Stray Dog Winter

by David Francis

A young Australian becomes entangled in his sister's mysterious and dangerous life in the Soviet Union after he agrees to carry a leather money belt into the country past international customs.

Genres: Fiction, Russia, Gay, LGBT, Espionage, Moscow, Contemporary

350 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

David Francis, based in Los Angeles where he works for the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm, spends part of each year back on his family’s farm in Australia. He is the author of The Great Inland Sea, published to acclaim in seven countries, and Stray Dog Winter, Book of the Year in The Advocate, winner of the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Prize for Literature, and a LAMBDA Literary Award Finalist. He has taught creative writing at UCLA, Occidental College, and in the Masters of Professional Writing program at USC. His short fiction and articles have appeared in publications including Harvard Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Southern California Review, Best Australian Stories, Australian Love Stories, and The Rattling Wall. He is Vice President of PEN Center USA.

Reviews

[BrokenTune · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 17%

I was drawn to Stray Dog Winter because of the following blurb:

"Darcy Bright, a restless young artist, receives a surprising birthday present from his elusive half-sister Fin: a ticket to the Soviet Union housed in a leather money belt. Together only briefly during their youth, Darcy and Fin are both estranged by the distance between them, and yet inextricably bound by the secrets of their childhood. So when Fin -- ostensibly in Moscow on a fellowship to paint industrial landscapes -- invites Darcy to join her there, her wary brother doesn't resist.
Soon after his arrival in the bleak Soviet winter, Darcy, already engulfed in Fin's mysterious new life there, becomes entangled in an extortion plot designed to change the course of Cold War history. And as the intricacies of their bond as brother and sister are revealed, Darcy uncovers Fin's involvement in an unexpected cause of her own, leading to a confrontation with profound and deadly consequences.
Atmospheric and suspenseful, "Stray Dog Winter" is a remarkable novel about love, passion, politics, and identity."

The problem is, that, while the blurb promises all the elements of a Greene novel, the writing just does not live up to it.

There we go again, my reading experience has been spoilt by my encounter with Graham Greene's work. The man has a lot to answer for!

In all seriousness, tho, the writing tries very hard to emulate the great Cold War thrillers, but falls flat. Where Greene, Le Carre, and Fleming all create an atmosphere of suspense and manage to do this with authority (some of which may have stemmed from them all having had first hand experience of what they were writing about), Francis' book reads like he tried very hard to copy the imagery from the films based on the great Cold War thrillers without capturing the sentiments of the underlying books.
In other words, although I have not read much of Stray Dog Winter, the onslaught of cliches and stereotypes, made me twitch.

It may well work for a James Bond to make reference to the brand names of the things he enjoys, but Fleming does so without attributing these products with any particular significance, nor would he expect the reader to gain any insight into the plot or a character by making these references. When our main character in Stray Dog Winter, Darcy, puts on his Ray Bans on arriving in Moscow, I got the feeling that the author tried to use some symbolism that just ended up having no meaning in the context of the story or character at all. And the sunglasses were not the only instance. Within the first three pages we already have....:

- "Darcy pulled up his Pentax and snapped a quick shot, feeling foreign, unaccountable."
- "....and flicked his half-done Popularne onto the tracks."
- "Fodor’s Moscow & Leningrad just said don’t take photos of anything strategic."
- "He pulled his faux-fur Kenzo coat about himself..."

I truly hate it when writers try to convey sentiments with brand names. It's so stupid. It is counter-productive to the art of writing, art of using words to describe and express.

And then there is Darcy, the main character, a young Australian art student from a broken home, who is travelling to visit his half-sister, who moved to Moscow. Darcy is naive and judgmental, which does not make him an endearing character, but what really irked me is that he jacks himself off to sleep to the idea of a border patrol soldier he watched from the train in one moment, and only a couple of pages on, he fantasizes about his half-sister?

To me that's an indication that there is not enough in the Cold War aspects of the story to make up the book and the author needed to clutch on some other straws to create a "thrilling" read.

I might be wrong. There may be more to the book than the indications I have picked up from the small part I have read, but I have the strong feeling that there will be a lot of eye-rolling and head-scratching ahead and that any hopes for a noir mystery thriller will be disappointed in favour of some contextless capers.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my youth, I was obsessed with stories about innocent men wrongly accused and packed off to prison. After some adventures in Morocco as a young adult, this obsession morphed into tales of naive travelers getting in over their heads in foreign countries hostile to Westerners. Michael A. Fitzgerald's Radiant Days took up this theme beautifully in 2007 and now we have David Francis's Stray Dog Winter.

The first half of the novel flips back and forth between the story of Darby Bright, a young Australian painter who journeys to Moscow in the early 80s to visit his half-sister, Finola. The second storyline deals with Darby's youth and the curious events that led to Fin's mysterious arrival and more sudden departure from the Bright household in Victoria in southeastern Australia.

Darby Bright is unabashedly gay, making Moscow with its barbaric policies against "blues," KGB speak for "homosexes," a very dangerous place to be. When it's revealed that Finola might be up to more than she lets on, Francis slowly starts turning the screws, ratcheting up the tension. Is Finola in trouble? Is Darcy being followed? Why are there microphones in the seat cushions? Darcy's discomfort blossoms into paranoia and fear, forcing him to make some hard choices between family and fleeing for safety.

Francis writes with a kind of unhurried elegance that allows the reader a clear view of the characters even when they are entangled in webs of deception -- partly of their own making, partly a product of a truly terrifying autocratic regime. The descriptions of Moscow in the winter, particularly while Darcy is on the run -- alone, frightened, and hopelessly overmatched -- made me feel physically cold while reading the novel. One feels both Darcy's vulnerability and the KGB's dread power in equal measure. Though Stray Dog Winter is not a thriller per se, it is a book about the perils of sheltering secrets from yourself as well as from those you profess to love.

David Francis will be reading at Vermin on the Mount, an irreverent reading series in the heart of L.A.'s Chinatown on Sunday, April 5.

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Francis takes the reader back to the Cold War, where everyone who is a homosexual is set up and then forced into doing something for the other side.
I liked the rhythm of the writing and the very weird childhood experienced by Darcy and his step-sister.
I could not understand why Fin wasn't picked up earlier by the Russians or why the General kept bumping people off. I did not understand his game at all.
Still a reasonable page turner.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much less plot-driven than the description would lead you to believe, which could go pro or con depending on your perspective. I find it to be trying a bit too hard for my taste, but your mileage may vary.

[juice · Rating 1 out of 5]

The kind of book you read to be admired for reading it, rather than reading something to enjoy it.

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull.

[Doug Roehler · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard for me to get past some of the EFFed up, twisted plotlines. It certainly won't be a book I will soon forget, but I was happy to finish the book as quickly as I did.

[Diana O’Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

David is an excellent writer. Look out for his other two novels: they are marvellous.

[Garry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of Stray Dog Winter begins with the words 'Enthralling, atmospheric and suspenseful'. I couldn't think of three words that better describe it.

Darcy is from Melbourne, and is summoned by his half-sister to Moscow. She tells him it's to paint, but she's lying. He gradually becomes more and more ensnared in a web of intrigue. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is who they seem - the more that he fights, the tighter the trap.

The first half of the book switches from present-day Moscow to childhood Melbourne. I found both story lines to be only just compelling enough to keep me hooked. It wasn't really until Melbourne was tossed aside at the halfway point, and the author focused on the here and now, that the story took off. At this point I didn't want to put the book down. I wonder how much better it could have been if the style of the second half had been replicated in the first.

Darcy is gay, and Stray Dog Winter won the 2010 Stonewall Book Award for best gay novel of the year. However; whilst Darcy's sexuality is a key element to the plot, the reader will not have steamy sex scenes thrust upon them. It's 100% suspense thriller.

Having said that, there are some very disturbingly grubby elements to the story line. Hints of child abuse, rape, incest. These made me feel uncomfortable, and I wondered whether they added or detracted from the reading experience.

One thing definitely annoyed me though.

I really don't like it when authors choose to leave out quotation marks. It's not clever - it only makes the book harder to read. I don't want to have to re-read sentences just to work out what's being said, when they would have been absolutely clear if quotation marks had been used. And it's particularly egregious in a thriller which relies on pacing. Why would an author choose to annoy his reader like that!

For the lack of quotation marks.... Stray Dog Winter loses a star.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is well written. Great prose. Author has a feel for putting you right there at the scenes... though if I read anything by him again it can't be so depressing.
I don't like to be brought down like that.
One huge glaring plot hole you could drive a truck through:
"Hero" (Darcy) is asked to help his sister (Fin) in Moscow. She sends him a money belt which we later learn contains a valuable document. So he travels with it while being scrutinized.. she NEEDS that belt. Why did she not hold on to it in the first place? gah!
"Hero" is very flawed. Could the gay stereotype of total promiscuity be any more predictable? He has sex with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that looks at him twice. Pictures of the "deeds" are then used to blackmail him.

[Helen Stasa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the premise of the book interesting- young man from Melbourne finds himself in considerable difficulty in Russia- but overall, the novel was mediocre. In particular, the author's stylistic device of using brand names for objects (e.g. "Darcy picked up his Pentax and got into the Lada") quickly became tedious and grating. In addition, whilst Darcy's backstory was interesting, the whole tortured family situation (alcoholic mother, unfaithful father, tearaway sister) was a bit too cliched. And I didn't find it particularly believable that after such a few meetings, Darcy felt so strongly about Aurelio.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely written and if, like me, you happen to be a sucker for any novel that captures this well that steamy wet-wool dark and totally claustrophobic sense of winter in the old Soviet Union, then totally irresistible. The gay angle, while integral, was just a bonus for this reader.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing in this was better than the plot, although the plot was definitely compelling. The ending was harrowing. Painted a very bleak picture of Soviet life. Also, the main character was a total nincompoop. Fucked up all over the place.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francis clearly studied at the knees of Graham Greene and Alan Hollinghurst --- the result is fast-paced and readable.

[Tom Ratliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the ending was a little tiresome, the whole book was the first in a long time that was an "I can't put this down!" read! Especially the General almost raping the main character!

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over all, this was quick and enjoyable read. Sometimes, though, I felt like I was missing something and had to reread passages to make sense of what I just read...

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great novel by my pal david

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing, again a disturbing relationship between a passive, troubled young man and a strange, compelling young woman, this time half siblings. Cold War Moscow. Killer.

[Garryvivianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an exciting read, an Austrialian pretty boy in the Soviet Union "helping" his wild half-sister, shady characters, run-ins with politicos. I enjoyed it.

[Ara · Rating 5 out of 5]

short, clear, awesome style of writing. loved it.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great adventure, very gripping and very graphic. Reminds you how far the world has come in 30 years

[Jillwilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good: Evocation of a cold Moscow environment, the nastiness of organisations like the KGB and government-led persecution of homosexuals. The evocation of Mornington Peninsula in the early 70s. The mother (Francis says that he was inspired to write her based on “Back in Australia, I had an Aunt Ruth with whom no one in my family dared speak. Apparently she'd slept with various American soldiers under the cypress hedge when they'd visited the farm during the war. Aunt Ruth ended up in Kenya but returned to Australia in the late sixties. I saw her only once - she lay on a chaise and ordered me: “Boy, get me a gin and tonic.” I was six.”)

Bad: character development of Fin, the half-sister of the main character Darcy and her obsession with a “shadowy figure from her sunnier Australian past” as Caroline Baum describes it, and her inability to communicate with her brother in any useful way (Baum describes it as “irritating”). (http://www.straydogwinter.com/Stray-D...)

This is a thriller set partly in the Soviet Union in 1984. You remember – USSR. Back in the USSR. The boycott of the Summer Olympics by the Soviets. An ailing, 69-year-old Yuri Andropov was running the Soviet Union from his Moscow hospital bed as the United States and its NATO allies conducted a massive series of war games. These games don’t feature in the novel (actually I think it might have been a better plot direction than the one taken). I didn’t love the thriller part of the story – too many holes.

Francis says in interview that his publishers (both in Australia and overseas) “were on the same page editorially – they wanted to “up” the suspense factor. So I undertook a re-write, investing heavily in the tautness and intrigue while keeping the pacing and poetry. I took out any scene that didn’t propel the story forward, some of which were based on Moscow memories – one at the circus, one in the GUM department store. What was sad was that, in themselves, those chapters really worked but they didn’t quite move the narrative sufficiently, so they were jettisoned. I also added some chapters to further develop and balance the Australian story.”

A shame, I would have liked more Moscow memories, less men chasing each other through the snow with guns. Just a personal thing.