The Dog Went Over the Mountain: Travels with Albie: An American Journey
By: Peter Zheutlin / Narrated By: Gregg Rizzo
Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
Looking to escape Political Commentary…? >Ooooops< -Still- it has a DOG in it!!!
A 64, almost 65-year old geezer (I say saucily, denying that I m’self am getting oh soooo close to geezerhood), decides to undertake a cross-country journey with his beloved rescue dog, in the vein of Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley.
It has a DOG in it!!! So when this came up on a 2-for-1 credit sale at audiobooks.com, dude! was I THERE, or what?! EsPECially as I was itching to see what another wry, experienced author (Rescue Road, which is in m’ Library!) would make of the country, our American world, as seen at the later date of 2018.
In the beginning, author Peter Zheutlin spends just a few sentences bemoaning the state of the nation, the lack of civility, the possssibility of civil war, due to our petulant politics… and the man in the White House during 2018… yeh, Trump. -But wait!- THEN he goes on to say that politics will not be part of this story; rather, it’ll be about civil discourse with people, from all parts of the Nation, Red/Blue, doesn’t matter, from all walks of life, Listening no matter what the beliefs are. The man is oh sooo tired of our fraught times, and a journey á la Steinbeck, being the same age, dog in tow as well, jaunting about and meeting eccentric characters, looks like just The Thing to get outta his despair.
That said?
This has bright, very bright! moments of complete and utter charm. There’s some beautiful and lyrical writing as he considers some gorgeous views, as he ponders the glory of a moon rising in Santa Fe with oh so many stars swimming in the sky; as he looks out at ice-capped crags outside Boise; as he contemplates the depths, the thin clouds swirling way down low, of the Grand Canyon.
-BUT-
There are sooo many thoughts that, really, REALLY, should NOT have been written. I mean, I get it: America has changed sooo much since Steinbeck and Charley traipsed across its expanse, and we now have titles such as: Nature Deficit Disorder, (audio)books on the healing powers of Nature. We NEED to keep/get in touch with whatEVER Nature we can. And here in the 21st century, dadblast it if we’re losing so much to urban development and ugly strip malls. That said, now, by meeee? Really? Did Zheutlin HAVE to “out” so many communities, so many neighborhoods for being eyesores, to HIM? People take pride in where they live; and some don’t even have a choice. Why say that? What does THAT accomplish other than making him seem like a judgmental (And spoiled) kinda sorta creep?
Further, and once again, I get it: I’m TOTALLY on the same page with Zheutlin re: spiritual/religious beliefs; I’m on the same page politically/ideologically; and I tend to notice pretty much the exACt SAME things he does. But I’d never toss it, without a thought to feelings of others, into my book, with a smug sorta self-satisfaction at Being Right, Others Are Wrong. And he goes to greeeeat lengths to fess up to his biases/prejudices (So Huzzah for self-awareness), but these bleed into his interactions with others, and he always comes away stunned and flabbergasted that, saaaay, Southerners can be decent people; that those calling themselves More Red Than Blue can be wonderful hosts; that cyclists who are voCIFerously anti ANY and ALL gun restrictions can be friendly enough to exchange email addresses with. He always describes these interactions as bewildering as he’d thought such people would be Such-and-Such way (Read: Deplorably ignorant, or violently obnoxious… amongst other negative states of being).
And then he tosses in SEVeral lines re: Trump and his many and varied (Mucked-Up) policies (Oops! did I just add m’ own 2-cents in, uninvited? My sincerest apologies… but I’m not changing it…). Like, SEVeral times so that, tho’ one THOUGHT one would be getting an escape from our (Mucked-Up) generally barbaric political landscape? Noooo, we get quite a few mentions of Zheutlin kvetching about the reprobate.
At least there are moments of Albie, tho’ even THAT had me wondering. I understand that Zheutlin would want to meet with the women who kept Albie alive for 5-looong-months at a High-Kill Shelter in the South, but time and time again the man worries over how Albie might react to people, children, other dogs. Albie has gotten unpredictable and somewhat fractious now that he’s older, around 9-years old, so things get kinda touch-and-go there. You’re going on a cross-country trip to meet individuals and speak/listen to them, and you’re worried that your dog just miiiiiiiight attack? Uhm… don’t eeeeven know what to say about that.
I liked Greg Rizzo’s narration just fine as he sounds soooo much like an avuncular 60+ year old man. His tones get a bit snide when Zheutlin gets a bit snide, however, but ah well. I’ll get over it and shall move on… to the odd upwards lilt he sometimes ends sentences with. He hits certain emphasized syllables with a sorta question mark in his tones, so the rhythm, the flow of his narration is -sometimes- a wee bit off. Other than that, for the charm of the story, Rizzo did indeed charm m’ socks off. >Phew<
P’raps I’ve griped so much you think I didn’t like The Dog Went Over the Mountain. But it’s not like that at all; again, he and I share pretty much the same views. It’s just that I was hoping for something a little bit more respectful of the people he met, people who did NOT share the same views. Dunno, maybe that’s just the Wielder of Thoughts and Words in me; I’d have refrained from saying, so very often: Jeez, I thought this person was going to be a toad (No offense to toads) cuz I generally ALWAYS think those people are toads… and s/he turned out to be a gracious human being; who knew…?!
This had potential, such grand potential, but my cringing kinda sorta killed a lot of the Awwww, How Sweeeet(s) that were in the story. -But-
It has a DOG in it!!!
So there’s that…!
