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The Dog Park: A Collection of Stories with a Common Cast of Characters
The Dog Park is a book of eleven short stories that share a magical dog park as a setting. There people and their canine companions deal with betrayal and redemption, mathematical odds, illicit love, and more. In "Embodiment," interspecies boundaries blur between Argus, a stray German shepherd, and Cara Rosetti, who is in despair over a break-up and her dog's death.
232 pages, Paperback
First published June 5, 2010
About the author
Ann Elwood
64 books18 followersI live in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with six cats, a desert tortoise, seven box turtles, and a German Shepherd, Louis, who looks something like Rin Tin Tin in his soulfulness. At night I can hear the ocean when the tides are high.
When I was nine, my family moved from Ridgewood to Saddle River, New Jersey, a paradise of a town with a woods, a skating pond, a fishing pond, and 700 people who knew who we all were and where we were every minute. I had a shepherd dog, Mac, who died a tragic death, shot because someone thought his foaming-at-the-mouth fear of a thunderstorm meant he had rabies.
As an adult, I had no dogs until I settled down. After college (two miserable years at Trenton State Teachers College and two happy ones at Fairleigh Dickinson College), I taught elementary school for a few miserable years, then moved to Camden, New Jersey and landed a job as a typist-clerk at the Philadelpha Bulletin. When my boss discovered I had difficulty typing up circulation figures with twelve carbons, I was fired and found another job writing copy for a paternalistic insurance company that offered a low salary and delicious free lunch. One of the printers had the magical ability to square up a stack of paper into a perfect cube.
Eventually I moved to a studio apartment on Irving Place in New York City, and, after a few months of writing copy for a textbook company, went on to free-lance as a writer of anything anyone would pay me for. In 1967, I moved to Los Angeles, where I was advertising manager for a publishing company. Then the west coast was a mecca for writers and adventurers. Within a couple of years, I visited a Malibu beach house, fell in love (long-distance) with Bob Dylan, met Thomas Pynchon (he wouldn’t remember it), and saw Hair. In 1972, I returned to free-lancing, moved south, and found my first dog, Puppy, a mixed breed who looked something like a fox. (To show you how inappropriate Puppy’s name became, I’ll tell you this: Puppy died at age 17.) I wrote articles for Irving Wallace and his son, David Wallichinsky (People’s Almanac and Book of Lists), and did other wonderful things I won’t mention here. With Carol Orsag Madigan, I wrote several books.
A desire to delve more deeply into ideas finally drove me to graduate school in 1981. My dissertation focused on an order of 17th and 18th century French nuns so I had to spend a happy year in France doing research. During that year, while not in the archives, I drank local wine with fellow historians and traveled the country with Puppy, who had far less trouble than I did communicating with the French.
Now, I teach history part-time at California State University, San Marcos, spend time with Louis and the other animals, and write the books I have always wanted to write but never had the time for.
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When I was nine, my family moved from Ridgewood to Saddle River, New Jersey, a paradise of a town with a woods, a skating pond, a fishing pond, and 700 people who knew who we all were and where we were every minute. I had a shepherd dog, Mac, who died a tragic death, shot because someone thought his foaming-at-the-mouth fear of a thunderstorm meant he had rabies.
As an adult, I had no dogs until I settled down. After college (two miserable years at Trenton State Teachers College and two happy ones at Fairleigh Dickinson College), I taught elementary school for a few miserable years, then moved to Camden, New Jersey and landed a job as a typist-clerk at the Philadelpha Bulletin. When my boss discovered I had difficulty typing up circulation figures with twelve carbons, I was fired and found another job writing copy for a paternalistic insurance company that offered a low salary and delicious free lunch. One of the printers had the magical ability to square up a stack of paper into a perfect cube.
Eventually I moved to a studio apartment on Irving Place in New York City, and, after a few months of writing copy for a textbook company, went on to free-lance as a writer of anything anyone would pay me for. In 1967, I moved to Los Angeles, where I was advertising manager for a publishing company. Then the west coast was a mecca for writers and adventurers. Within a couple of years, I visited a Malibu beach house, fell in love (long-distance) with Bob Dylan, met Thomas Pynchon (he wouldn’t remember it), and saw Hair. In 1972, I returned to free-lancing, moved south, and found my first dog, Puppy, a mixed breed who looked something like a fox. (To show you how inappropriate Puppy’s name became, I’ll tell you this: Puppy died at age 17.) I wrote articles for Irving Wallace and his son, David Wallichinsky (People’s Almanac and Book of Lists), and did other wonderful things I won’t mention here. With Carol Orsag Madigan, I wrote several books.
A desire to delve more deeply into ideas finally drove me to graduate school in 1981. My dissertation focused on an order of 17th and 18th century French nuns so I had to spend a happy year in France doing research. During that year, while not in the archives, I drank local wine with fellow historians and traveled the country with Puppy, who had far less trouble than I did communicating with the French.
Now, I teach history part-time at California State University, San Marcos, spend time with Louis and the other animals, and write the books I have always wanted to write but never had the time for.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 27, 2011
This collection of short stories revolves around the regulars at a dog park in southern California. I will say up front that I do not own a dog and have never been to a dog park, so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the setting. However, I don't think you really need to be a "dog person" to understand or appreciate these stories. Many of the tales are about human drama, though of course dogs play a central role in every one. One thing I noticed was how bittersweet or even downright sad most of the stories were. I even shed a few tears during "Not Just a Dog." The plots are well-constructed and the characters believable, but don't expect a bunch of heart-warming doggy stories. Very few have what I would consider happy endings. All, however, do have reasonably satisfying endings, and that's all I really ask of a story. I remain interested in reading more fiction from Elwood in the future. Maybe she should release a tortoise collection next. I bet she could do that well.
June 22, 2011
In this book there is several short stories that are all part of the same scene and the same set of characters. All the characters take their dogs to this dog park called “Paradise” where they meet each other and become better people. In the first story you meet a character named Cara who just went through a nasty break-up and takes her beautiful dog to this park where she meets another dog that she grew a connection with. Which was one of my favorite stories in the book. I was confused at first in this book but found myself enjoying it. I also was wishing that I could find a dog park like this when I was a child with my dogs. It is a book that is very enjoyable to a dog person and it might be a nice read for those who just like to read short stories. I recommend this book to anyone of my friends and any person who is a dog person. I have received this complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my review.
June 20, 2011
I have to admit that I received a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes through bookrooster.com and it's a good thing that I did, otherwise I would have missed out on a good book. [[ASIN:B003PPDILK The Dog Park]] is not something I would have picked up normally, being as it's a set of 11 short stories. The difference between this set of short stories and most others? It is set focusing around the same cast of characters and the same location, a Dog Park in California.
Some of the stories were better than others, I have to admit, but they all had a different perspective of the park. The thing I enjoyed the most about the stories is that they didn't overlap. Each story was focused on a different time period of the park, rather than telling the same story from different perspectives.
If you're a dog lover, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Some of the stories were better than others, I have to admit, but they all had a different perspective of the park. The thing I enjoyed the most about the stories is that they didn't overlap. Each story was focused on a different time period of the park, rather than telling the same story from different perspectives.
If you're a dog lover, you'll probably enjoy this book.
May 15, 2011
I loved the Dog Park Stories. These eleven stories are all set in a wonderful dog park that will feel familiar to many dog lovers. It features a wide cast of characters-humane and canine alike. Each story examines a variety of human predicaments, from lost love, lost confidence, new friendship, new love, aging, and mental illness. The stories will make you laugh, and cry, and shiver, and remember why everything in life is better when there are dogs around!
July 5, 2011
I received a copy of this book to review from BookRooaster.com. Full disclosure - I have never had a dog. I don't think you have to be a dog owner to appreciate the dogs and their humans in these stories. I really enjoyed this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews