≫ PDF Free Even the Dogs Jon McGregor 9780747599449 Books

Even the Dogs Jon McGregor 9780747599449 Books

Download As PDF : Even the Dogs Jon McGregor 9780747599449 Books

Even the Dogs Jon McGregor 9780747599449 Books

This novel is astonishingly beautiful, powerful and moving. The writing is beyond superb. There are touches of James Joyce about the style of the narrative as it weaves its way between particular dialects, speech patterns and thought processes, echoing those of the characters themselves. It really is a phenomenal piece of work.

At the start, Robert is dead and the voices who seemingly narrate the story may be ghosts or memories or a group of unseen observers who provide a sort of Greek Chorus commentary on the character's life and death. As in McGregor's 'If nobody speaks of remarkable things' (one of my favourite books), it is the poetry of the everyday that comes through and at every single level of the book.

And it is truly the world of the 'underdog' that McGregor portrays. The world of benefits and alcoholism and heroin addiction and holding out for hope when there's little hope to be had and climbing through windows and waiting for giros and rehab and scripts and getting the next fix, the next dig.

Amongst the needles and sickness and bruises and veins are all the human faces and the wounds of their lives. Some are ex-soldiers and we see glimpses of the passing horrors they witnessed in the Falklands, Afghanistan, Bosnia. There is an incredible passage which follows the trail of heroin from war scenes in Afghanistan to the needles puncturing the veins of the characters in the novel. It is a staggering passage, as is every moment in this book.

'Even the Dogs' is so beautiful, it hurts. It's a novel with such sensitivity and force that its impact is immediate and painful and poignant and human and unforgettable. Read it. Savour it. Read it.


Tags : Even the Dogs [Jon McGregor] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Unusual book,Jon McGregor,Even the Dogs,Bloomsbury,0747599440

Even the Dogs Jon McGregor 9780747599449 Books Reviews

This tale of addiction warrants special treatment and receives it. The style grows on you so that complete sentences start to seem aberrational epecially at the end of
Amazing book, not for the faint hearted but a book that oozes compassion for a section of society often overlooked.
A bookclub recommendation, I read this because I had to! The first few pages made me feel nauseous and uncomfortable.....and then the masterful writing drew me into the murky and hopeless world inhabited by these drifters, tied together by their mutual addictions. Jon Mc's writing just gets better and better...the passage which traces the journey from poppy field to english crack den by a wounded soldier lying by a roadside in Basra is worth the Man Booker Prize alone. If you don't feel compassion for these sad people afterwards, your heart is made of stone.
Talented Irish writer but a bit dreary.
I found this book very refreshing and original. I did find it difficult at the start to get my head around the narrative and the flow but found that, in the end, if I just continued reading without trying to analyse everything as I went along it all fell into place after a short while. This was a very compelling telling of the lives of heroin addicts. I could really visualise the environment and living conditions.

The only weakness (for me) was in the portrayal of Robert's daughter, Laura. I didn't quite believe her character or her circumstances but it's a fairly minor point.

The author strips human nature down to its most basic - when everything else is gone and there is nothing but addiction to drive a person it is harrowing and miserable for those involved. But amidst all the misery portrayed there is still humanity and a glimmer of hope which is an inevitable part of the human spirit and the author deals with this expertly.
This book will not be for everyone -- it is too dark and hope-less -- but I thought it was brilliant. The writing is like poetry, and we are drawn forward by the mystery of how the narrating voices connect and to whom those voices belong. There is a suspicious death to be investigated, and we want to know the outcome of the investigation (as do the disembodied voices), but in the meantime we are immersed in a dirty dark confusing world of drugs and alcohol, despair, numbness and waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Even the dogs wait.

Wonderfully written, Even the Dogs is a worthy recipient of the 2012 International Dublin IMPAC Literary Award.
It is hard to rate this book five stars in terms of "I love it". This isn't really a book you love. It is a hard read because of the content; it is painful and lush and engaging. It is a harsh depiction of that ubiquitous human condition, but it is not a book you take to the beach for some light reading, if that is something that you do.
This novel is astonishingly beautiful, powerful and moving. The writing is beyond superb. There are touches of James Joyce about the style of the narrative as it weaves its way between particular dialects, speech patterns and thought processes, echoing those of the characters themselves. It really is a phenomenal piece of work.

At the start, Robert is dead and the voices who seemingly narrate the story may be ghosts or memories or a group of unseen observers who provide a sort of Greek Chorus commentary on the character's life and death. As in McGregor's 'If nobody speaks of remarkable things' (one of my favourite books), it is the poetry of the everyday that comes through and at every single level of the book.

And it is truly the world of the 'underdog' that McGregor portrays. The world of benefits and alcoholism and heroin addiction and holding out for hope when there's little hope to be had and climbing through windows and waiting for giros and rehab and scripts and getting the next fix, the next dig.

Amongst the needles and sickness and bruises and veins are all the human faces and the wounds of their lives. Some are ex-soldiers and we see glimpses of the passing horrors they witnessed in the Falklands, Afghanistan, Bosnia. There is an incredible passage which follows the trail of heroin from war scenes in Afghanistan to the needles puncturing the veins of the characters in the novel. It is a staggering passage, as is every moment in this book.

'Even the Dogs' is so beautiful, it hurts. It's a novel with such sensitivity and force that its impact is immediate and painful and poignant and human and unforgettable. Read it. Savour it. Read it.