Joshua Stephens: The Dog Walker : An Anarchist's Encounters with the Good, the Bad, and the Canine (Hardcover); 2015 Edition

by Joshua Stephens

A dog book for the 99%, The Dog Walker is a hugely entertaining look at the world’s greatest job—by an activist who spent a decade as a dog walker for the political class Dog it’s every eight-year-old’s dream! You spend your day outdoors; you interact exclusively with silly, loving, ridiculous dogs; and you get paid for it. But the reality is . . . well, actually, the reality is pretty great, too, at least according to the anarchist Joshua Stephens’s eye-opening account of the dog walker’s life. An Anthony Bourdain of the dog walking set, Stephens reports on what every master of the trade—and every informed consumer—needs to always keep a spare set of keys, always have references, and never, ever board your beloved pet. But Stephens also goes he shows us what dog walking reveals about everything from gentrification to street harassment, and why radical empathy must always anchor every interaction—canine or otherwise. Rich with hilarious anecdotes, brilliant observations, and a powerful political conscience, The Dog Walker calls to mind David Rakoff at his most sardonic—if, that is, Rakoff had been an anarchist who walked dogs for a living. An irreverent and perceptive fish-out-of-water story, The Dog Walker is totally irresistible.From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs

Hardcover

First published September 29, 2015

About the author

Joshua Stephens was first shoved down a flight of stairs as a teenager, during the 1991 Gulf War. Radicalized by stand-up comedy and punk rock, he’d made quick enemies of classmates on a US base in the Mediterranean, whose parents forged careers in the bombing of Iraq. An apparent glutton for punishment, he pursued similar treatment (typically in street protests) at the hands of the Uniformed Secret Service, various police agencies, under FBI surveillance, and in sundry states of seclusion and undress with agents at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. None of which deterred congressional staffers, IMF employees, investment bankers, or corporate lawyers from giving him keys to their homes in Washington, DC and New York, from 2001-2012, when he worked as a professional dogwalker.

His writing since has appeared in The Atlantic, Gawker, AlterNet, Truthout, NOW Lebanon, and The Baltimore Indy Reader, as well as the journals The Outpost, Upping the Anti, and Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.

Reviews

[Heather Marcello · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is sure to send you into an existential crisis about every choice you've ever made regarding work, love, and politics. If you do not like your job, I encourage you to read this book on your break at work because it will inspire you to pack up your desk and leave. A fun read for all, even the cat ladies and bronies of the world. It made me laugh out loud more than a few times, inspired me to masturbate when I realized I was home alone, and even made me cry towards the end. I only found one typo.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to be objective in sharing my impressions of this book. Mr. Stephens has been an inspirational voice in my ear since his days schlepping his acoustic guitar around Washington DC, singing passionate songs about love and politics and how they often intertwined with complexity. That he wrote a beautifully impassioned book about dogs, politics and loving life which could stand as a roadmap for the bewildered and bleary is not altogether that surprising.

Make no mistake, though his own humility might deny it, Stephens voice radiates with the struggle of the human condition and the hope that we all find the power within ourselves to believe in ourselves. This isn't just a book about loving pups and antics from the streets (though those are included) but rather it's an example of what we can achieve if we untangle ourselves from the so called safety nets we've allowed to bind us. This is a book about love, loving ones self and the possibilities we all contain within.

If you are looking for that voice within, but having a hard time listening to it, then I passionately implore you to pick up this book. Perhaps his voice will help you recognize your own. And once you find that voice, sing out loud, with your own songs, your own journeys.

Stephens is a person of the world, and his whereabout are never really certain, but I hope in the time he spends traveling with the freedom we all desire, his adventures yield more stories about the triumph of the human spirit. Thanks hoss. This was beautiful. A gift I will treasure for a very long time.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Radical Leftist Politics AND dog walking in one book? Color me smitten!

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmmm. Titled "The Dog Walker" with a dog photo on the cover--silly me to think it'd contain entertaining stories about being a dog walker in Manhattan and the neurotic dogs and owners the author encountered. Unfortunately, this is a poorly written, self-absorbed description of the "important" anarchist activities he's been involved in. A stinker.