Even the Dogs
Jon McGregor
Even the Dogs
On a still and frozen day between Christmas and New Year, a man's body is found lying in his ruined flat. Found, and then taken away, examined, investigated and cremated. As the state begins its detailed, dispassionate inquest, the man embarks on his last journey through a world he has not ventured into, alive, for years. In his wake, a series of fractured narratives emerge from squats and alleyways across the city: the short and stark story of the man, and of his friends who look on from the shadows, keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage. As they watch, their stories unfurl layer by layer; stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress and the disregard of the wider world.
4.2 out of 5 based on 8 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
208 |
| RRP |
£12.99 |
| Date of Publication |
February 2010 |
| ISBN |
978-0747599449 |
| Publisher |
Bloomsbury |
| |
On a still and frozen day between Christmas and New Year, a man's body is found lying in his ruined flat. Found, and then taken away, examined, investigated and cremated. As the state begins its detailed, dispassionate inquest, the man embarks on his last journey through a world he has not ventured into, alive, for years. In his wake, a series of fractured narratives emerge from squats and alleyways across the city: the short and stark story of the man, and of his friends who look on from the shadows, keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage. As they watch, their stories unfurl layer by layer; stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress and the disregard of the wider world.
Reviews
The Sunday Telegraph
David Robson
"It is still only February, but might we already have seen the 2010 Man Booker winner? Jon McGregor made the 2002 shortlist with his debut novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, and this one is even better – a short, taut tale that packs an extraordinary emotional punch. Even the Dogs is not an easy read... But once you have got your bearings, the novel grips you like a vice."
14/02/2010
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The Times
Natalie Sandison
"[An] extraordinary novel… McGregor is a breathtakingly good writer. Even the Dogs leaves the reader with a sense of solidarity, and many moments of tenderness."
13/02/2010
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The Guardian
Christopher Tayler
"...he strikes a neat balance between depicting a semi-abstract landscape of suffering and grounding the characters' experiences firmly in history… McGregor also shows a fine ear for several varieties of regional speech, and exerts strict but not obsessive control over his initially formless-looking story. His reportorial absorption in the characters' world, with its restricted range of tone and incident, makes this powerful novel seem all the more resourcefully put together."
23/01/2010
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The Daily Mail
Helen Brown
"Even The Dogs is a short, brilliant and beautiful lesson in empathy. The literary equivalent of washing the feet of those from whom society turns a frightened face."
10/02/2010
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The Observer
Edmund Gordon
"Even the Dogs is a courageous and passionate novel and shows McGregor to be one of the few young English writers taking genuine risks with language and form. If some of them fail to pay off, there is no less to admire, no less nerve and ingenuity, in the attempt."
21/02/2010
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The Daily Telegraph
Toby Clements
"It is grotesque and disturbing, but McGregor brings these people – the sort you glimpse in underpasses – to the forefront and manages to make their bleak lives into something ethereal and haunting."
26/02/2010
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The Financial Times
James Lovegrove
"Even the Dogs directs an unblinking and non-judgmental eye on to street people, homeless and hopeless. It’s a novel as chilling and bracing as the “wind-cold empty day” on which it opens, McGregor finding poetry in the profane and nobility in the struggles of lost souls trying to keep their heads above water."
01/02/2010
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The New Yorker
Books Briefly Noted
"McGregor, twice long-listed for the Booker Prize, offers a forceful portrait of the junkies’ tribulations, but characters so single-mindedly devoted to the next fix make tedious literary company."
01/03/2010
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