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Dec 16, 2009

Erin rated it:

This book, in a word, stinks. And now I shall tell you why.

The main character marries a woman named Lexy. Lexy is terribly mysterious, and vibrant, and creative, and such and so on. Okay, whatever, she dies by falling out of an apple tree. Now that I have been browbeaten with the symbolism, let's go to a flashback so Parkhurst can work up some sympathy for this dead chick. By having her suggest that they take a spur of the moment trip to Disneyland! Which I hate! Which should be fir More...

10 comments like (25 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Wormie rated it:

The writing style is sweet and sensitive, the emotion real, and the story compelling. Dr. Paul Iverson, professor of linguistics, comes home from work one night to find his yard filled with police. His wife, Lexy, has fallen from the apple tree in their yard and died. The death was declared an accident and Paul, was left alone to nurse his grief.

In the days to follow, Paul notices some oddities around the house. Lorelei, the couple’s Rhodesian Ridgeback, was the only witness to the More...

5 comments like (17 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2007

Joseph rated it:

Ah, where do I begin reviewing this book? Let me start by saying that this book is not about what it's promoted to be. It's marketed as a book about a grieving widower who tries to teach his dog, the sole witness to his late wife's death, to talk. And yes, this book is about that, but it is not solely about that.

This novel is an intense exploration of one man's profound and painful experience of grief - especially when it's over a mysterious death. Did she die accidentally or did More...

5 comments like (27 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Molly rated it:

What I learned from this book? Don't marry a woman who creates artsy masks for a living because she will attempt and/or succeed at suicide. If someone who makes arty masks for a living doesn't at first succeed at suicide, he/she should try harder. I also learned: don't try and make your dog talk. Why? Because dogs can't talk. Even if you do terrible, terrible things to them, surgical-wise. Similarly, if someone attached a whale penis to you, you wouldn't be able to sex on a lady whale. You'd jus More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

Adrienne rated it:

I read this very quickly not because it was bad but because I wanted to find out 'what happened' and after I'd got over the doginess parts (I'm a cat person) and appriciated them for what they were the story just streamed through my mind.

Paul and Lexy and are seemingly happily married, everything is going well for them, then tragedy strikes and Lexy dies in an apparant accident, the only witness is Lorelei the couples dog, and of course she can't tell.

In his grief Paul slips More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 10, 2008

Michelle rated it:

I picked this book up in a bookstore last summer, and I began reading it while waiting for my companions. While I've read many mystery novels, this one seemed unique and stuck in my mind even after replacing it on the shelf just a few pages in.

I was surprised when I finally purchased this book nearly a year later to find that it is a lot more than a mystery novel and more than just a story (albeit a great one) about grief and loss. It is also a story about romance, mental illness, fe More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Rachel rated it:

This is hands down my favorite novel, maybe not of all time, but definitely of anything I've read in the last few years (and that encompasses a fair amount of books). It is so moving and so well written. The language is beautiful. Every sentence made me think, "Damn. Wish I'd written that!" Very lovely, poetic, heartbreaking. I can't say enough good things about this book. Highly recommended. It's about a man's grief and attempts to learn what really happened after his wife's sudden de More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2008

Tania rated it:

I HATED this book. And I rarely hate a book, even if I don't enjoy it. But this one... everything about it left a bad taste in my mouth. The whole reading experience was just a downward spiral of depression and desperation. With disgusting and gratuitous descriptions of animal abuse, and its completely unlikable characters, this book was almost painful to read. I persevered, hoping that I would be rewarded for my suffering with an uplifting or fascinating twist. Yet even when the big "myste More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ally rated it:

Enjoyed this book immensely, and finished in two days. It's a contemporary novel, lyrically written. It's a beautiful masterpiece of paper mache masks, linguistics, codes in book titles, incongruities at a crime scene, patterns in language, the love of a dog, canine speech, canine abuse, mental illness, fear of bringing children into the world, marriage, issues of openness and honesty, grief, mystery, and letting go. Ultimately, it's an exploration in how we go through the many stages of losing More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kristin rated it:

The Dogs of Babel is a beautiful and tragic tale of love and loss. The slow revealing of the main couple's past is well woven and easily believeable. The completely crazy part was the talking dog theme that Carolyn Parkhurst overreached on...

In the book, The main character (Paul Iverson), devastated by the loss of his dearly loved wife, makes a desperate attempt to make sense of her death by trying to teach his dog to talk. What at first is a poigniant and heart-rending (albeit futi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Meredith rated it:

This book is a really beautiful and rather gentle portrait of grief. It's about a linguistics professor whose wife falls to her death out of their apple tree in their backyard, with only their dog as a witness. In the year following her loss, the professor copes by trying to teach his dog to speak - knowing full well that it's a little nuts - in the hopes of learning if she really fell, or let herself fall. He's not crazy, nor is the story cheesy, but as complex and difficult as real life and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2010

Kassi rated it:

Above and beyond any opinions formed, Carolyn Parkhurst takes an incredible risk in her debut novel: a series of risks that in and of itself sets this book apart from others, in this reader's experience. And while the risks the author took worked for my reading preferences, for some they won't. While this book is by no means a difficult read as far as word choice and literature goes, even the most sensitive of readers upon turning the last page will have missed at least one thing that makes this More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2011

Msmurphybylaw rated it:

*****There may be some spoilers, but this review is not a synopsis****

I'm not sure why I decided to make this my first written review on GR. Maybe it is because this story conflicts in defining mental illness, artists and Tarot cards so harshly that it sandpapered my brain, or maybe it's an easy way to get my feet wet. Recently I've shied away from reading best sellers and books with 'O' stickers on them for varied reasons. It's been a slow summer and I haven't been sleeping well so More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2007

Cassandra rated it:

One of my favorite books ever. I don't know if any book I've read has hit me so hard in the chestal region as this one. I was so emotionally invested in this book, and when I re-read it again recently, it was no different. The entire last 30 or so pages of the book I was just crying, trying to read through my tears. For me, what this book is basically about is a man trying to cope with the death of his wife, and about putting the pieces together to figure out how and why exactly she died. I More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2007

Shelley rated it:

As a animal lover this was a very emotional book for me. There were lots of similarities between my mom and Lexy and Rascal and Lorlei, and Paul and Lorlei to David and Rascal. Anyway, like Lorelei we rescued Rascal who had been sitting in the exact same spot on the side of the road for over two weeks and finally my mom (on our way to Sunday School) stopped (in church clothes) and rescued this dog. He, like Lorlei, had been obviously beaten and then abandoned.

Rascal ended up be More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2007

Kate rated it:

Type: Novel
How I Heard About It: My friend Jordan wrote a paper on it for psychology class on the possibilities of animal language. She got a good grade so I figured it was worth a read.
How I procured it: The Wooster Book Company
Ratings (1-5) Story: 4.5 Writing: Don't remember
Would I read it again? Yes, in fact it's in my queue right now.
Who would I recommend it to? Science lovers, animal lovers, anyone who loves a good intriguing story.
Did it remind me of any More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 12, 2007

Christina rated it:

After finishing this book, I went into such a funk. Had I seen a Hallmark commercial of any kind, I probably would have started bawling.

However, this is not to say that this book isn't fantastic. It absolutely is. This book made me think and it touched me in an obvious way. This is a quite a different reaction from many of the other books I have read, which are often meaningless ways to pass some time.

This is a story about an incredibly deep romance between two people. Th More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Luke rated it:

I found The Dogs of Babel to be an engaging and at times quite gripping read. The basic premise (a man who tries to find out more about his wife's seemingly accidental death by teaching their dog--the only witness--to talk) was excellent, and I thought Parkhurst did a good job of creating flawed but likable characters (though the wife, Lexy, became progressively more difficult for me to like or sympathize with).

This is one of those books that my wife has read like eight times, and ha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Amanda rated it:

Funny, strange, sad, beautiful... I read some of the other reviews posted, and I didn't see a single one that mentioned the humor. Yes, the whole sci-fi flavored dog experiment thing in the middle of the book is bizarre and a little incongruous, but was nobody else laughing? What I enjoyed was the ridiculousness of Paul's quest to teach his dog to talk, juxtaposed against the beauty and sadness of the tragic love affair between him and his wife.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Erica rated it:

interesting but not quite interesting enough

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Jessie rated it:

Wow. This may not be everyman's book, but it struck deep chords with me.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2009

Charlie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

I found this book enthralling, but sad. Sad for Paul, sad for Lorelei, and sad for poor, troubled Lexy, who burned so bright and so fast.

I'd marked several places to comment on, but don't think I shall, now. This is a book about language, words, and emotions...and reading the language of a soul.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
When his wife dies in a fall from a tree in their backyard, linguist Paul Iverson is wild with despair. In the days that follow, Paul becomes certain that More...

0 comments like

Jan 06, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

I wish I could give this book higher than a five. Or I wish I could go back to all the other books I've ever rated and knock them down a notch. Nothing I've read before quite matches up to this book.

I browsed through some other ratings online, before I started reading the book, and was surprised at the amount of people who rolled their eyes at the topic. I immediately knew it was a good topic for me. So many times I've wanted to know what my own dogs were thinking, and I think it was More...

0 comments like

Nov 22, 2011

Harmonybites rated it:

Paul Iverson, a linguistics professor, loses his beloved wife Lexy, who apparently slipped and fell to her death from an apple tree. The only witness? Their dog Lorelei, an eight-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback. He becomes obsessed with finding a breakthrough in language acquisition in dogs, so that Lorelei can tell him what happened.

It's his first person story, and I found it a convincing voice and compelling story I read in one sitting of less than four hours despite it being the usu More...

0 comments like

Oct 13, 2011

Shazza rated it:

Paul Iverson, a professor of linguistics, calls home to speak to his wife only to have a strange man answer the telephone, asking him to come home. When he arrives, he finds out his wife, Lexy, is dead, fallen from the apple tree in the back yard of the house. Their dog, Lorelei, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, is the only witness to the death, and, had it not been for her barking, none of the neighbors would've realized anything was amiss.

Lexy's death is concluded to be accidental, but Pau More...

0 comments like

Sep 18, 2011

Rachel added it

This book definitely demonstrates how people are constantly searching for answers to things that sometimes will never be able to be fully answered. It presents a theme of grief and mourning and also one of love, as it reveals how sometimes the love that one can have for another can be so strong that an individual may not ever be able to fully move on or let go of that person and have what could be a more peaceful life. This novel also illuminates on how someone can be so consumed in something (s More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Wynne rated it:

A man's beautiful wife falls from the tree in the backyard and dies. Did she kill herself or did she fall on accident? The only witness is the couple's dog, so the husband vows to teach the dog to talk. Quitting his job and researching any and all avenues to make the impossible happen.
What might seem impossible is that this plot line works--but Parkhurst makes the impossible possible, and wonderful. There was never a moment that I questioned the logic of the story, and I found myself deepl More...

0 comments like

Jul 24, 2011

Charissa rated it:

I picked this up at the used bookstore based solely on the title and cover art. I have a habit of doing this, and sometimes it works out, but more often it doesn't. This novel, however, was a pleasant surprise, although "pleasant" is not the appropriate word for this haunting, melancholy, absurd, yet beautiful story.

Parkhurst, in her debut novel (I am always stung with jealousy when reading this term on a book jacket), introduces Paul Iverson, who narrates the year following More...

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