all, right? That is so not the case. This is such a touching story and I cried on more than one occasion. It's really all about the human experience of love, loss, family, forgiveness, and moving on.
I found myself rooting for Paul and I loved how he tried to reach out and have a relationship with his father even though it was via IM on the computer and his father was limited in answering yes or no to Paul's questions.
Stella is an old soul. I loved her so much...her story made me cry.
This was one of the best audio experiences I've had to date and the story itself was wonderfully articulated by Josh Clark. I loved listening to this one daily and I honestly didn't want the story to come to an end. If you're looking for great audios, do yourself a HUGE favor and visit Diane and JoAnn's blogs. You will not be disappointed!
May 9, 2013
I really enjoyed this book.
I thought the story was going to be all about Paul and his dog, but it was much more than that. It was about family and the complicated relationships we all have in our life. It's about dealing with decisions we have made and have to make and it's about making changes in our life that we know we had to make, but either ignore our inner thoughts or are too lazy to do the right thing.
I have had a dog in my home for the past 17 years. Stella reminded me of my yellow lab who gave everyone he met a warm welcome and left them knowing that he loved them. The idea of a talking dog seemed silly at first. But as a dog lover, Pete nailed it. His writing was so true to what I think a dog would say. While writing this, I hear my 18 year son talking to our Golden Doodle ~ wonder what he said back. (:
I thought the story was going to be all about Paul and his dog, but it was much more than that. It was about family and the complicated relationships we all have in our life. It's about dealing with decisions we have made and have to make and it's about making changes in our life that we know we had to make, but either ignore our inner thoughts or are too lazy to do the right thing.
I have had a dog in my home for the past 17 years. Stella reminded me of my yellow lab who gave everyone he met a warm welcome and left them knowing that he loved them. The idea of a talking dog seemed silly at first. But as a dog lover, Pete nailed it. His writing was so true to what I think a dog would say. While writing this, I hear my 18 year son talking to our Golden Doodle ~ wonder what he said back. (:
August 21, 2015
Fuer hermoso.
Jamás había leído un libro con un personaje tan egoísta, egocentrico y adicto que fuera tan agradable.
Por supuesto ame su relación con Stella. Creo que todos los que tenemos mascotas podemos comprender ese amor incondicional, por supuesto fui un mar de lagrimas.
La mejor forma de resumir el libro es con esta cita:
"...te quiero por tu sentido del humor y tu ingenio y porque tienes esa rara mezcla de tristeza y optimismo y ensimismamiento y desprendimiento y locura y seriedad, y no sé porque más. hay tres millones de cosas y ninguna razón verdadera. te quiero por el modo como ves las cosas. por cómo me tratas. me encanta lo educado que intentas ser. me encanta lo dulces que son tus miradas. me encanta lo leal que eres con tus amigos. me encanta cómo te portas con tu perra..."
Jamás había leído un libro con un personaje tan egoísta, egocentrico y adicto que fuera tan agradable.
Por supuesto ame su relación con Stella. Creo que todos los que tenemos mascotas podemos comprender ese amor incondicional, por supuesto fui un mar de lagrimas.
La mejor forma de resumir el libro es con esta cita:
"...te quiero por tu sentido del humor y tu ingenio y porque tienes esa rara mezcla de tristeza y optimismo y ensimismamiento y desprendimiento y locura y seriedad, y no sé porque más. hay tres millones de cosas y ninguna razón verdadera. te quiero por el modo como ves las cosas. por cómo me tratas. me encanta lo educado que intentas ser. me encanta lo dulces que son tus miradas. me encanta lo leal que eres con tus amigos. me encanta cómo te portas con tu perra..."
April 22, 2015
This book, I Thought You Were Dead is about relationships, family-brothers, sisters, mom and dad, relationships with friends, male and female, and best of all the very intimate conversations with his dog. Novel is written from a mans' pov and he receives advice from his dog. This interaction is like non other. His dog listens and the man actually understands and takes to heart what his dog is saying. His dog Stella is above all his best friend. Stella is old and Paul is very aware of the needs of his friend. He is there for her though all that life has to offer. At times the book is sad but in a good way. It will make you think and re-examine the various conversations you have with everyone in your life. And sometimes realize how easy it is to misunderstand what is being said, done and why.
April 18, 2023
Paul is a divorced man at loose ends who drinks too much, has too little self-confidence, and to add to that, his father has just suffered a stroke and his beloved dog Stella is on her last legs. Oh, I almost forgot--his girlfriend has two boyfriends, of which Paul is only one. Things just aren't going well for Paul.
Stella the dog talks. It isn't explained whether she actually speaks, or if this is what Paul thinks she would say, or what, but it really doesn't matter. Stella is a good hearted (because, dog!) sidekick and wise advisor to Paul. For his part, he carries her when she needs him too, and he does everything to make sure she is well and happy.
A lot happens and Paul is faced with dilemmas and choices. You'll root for him. But many times this book just broke my heart, too. The title comes from Stella thinking Paul is dead any time he is gone from the house. She greets him accordingly with unrestrained joy when he returns, each time. You'll love her. Whether you'll love this novel or not depends on how much your heart can take, I guess. I loved it, but it made me bawl, too.
Stella the dog talks. It isn't explained whether she actually speaks, or if this is what Paul thinks she would say, or what, but it really doesn't matter. Stella is a good hearted (because, dog!) sidekick and wise advisor to Paul. For his part, he carries her when she needs him too, and he does everything to make sure she is well and happy.
A lot happens and Paul is faced with dilemmas and choices. You'll root for him. But many times this book just broke my heart, too. The title comes from Stella thinking Paul is dead any time he is gone from the house. She greets him accordingly with unrestrained joy when he returns, each time. You'll love her. Whether you'll love this novel or not depends on how much your heart can take, I guess. I loved it, but it made me bawl, too.
January 22, 2019
A small book about a love story. Written with humor, compassion and understanding this book describes the author’s life and the conversations he has with his dog, Stella. Very enjoyable read.
October 13, 2024
A bit of a slow start but it's a story where the character grows and I liked how it resolved
January 18, 2024
A very enjoyable and satisfying read.
January 10, 2023
I loved this book. Matter of fact, I may change my rating to 5-stars, which I don't do often. It's heart-warming, sad, happy, and ultimately uplifting. You look at the cover and think- oh good, another book about a dog. But that's just a fraction of what this is all about. Give it a shot- it's well worth it!
April 26, 2010
Your dog talks to you. I know she does. I've caught you talking to your dog and some of you are downright shameless when it comes to the things your dogs will say! We should all have a dog like Stella, a wise old gal, part lab, part shepherd.
They say a dog's love is unconditional, which is what makes them man's best friend. What if his dog were a man's only true friend?
For Paul Gustavson, a hack writer for the wildly popular For Morons series, life is a succession of obstacles. His wife has left him, his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, his girlfriend is dating another man, he has impotency issues, and his overachieving brother invested his parents' money in stocks that tanked. Still, Paul has his friends at Bay State bar, a steady line of cocktails, and a new pair of running shoes (he's promised himself to get in shape). And then there's Stella, the one constant in his life, who give him sage advice, doesn't judge him, and gives him unconditional love. However, Stella won't accompany Paul into his favorite dive bar. "I'll roll on dead carp, I'll even eat cat turds, but that place grosses me out." Stella, you see, is Paul's aging Lab-shepherd mix, and she knows Paul better than he know himself.
"I thought you were dead," is what Stella says when Paul comes home late, which he is more often than not.
At first, I thought I was reading a book about an average man having a mid-life crisis. Why in heaven's name was I reading this? Oh, that's right, ROB told me it was brilliant. Really, Rob? Middle aged man having trouble getting it up? You matched ME to this book? I trust in Rob's book-matching skills, so I persevered. Actually, I wasn't able to give up on it, no matter how I tried, something was tugging at me to keep reading.
At a certain point, I realized that I was reading a book about love, friendship, and family. It all sneaks up on you instead of hitting you in the face, which makes it all the more clever. Only upon reflection did I appreciate the brilliance of the work. This man, Paul Gustavson, can't talk to anyone - doesn't know what to say to his ex-wife, struggles with IMing his father after he suffered a stroke, and stumbles through conversations with his shared girlfriend. The only open and honest conversations he has are with Stella, his dog. Stella, good dog that she is, talks back, gives him good advice, and calls him out when he's being a schmuck. She knows when he's lying to himself, and doesn't let him get away with it.
Now, I know all you dog owners (and many of you cat owners too) have "voices" for your pets. You're a little nutty, but I'm okay with that. Let's just say I want in, but I want Stella. She's one smart dog.
I Thought You Were Dead: A Love Story by Pete Nelson is the featured IndieNext pick for April.
They say a dog's love is unconditional, which is what makes them man's best friend. What if his dog were a man's only true friend?
For Paul Gustavson, a hack writer for the wildly popular For Morons series, life is a succession of obstacles. His wife has left him, his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, his girlfriend is dating another man, he has impotency issues, and his overachieving brother invested his parents' money in stocks that tanked. Still, Paul has his friends at Bay State bar, a steady line of cocktails, and a new pair of running shoes (he's promised himself to get in shape). And then there's Stella, the one constant in his life, who give him sage advice, doesn't judge him, and gives him unconditional love. However, Stella won't accompany Paul into his favorite dive bar. "I'll roll on dead carp, I'll even eat cat turds, but that place grosses me out." Stella, you see, is Paul's aging Lab-shepherd mix, and she knows Paul better than he know himself.
"I thought you were dead," is what Stella says when Paul comes home late, which he is more often than not.
At first, I thought I was reading a book about an average man having a mid-life crisis. Why in heaven's name was I reading this? Oh, that's right, ROB told me it was brilliant. Really, Rob? Middle aged man having trouble getting it up? You matched ME to this book? I trust in Rob's book-matching skills, so I persevered. Actually, I wasn't able to give up on it, no matter how I tried, something was tugging at me to keep reading.
At a certain point, I realized that I was reading a book about love, friendship, and family. It all sneaks up on you instead of hitting you in the face, which makes it all the more clever. Only upon reflection did I appreciate the brilliance of the work. This man, Paul Gustavson, can't talk to anyone - doesn't know what to say to his ex-wife, struggles with IMing his father after he suffered a stroke, and stumbles through conversations with his shared girlfriend. The only open and honest conversations he has are with Stella, his dog. Stella, good dog that she is, talks back, gives him good advice, and calls him out when he's being a schmuck. She knows when he's lying to himself, and doesn't let him get away with it.
Now, I know all you dog owners (and many of you cat owners too) have "voices" for your pets. You're a little nutty, but I'm okay with that. Let's just say I want in, but I want Stella. She's one smart dog.
I Thought You Were Dead: A Love Story by Pete Nelson is the featured IndieNext pick for April.
October 3, 2011
My disappointment in this book honestly mostly came from the reviews i read which lead me to buy the book. The book was described as "clever, heartwarming, and engaging", "read it and you will fall in love", "a delight", and "hilarious and heartbreaking". Personally, I found it to be none of these things except heartbreaking. I didn't find one line that made me even crack a smile. From the very beginning the mood is very dark and depressing and just when you think the book can't make you any more depressed you come across the most heartbreaking moment that will without a doubt make you cry and i don't mean just a few tears running down your face, i mean have a whole box of tissues near by because you will need every single one.
My second disappointment in this book came from what i felt stuck out as the strongest overall message. I expected the message to come from the dog in the form of some grand life lesson but instead i felt the stronger message was: "If you drink then you will be consumed with how bad your life is but if you stop drinking then your life will still be terrible, you will just have a better outlook about it." I'd like to think that the main character's life wasn't as bad as portrayed in the beginning because it was skewed by his drinking but no, his life really was bad.
On the positive side, i think this book is well written. The author does a good job at communicating what the main character is going through so the reader feels like they are going through it with them. Like they are a friend listening but helpless to do anything. Also, I think the part that will bring on the tears is so hard to read because it is so well written and thought out. I don't think i have ever had a book or movie affect me that much.
If you do end up reading this book, make sure you read the extra part in the back called "The Real Stella". Maybe that is where they got the "heartwarming" part from...?
My second disappointment in this book came from what i felt stuck out as the strongest overall message. I expected the message to come from the dog in the form of some grand life lesson but instead i felt the stronger message was: "If you drink then you will be consumed with how bad your life is but if you stop drinking then your life will still be terrible, you will just have a better outlook about it." I'd like to think that the main character's life wasn't as bad as portrayed in the beginning because it was skewed by his drinking but no, his life really was bad.
On the positive side, i think this book is well written. The author does a good job at communicating what the main character is going through so the reader feels like they are going through it with them. Like they are a friend listening but helpless to do anything. Also, I think the part that will bring on the tears is so hard to read because it is so well written and thought out. I don't think i have ever had a book or movie affect me that much.
If you do end up reading this book, make sure you read the extra part in the back called "The Real Stella". Maybe that is where they got the "heartwarming" part from...?
November 20, 2010
I Thought You Were Dead is a quick read, funny and poignant, and, surprisingly, about an alcoholic giving up booze. The conversations between Stella, half German Shepherd and half Yellow Lab, and her owner Paul seem fairly authentic, although, of course, dogs don't talk and when humans talk to dogs they explain things a bit less than Paul does to Stella. They've been together for more than fifteen years, and Stella knows Paul very well, so she challenges him about his life and choices enough to plant a seed that drink is his problem. Paul's a divorced writer with low self-esteem in initial stages of an "I don't want a relationship" with Tamsen Prouty. He writes articles, news items, humor pieces, etc. fto attract browsers to a web site and examples of these pieces are interspersed in the narritive to help make poins. Paul's father's stroke and ensuing debilitation draw Paul into an evaluation of his relatioship with his family and prompt his father to tell him to quit drinking and his mother to explain that she and Mr. Gustavson were once alcoholics and almost killed the family in a car accident. Tamsen suppports Paul through Stella's death and determination that his father does indeed love him, but then leaves him, planning to marry Stephen. She comes back, having realized that Paul is her soulmate and because he's quit drinking on his own, they come together, ready to start new lives. Paul's sister Bits and brother Carl also feature in the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2010
I picked up an arc of this at ALA because of the rep's explanation of the title, "It's what this guy's dog thinks every time he gets home late." Who could resist a come on like that? It sounded like it might have some teen appeal so...
In fact, although there are some really funny spots in this book (most involving Stella the talking dog), there are at least as many heartbreaking or depressing scenes. Talk about mid-life crisis! Paul is a forty-ish man, still reeling from the breakup of his first marriage, and drinking way too much. He meets a woman--and lets her get away, believing he's not ready for commitment. His parents age, his siblings suffer angst. Pretty much his only stability comes from Stella, who has steadfastly been by his side for all of her 15 years.
Not for teens, but a good read nonetheless, with strong characters and relationship worries similar to those we all face. I could see reading it for book club--there are some relationship issues, and decisions made, that could be discussed.
In fact, although there are some really funny spots in this book (most involving Stella the talking dog), there are at least as many heartbreaking or depressing scenes. Talk about mid-life crisis! Paul is a forty-ish man, still reeling from the breakup of his first marriage, and drinking way too much. He meets a woman--and lets her get away, believing he's not ready for commitment. His parents age, his siblings suffer angst. Pretty much his only stability comes from Stella, who has steadfastly been by his side for all of her 15 years.
Not for teens, but a good read nonetheless, with strong characters and relationship worries similar to those we all face. I could see reading it for book club--there are some relationship issues, and decisions made, that could be discussed.
June 15, 2010
I Thought You Were Dead is the latest book in the talking dog trend. I'm a dog lover and some of these books really work for me. While I can't say I loved this one, I did think that Stella was well written and believable.
Paul Gustavson is an immature, lost and lonely soul. He writes for the Moron series of books (think books for Dummies), sort of has a girlfriend, and is floating through life pretty directionless. When his father has a stroke it serves as a wake-up call for Paul and he starts trying to get his life together. Stella, his dog, gives him advice and support along the way.
While I really liked Stella and her voice, I mostly disliked Paul. He is so flaky in the beginning that it was hard for me to accept his dramatic turnaround. It was equally surprising when his family so easily accepted the new and improved Paul.
I listened to this book on audio and thoroughly enjoyed the narrator. Stella's voice was distinctive without being overdone and seemed to fit her personality perfectly.
Paul Gustavson is an immature, lost and lonely soul. He writes for the Moron series of books (think books for Dummies), sort of has a girlfriend, and is floating through life pretty directionless. When his father has a stroke it serves as a wake-up call for Paul and he starts trying to get his life together. Stella, his dog, gives him advice and support along the way.
While I really liked Stella and her voice, I mostly disliked Paul. He is so flaky in the beginning that it was hard for me to accept his dramatic turnaround. It was equally surprising when his family so easily accepted the new and improved Paul.
I listened to this book on audio and thoroughly enjoyed the narrator. Stella's voice was distinctive without being overdone and seemed to fit her personality perfectly.
February 5, 2010
Paul is going through a mid-life crisis. He's trying to deal with his recent divorce and his father's even more recent stroke. He relies on his drinking buddies at the local bar to cheer him and make him forget his loneliness. He relies on companionship from his girlfriend, who is in an "open relationship" with him and one other man. And he relies on his ancient dog Stella to help him ruminate over life's issues. He's not the first human to ever talk to their pet, but Stella might just be the first dog who talks back. But only to Paul. She proves to be quite insightful, both in offering rather impartial views of what is going on in Paul's life and in how she innocently questions why humans make the choices they do. This is a quirky tale of letting go and moving on, of figuring out what you want life to be for you, of relationships and communication told in a placid but fresh voice worth listening to.
June 18, 2010
I gave up on this one. The book is well written and the author definitely has a voice. Judging from other reviews, maybe you need to be more enamored with the idea of a talking dog than I was.
I was 100 pages into the 250 page book, and lost faith that it was going anywhere. I also had difficulty buying into the characters. The conceit of the beautiful successful young woman who for some reason is in love with the out of shape, unattractive and emotionally unavailable older man is a bit tired. When it happens I'd expect some explanation of the character defect that led her there. But maybe I gave up too soon...
I was 100 pages into the 250 page book, and lost faith that it was going anywhere. I also had difficulty buying into the characters. The conceit of the beautiful successful young woman who for some reason is in love with the out of shape, unattractive and emotionally unavailable older man is a bit tired. When it happens I'd expect some explanation of the character defect that led her there. But maybe I gave up too soon...
April 30, 2013
Considering that this story involves a talking dog, I didn't have really high hopes for a meaningful, lasting impression. But I am pleasantly surprised! This is, to me, a story about family. It is also a journey of self for the main character that involves examining and exposing his (mostly failed) relationship dynamics with others in a personal, vulnerable way. I felt that it started out a bit slow and disconnected - didn't seem to be "about" anything in particular, but by mid-way through I was fully engaged by the characters, including the dog, and the dialogue, including the dog's.
July 22, 2011
This book is one of my favorites. That is why I am reading it again. I read it a while ago and I wanted to read it again. This is a love story told between the dog named Stella and the human named Paul (in the book that is). Stella will sit there while Paul talks to her about the injustices through life and offering some answers to various situations when asked, and sometimes when not asked. All in all, this is a great book.
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April 29, 2010I like Nelson's writing and the book is a good one - I just feel like it's going to be a read that hits a little too close to home for my liking.
I will probably try it again when I'm in a different mindset - but not right now.
I will probably try it again when I'm in a different mindset - but not right now.
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