Fifteen Dogs
Series: Quincunx, Book 2
Written and Narrated By: André Alexis
Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
Two gods walk into a bar…
It’s like this, see… I’m addicted to audiobooks, and I hit various sites left and right scanning for sales, and well, just making a spectacle of myself to m’ husband. He knows, for instance, that Tuesday mornings are NOT a good day for me to be sitting around, listening to him lament the state of the Dallas Cowboys. Tuesdays, doncha know, are New Release days. And I scroll m’ poor li’l brains out trying to find nice fits for Audiobook Accomplice.
Enter Fifteen Dogs, and I didn’t EVEN look at the Publisher’s Summary cuz I saw it and thought: Huzzah! Animals Pick! So I went into it vaguely, kinda sorta, well, pretty much wholly unaware of what it was going to be about. M’ sister posited: P’raps a bit o’ magical realism (She’s kinda on a kick like that)? And she gave a bit of info:
Apollo and Hermes are sittin’ in a bar, contemplating mere mortals and human intelligence. Does it make Life for humans better? Or does it muck our entire existences up? They craft a bit of a wager: They’ll >POOF< give human intelligence to a bunch of dogs who just happen to be overnighting in a veterinarian clinic, and they’ll see if it makes their lives, their deaths, better or worse. If even ONE of them is happy at death, a winner is declared.
Okay, so now? I’m totally into this tale, as I’m desperately fond of pups, tho’ I was a trifle worried that the little over 6-hours of this audiobook would be, basically, a pack o’ dogs behaving and thinking enTIREly as humans would, and that’s never a good thing. If an author is going to get down into the nitty gritty of Life, of pondering the worth of our minds and motivations, get aaaaallll Philosophical? Man, if s/he just writes a tale that’s but humans wearing Dog Outfits? Boooo. Plus? Okay, we’re shooting for ONE happy death? Oh, dude! that means we’re looking at fifteen, FIFTEEN! dogs quite possibly suffering and DYING. All within 6-hours and 20-minutes.
And boy does it start out with me amused with the concept, then wham! mega distress as, when the dogs realize they can get out of their cages, go out into the world, not every one of them wishes to go. And we see what happens to those who stay behind/go against the decision of the newly formed Pack? OUCH! and woe woe woe…
So my amusement turned into grief, and then we follow each of the dogs as they struggle to remain true to their Dog Natures, all whilst being overcome by these new processes of thought. P’raps once upon a time they lived in each moment, smelling grass, eating feces, mounting without thought? Now they’re entirely aware of Life, of Time, of Motivations. The whole mounting thing? It’s subjugate or be subjugated, those lower on the totem pole FIERCEly wish to have someone, anyone, whose status is lower so that they might brutally mount and express some sort of dominance.
It’s also Survival of the newly-formed Pack first and foremost, and Atticus, a most dominant male, comes off like a brutal dictator. There is savagery in this book; there is also, as it goes along, the unlikeliest of poetry. Because, you see, author André Alexis does a marvelous job of story crafting, balancing these ultra-Philosophical creatures who dip towards human-like musings as they, at the same time, are very much dog-like. Alexis has (My favorite dog!) Majnoun sharing a strange and intense relationship with his at-one-time owner but now fellow “pack mate” young woman. Knowing he has intelligence and that he’s interested in languages and different cultures, knowing that she’d like very much to be known and understood by this companion of hers, she shares her favorite movies with him. And then she asks: Do dogs have Stories? But of course, Majnoun avers, and he shares what is one of the most touching stories known to Dogkind. Alexis crafts it so that it’s entirely believable given a dog’s life and interests, what might matter most intensely. It’s hilarious, and it’s so very uniquely crafted, and it’s soooo dog-like that there is noooo anthropomorphism here; not much at any rate.
This is NOT a Human book gussied up in a dog outfit; rather it’s each and every experience a Life can have on its journey. The dogs are people you’d meet everyday on the street, or would welcome into your own life. Some are creeps with entirely self-serving motivations; some cling to the old ways until it’s too late, and they realize all will be lost since they refused to bend, to change, to learn and to expand. And lemme just add here that Alexis’s narration adds so much, inhabiting each dog and presenting them to the Listener so that we might have the fullest experience possible of Life. Okay, I know the word for imbuing an animal with human qualities. But what’s the word for ALL of Life, of possibilities, of probabilities, of pitfalls and best cases, all packed into barely 6-hours? Is this all Allegory rather than Magical Realism?
Because, dear Accomplice, Fifteen Dogs instructs in the most effortless way imaginable. It touches most poignantly, moves so effortlessly, between attributes that inspire or debase, between gods who might envy a creature its ability to cease and to die.
Are the gods moved by us, we mere mortals, as we struggle and display our pitiful flaws on a daily basis, as we bumble and stumble, as we sometimes go searching for the Light? As we hide from, or embrace, the Darkness that is part and parcel of Existence? As our Deaths, those wonderful wonderful wonderful outcomes give such purpose and strength from the worthiness of a single day being granted, one wide open with opportunities and choices? Hermes and Apollo can’t help but intercede. Even Zeus gets in on the game.
And in the end? What would you choose? A life in the moment, smelling the grass? Or a life pondered and weighed, deemed worthy when all is said and done?
Ahhhh, the Fates shall decide….
Or? Shall we?
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