Even when he more openly manipulates his characters, this fine new author (who, in another life, has a career developing software) invests their actions with intense emotion. When the dogs make a home for themselves in a new place, they do it with heart and soul.
“As they worked, they put the sky in place above, the trees in the ground,” the book says, describing one of Edgar’s training sessions. “They invented color and air and scent and gravity.” And in a touch that is by no means unexpected, once Wroblewski’s world has been entered and embraced, this book’s saddest farewell ends a profound man-dog relationship. Not even Hamlet could have imagined the strength of their loyalty or the depths of their sorrow.
RSS