A Three Dog Life

A Three Dog Life

3.66 of 5 stars 3.66  ·  rating details  ·  3,501 ratings  ·  683 reviews
When Abigail Thomas's husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his skull was shattered, his brain severely damaged. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations--and with no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before--he was sent to live in a nursing facility that specializes in treating traumatic brain injuries. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to bu...more
Paperback, 190 pages
Published 2007 by Harcourt, Inc. (first published September 5th 2006)
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Susan
Some readers will be disappointed by this brief memoir -- it's not really about the dogs, nor is it about the severe brain injury that incapacitates Abigail Thomas' husband. Rather, it's about Abby trying to make something tenable of a life forever altered by tragedy and loss. Yes, the eponymous three dogs (Australian aborigines who kept warm sleeping next to their dogs called the coldest nights "three dog nights") are one thread of grace, instruments by which Abby learns to live in the moment a...more
Keleigh
This book struck me as both straightforward and subtly complex. The language is simple and unassuming, yet the attention to detail creates a much more layered and nuanced portrait than first perceived. I was intrigued, albeit occasionally confused, by the way Thomas hopskotched through time, shifting between present and past tense without ever truly grounding me in a “now.” I felt this was craftily intentional, conveying the “eternal present tense” that her husband now lives in, and she has been...more
Joanie
Abigail Thomas book begins with a blurb that explains that Aborigines used to sleep with their dogs to keep them warm. Really cold night were referred to as "three dog nights." I was totally sucked in after reading that part but as much as I liked the book (maybe 3 1/2 stars would be more appropriate) it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

The author's husband suffers a severe traumatic brain injury when he is hit by car. He requires constant care and supervision and he ends up in a locked u...more
Nancy
Wonderful, wonderful writing. Although I have nowhere near the life crisis to live with she had, I am much the same age and many things she said hit me as true for me. This is a keeper for me. (Since I have so little room for more books in my life, most books I read these days get donated to the library when I am finished.) I will go back to 2 paragraphs and a sentence on pages 169-170. "When I was young, the future was where all the good stuff was kept, the party clothes, the pretty china, the...more
Lara
I scooped up several copies of Abigail Thomas' memoir, A THREE DOG LIFE, after hearing her read at a local, indepdendent bookseller a couple of years ago. The seal of approval on the cover by Steven King noting it as "The best memoir I have ever read." was certainly intriguing, but I was more taken by her and the glimpse she gave us into her life.

Simply told, in April 2001, Thomas' husband Rich took their dog Harry for a walk and was hit by a car. The accident shattered his skull and the life th...more
Jes Pedroza
Jun 26, 2008 Jes Pedroza rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: older woman.
I love dogs so the title of this book caught my attention.
After Abby's husband suffers severe brain damage after being hit by a car while chasing after one of their dogs, the relationship that the couple shares is transformed. Richard, Abby's husband is a "new person" trying to make sense of the world around him. He gets irritated easily, says bizarre things and has sporadic and surprisingly accurate premonitions. Abby suffers from extreme guilt because she is not able to care for her husband a...more
Jenny
Memoirs are a tricky thing to read. Some feel self-indulgent and egotistical, some feel too intrusive and private and others keep you guessing why this person felt the need to write about their life. This memoir is hard to categorize. It's short, choppy, a bit meandering, and the title is deceiving. It's not about dogs, it's not even really about her husband's accident, it's more about her. Just her. Should her life stand still because her husband has no past, no future, and barely a present tim...more
Inder
Abigail Thomas's husband of 13 years was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury, leaving him without any short term memory and unable to process most normal conversation. This is her memoir of coping with this tragedy.

I'm not going to pretend that this is a "fun" book to read, although sometimes it is. Ms. Thomas has a dry, self-deprecating wit that you can't resist.

However, I will say that this is one of the most beautiful memoirs I've read in some time. Every simple, spare sentence...more
Katie
Abigail Thomas's husband Rich sustained a brain injury after they had been married for 13 years. His ability to process new (or retain old) information was almost entirely destroyed. Thomas describes the stages of grief and self-doubt she experienced after her husband's accident. And the tremendous simplicity of these stages is what makes them so beguiling: the abstract concept of losing your husband -- of your husband essentially dying but continuing to live -- is one that on the surface seems...more
Courtney
I would recommend this book to anyone who has gone through a tragedy or lost someone important to them. It also is a great book for anyone who has ever thought, dreamt or is plannng on doing any writing of their own. As a writer myself, I find Thomas truly inspiring because of that fact that she did not start writing until age 47. It's a quick, easy, inspiring read. Go Buy it!
Heather
I loved this book, although it was difficult to read at times. Not because of the writing - Thomas' writing is thoughtful, witty, easy-to-read. But the topic - what happens when someone significant in your life is altered mentally - can be uncomfortable and it's one that most of us will face. As Alzheimer's runs in my family, I probably will encounter it with my parents - and my husband may face it with me. How do you survive having to put your partner in a nursing home when he's a physically-he...more
Danielle
I finished reading this book on a quiet Saturday morning in my apartment, a warm coffee in hand, the pitter-patter of rain filtering in through my window. Perfect.

When I initially started reading this memoir, I couldn't possibly imagine how much I'd come to like it. Initially, I was struck by the disjointedness of Thomas' memories - I must have been trying too hard to make sense of their chronology. When I finally let that go, the wonderfulness of the story crept up on me. Its basis is sad, und...more
Dawn
I learned from this book that it is possible to love someone so much that regardless of how they have changed, or why, or the fact there is no future you can continue to love that person, while still maintaining your own life. And the dogs made it possible I think. Amazingly coincidental, I began and read most of this book on 4/24/09; the 9 year anniversary of the car accident that injured the author's husband and changed her life forever.

Abigail Thomas has a wonderful writing style. I've order...more
Chana
Written in a sparse prose that is exactly right. There is the tragedy which is sudden and heartbreaking, but it happens in a moment and one can't go back. Listen to this, "I thought I had accepted Rich's accident, even though I kept putting myself in a place where it hadn't happened yet. Rich hadn't left for his walk. I could stop him at the door. I thought that not accepting meant turning my face to the wall, unable to function. So now today I look up the word acceptance and the definition is "...more
Carrie
This is a memoir about the past 5 - 6 years of Abigail's life. Her husband suffered brain damage one night when he was hit by a car while out walking their dog, would had slipped from his collar and bolted into traffic. After recovery, he's never quite been himself and has no short term memory. He must live in special homes as his rages and confusion are too much for Abigail and a nurse. The book follows her as she deals with the change in her marriage, the change in her life, and how she deals...more
Cynthia Vogel
Oct 01, 2012 Cynthia Vogel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone, particularly middleaged people
A Three Dog Life is a book written by a 63 year old woman who'd only begun to write in her forties. Her husband of 12 years was struck by a car and suffered severe brain damage...which made him prone to say things that were obscure and wildly poetic and made him too sick to live at home....Abby learns to go on living her life with her three dogs and weekly visits with her husband.....It is a book of details surrounding a massively disturbing life event....The details are the pavement the charact...more
Becky
I got this book because of the endorsement by Stephen King...and this is the one time my favorite author has let me down.

This book is about Abigail Thomas, mostly. It's about how her husband is severely injured when he is hit by a car when walking their dog, which causes him to lose part of his brain and all of his short term memory. The story itself is compelling, but the way this story is told was not, for me at least.
I guess the style of writing that Thomas entails is more stream of conscious...more
Linda

In this beautifully and honestly written memoir, Abigail Thomas tries to make sense of an entirely new perspective on the passage of time. In the aftermath of her husband’s nearly fatal collision with an automobile, Thomas discovers that her life consists of the past and the future. Her husband, Rich Rogin, survives for five years in a nearly foreign world constructed by his traumatic brain injury. His life is solidly in the present and his wavering moods and cryptic allusions to the world they...more
Lynda Felder
Abigail Thomas packs A Three Dog Life with brutal observations, made palatable by moments of pure comic relief. She tells the story of her life before and after her husband, Rich, suffers from traumatic brain injury after being hit by a car.

I read this memoir after reading a short article a good friend left on my doorstep called “Everyone Has A Story To Tell” by the same author. She tells how her husband Rich describes his life after the accident:

“In a moment of perfect clarity, he once describe...more
Monica
Wow, I really didn't have a clue what this book was about when I read the title and grabbed it to read later. I thought it was going to be a warm fuzzy story of a woman whose dogs keep her sane in some type of midlife crisis. You can't judge a book by it's title. This memoir of Abigail Thomas deals with the horrible car accident that caused her husband Rich to have a traumatic brain injury. The most interesting parts of the book for me were the things that he said that were so lucid, yet he had...more
Dinah
Nobody rips my heart wide open quite like Abigail Thomas. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a Master Class with her in college, and I have never encounter such a straight-shooter in both her demeanor and her writing. There is very little flourish to her memoirs: no padding of metaphors, few run-on sentences, latinate words only when they are exactly appropriate. This woman has an extraordinary gift for staring her very ordinary, and very difficult life straight in the face, and sketching its l...more
Thechicgeek
Stephen King declared this "Best Memoir I Have Ever Read." I have to say, I am surprised by that. I did enjoy the book but in many ways found it somewhat uninspiring. Abigail Thomas details the difficulty of trying to live happily after a loved one sustains a life-altering brain injury.

My problem with the story was that I felt she was just kind of existing, but not really enjoying her life as much as she could. To me, she was in a holding pattern. Abigail was simply trying to make the best of a...more
Grace
Abigail Thomas' "A Three Dog Life" is a jumbled up mess of a memoir that is out of control and incredibly difficult to follow. Is it about her three dogs? Is it about using the three dogs to cope after his husband's accident? Is it about her husband Rich's irreversible brain damage from the accident? Is it about her writing? These four concepts are meshed together in a stream of consciousness style that left me scratching her head and wondering who in their right mind would publish something so...more
Nancy
Abigail Thomas had only been married to husband Rich for a few years when he went out to walk the dog he never wanted to own. The dog broke free, and Rich went into the road to save him, and was hit by a car. Traumatic brain injury. The "nicest guy in the world" would never be the same.

Thomas writes this memoir about the very situation which has occupied the worry section of my brain since I got married: what happens when the guy you marry is no longer the guy you married - but you are still ma...more
Ann Marie
Picked this up - no joke - because it was in the bestseller aisle at Sam's Club. It truly it a touching and poignant account, but I was often distracted by the stream-of-thought style of writing and overall organization. I frequently thought “what, where are we, when was the accident again?” The author’s husband suffers a serious brain injury and is no longer himself, actually no longer even fully functional. She chronicles the struggles, the hospitals, rehab facilities, a brief time at home wit...more
Lois
In these poignant essays Thomas describes the five years following her husband's brain injury which necessitated his being institutionalized. How their marriage has evolved with him living always in the present - their companionship. She sells their New York apartment, buys a house in the country to be near him, acquires two more dogs to keep her company and makes a new life for herself teaching, writing, knitting, seeing friends and also living in the present. Illuminating and inspiring.
Margaret
The best feature of this book is Ms. Thomas's writing - it's so down to earth, elegant, funny, wry, poignant, poetic - all those adjectives plus others in the same family(-ies). It's a tribute to her writing that once I started reading this book, I continued reading once I'd figured out after a couple of familiar, deja vu pages that, oh yeah, I read this book some time ago... The book is a series of essays, more or less in chron order, about her life partly before and mostly after her husband is...more
Beejay
My sister lent me “The Book Thief” with the great recommendation that it was “the best book she had ever read”. I read it, and she was almost right – I give it second place. My sister lent me “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”, telling me that it was a real joy. I hated it so much it’s actually one of those rare books which I couldn’t even finish, and swore not to feel guilty about doing so. My sister lent me “The Faraday Girls”, assuring me it was a quick, easy, delightful read. I finished it...more
Louise
Abigail and her husband Rich lived happily in Manhattan. On April 24, 2000 while Rich is out walking their dog, he is hit by a car and sustains a traumatic brain injury. His skull was shattered, his perception of time and reality forever altered. After being hospitalized, Rich is moved to a home where they had experience caring for people with traumatic brain injuries.

Abigail lives alone with her 3 dogs and visits Rich regularly but she never knows from one day to the next how she will find him....more
Jillian
This isn't a romance book, per se, but it's about a deep love for a partner who has dementia after an accident. It was very sad, and has some beautiful passages. I loved the quotes: "Good things happen slowly, and bad things happen fast," and "What is art, anyway, except not pounding on walls."

The chapters describing the author's dogs' behavior after her husbands accident moved me to tears, and I found the chapter about "outsider art" very moving.
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“It's easy now - it's middle-aged lady, nobody's looking, nobody notices. I go without lipstick if I feel like it, and I always wear my comfy clothes. It's a life with fewer distractions, but should something beautiful show up, a middle-aged woman is free to stare.” 10 people liked it
“There is nothing like calamity for refreshing the moment. Ironically, the last several years my life had begun to feel shapeless, like underwear with the elastic gone, the days down around my ankles.” 7 people liked it
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