About this title: Moving and intimate, this memoir is interwoven with profound reflections on feelings for animals and the lessons they teach about life, love, and loss. Elegantly written . . . Stunningly moving."USA Today"
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 4/8/2008
ISBN-13:9780061171017ISBN:0061171018
Description: Good. 0061171018 Ships from PA, Return within 10 days for any reasons. Fast Shipping. Dog eared pages. Wear on corners and edges. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061171017ISBN:0061171018
Description: New. New books small to none shelf wear A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condiion. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780061171000ISBN:006117100X
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780061171000ISBN:006117100X
Description: Good in Good jacket. 58-V-Add. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"So far some really moving descriptions and moments. A few quotes I've liked:
"...I could talk and cry to them for half the day and they didn't mind in the least, never found me morbid or fixated, and never once indicated that I should get over it"
"(dogs) are all right here, involved in whatever it is, and therefore they are a sort of cure for our great, abiding loneliness."
"It isn't that one wants to live for the sake of a dog, exactly, but that dogs show you why you might want to.""
"Mark Doty is a professor and has published books of poetry and non-fiction prose. This is a memoir of his life with Beau, a golden retriever he adopted from an animal shelter to be a companion for his dying partner, Wally. The two already owned another dog, Arden.
He writes about how the dogs helped him through his darkest days after the death of Wally and as he moved on to a new relationship with Paul, as well as the lessons he learned from them.
This was a book for my book club, so it's definitely something I wouldn't have chosen to read on my own. I enjoyed parts of the book but I felt like he kind of bounced around in time. He would be talking about what was happening at that point and bring up something that would happen in the future. For me, that made parts of the story rather jerky.
He also incorporated a lot of Emily Dickinson's poetry. I'm not a poetry fan and have very little knowledge of the genre. Maybe I would have enjoyed these segments more if I was more familiar with Dickson and other poets or just enjoyed poetry more.
There were a couple points in the story where I just found the author to be annoying. One was when he, Paul, their two cats and the two dogs move to live in Iowa City while he works for a semester (or two) at the University of Iowa. The University helps him to find temporary housing and in doing so, tells him he needs to lie to the person he will be renting the home from and say he has a small dog. He's not comfortable with this, but the person at the University assures him this is the only way she will be able to secure him housing that will allow all the pets.
The owner is living someone else during this time, so they are moving into a furnished home and the owner has some fairly explicit directions about how she would like things maintained so the animal doesn't (or should we say "animals don't") damage anything. The author belittles the owners desire to maintain and care for her furnishings because they aren't all that valuable and says they are lower quality than Ikea. As if only high-end and expensive furnishings should be maintained. At this point, he's already written about how he's felt suicidal at times and wants the reader to feel some empathy for him, but he can't come up with empathy for someone who may have purchased the best furnishings for their home that they can and understand why they would want to return home to find these items still in good condition.
The other incident that sticks out takes place in New York. Another dog is waiting outside a store for its owner and comes up to Beau and the two are doing the doggy get-to-know-you routine when the female owner comes out and, in a tone that the author interprets, as snippy, orders her dog to come along. He attributes this to the woman thinking that he (a gay man) is looking to hit on her or that she doesn't want her dog to socialize. It never crosses his mind that the women knows he's gay so doesn't see this as him hitting on her and that she's just in a hurry to get home. Maybe she has a deathly ill parent at home or a sick child. Perhaps she was just diagnosed with a terminal illness. Maybe she's just having a bad day and wants to get home and take a bath. But those options aren't presented -- it's purely about the person not wanting to be around him or his dog.
It's not a bad book. Perhaps a dog owner would like it better."
"This book is so much more than just a reflection upon the meaning of dogs in our lives, which is a worthy subject in itself. As a poet, Doty is able to express what is most inexpressible about the nature of relationships between 2 beings - in this case man and dog - and he also delves into the deeper realms of what it means to be alive and connected to this world. I know I will return again to this book as there is so much more to absorb. Warning: keep a box of kleenex handy. Doty's willingness to expose his most raw and vulnerable feelings and experiences has cathartic effect upon me."
"Mark Doty's Dog Years is a perceptive, beautifully written memoir about the author's two dogs that becomes a meditation on aging, loss, grief and recuperation. Any dog lover will experience shocks of recognition; Doty's book will also go a long way towards enlightening others as to why the dog is our "best friend." An American's relationship to animals is, to paraphrase the author, part of our secret history."
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