The Plague Dogs: A Novel by Richard Adams
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Book Reviews of The Plague Dogs: A Novel
Book Review: Best book I've read from my formative years
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this when i was about 13 and I have remembered it ever since. If you are a dog lover, or animal lover in general you will not regret reading this if you missed out when it was first released.Book Review: Just Short of Greek Tragedy....
Summary: 4 Stars
This book has an awful lot going for it and a couple of detractors.
First, the good stuff
- In the style of Classic Tragedy you see the main characters facing difficult life decisions with ethical implications all around and along the way, you the reader, begin to discover the pull of emotions that shape so many of the choices we have to make. The sense of "fate" building up a tragic climax permeates the whole stuff of the book.
- This is a book about the beauty of friendship in the face of incredible odds. The dogs are "humanized" of course and hence their friendship is much more human than doggy.. but the contrast with the Tod reminds us that friendship empowers a quality of life that transcends any of the troubles that beset us all.
- This book is also about humans... perhaps more than dogs... you begin to wonder if there are any noble ones around... but hang in there..
Cons
- the descriptive prose begins to tire after a while. I know the landscape was beautiful but it is a bit much.
- the ending is a bit weak in my thinking... the author enters into a dialog with a representative reader and then uses a literary device of inserting himself as the topic of conversation between two characters. It was a kind of narcissism which was distracting. It knocked it down from five stars in my estimation.
All in all, very good book and well worth the reading. You will like it I assure you.
Book Review: It's A Dog-Eat-Dog World Out There
Summary: 4 Stars
Of the handful of fictional books where an author attempts to convey the thoughts of dogs, Mr. Adams' novel stands leagues above the others that I've read. The dogs, Snitter and Rowf, misinterpret many aspects of the world around them. They view humans as practically omnipotent. This is not some sweet, charming story to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Some of the scenes are heart-wrenching while other events are brutal and devoid of any sentimentality. The author aims his sights on animal experimentation and the selfish motivations of people. There are a few antagonists who are so odious that vivisection on them would have been an adequate comeuppance. However, Mr. Adams does flesh out and allow some of the unlikeable people to evolve. But the humans are mostly secondary characters compared to the plight of Snitter and Rowf. It took about fifty pages for me to get involved in the story, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Published in 1977, I can see why this wonderful book is still in print.Book Review: A hard read
Summary: 2 Stars
I barely made it to the end of this book, and after finishing didn't feel rewarded for sticking all the way through it. I liked Snitter and Rowf enough to WONDER whether they might make it through alive or not, but never actually CARED. This was due to the style of writing in the book. Be warned that this book is not at all in the style of Watership Down. There is little action and too much characterization (at least of the humans - the dogs are done well) is displayed by the writer out in the open, in long and plodding pages of biographical history and personality description rather than letting the characters act from the get-go. Even so I didn't feel that the human characters acted entirely in a realistic manner, and two (!) of them are transformed by a change of heart from practically evil to practically pure - think puppies and rainbows type changes! (Even one of the dogs, I felt, depending on how you interprete the ending, had a radical change of heart to make things less complicated for the writer.) There are also long and plodding pages of descriptions of, well, hills. Lots and lots of hills. With all of this in between the story of the dogs and the pursuit of them, I lost interest and emotion for Snitter and Rowf.
There are also absolutely ridiculous conversations between the author and some "reader" he imagined in his head. Take this example: "And what the devil (I hear you asking) has all this got to do with Snitter and Rowf...[etc etc...] Nothing, you have concluded? Your Highness shall from this practice but make hard your heart. In fact...[etc etc...]" I wasn't even asking such a thing! This was written after one of the few parts I actually found entirely engrossing (if only for personal reasons), and Adams had to go and ruin the flow with strange insults. It's like Adams looked at his work, found that he was lacking in some areas, and covered it up by chiding the audience if they should see it too. The ending was entirely ruined for me simply because Adams again had a page-long conversation with the "reader" - in poetic form no less!
The ending also reminded me of the end of The Dark Tower series, where Stephen King gave one ending, and then wrote that if the reader didn't like that ending they could read on and they'd have the ending they really wanted. Both endings also had writer insertion and a deus ex machina (the latter of which The Plague Dogs runs on).
It's a very British book. I'm not even sure what that means, since I don't watch or read much British stuff, but there are lots of British words (even besides the accents) and references to literature or popular culture (I'm guessing that's what those were anyway). And good God, the hills. So many hills.
Well this is all just my opinion, and I felt that I should put it up since so many of the negative reviews on here don't seem to actually point out what was disliked (probably why I ordered the book!). There were parts I enjoyed - much of the second half was partly engrossing, the messages were well argued and well taken, and Snitter's madness was wonderful. The rest of the reviews on this page will tell you all about these things. But still I could not like the book overall. If things like what I wrote above drive you nuts as much as they do me, stay away. If you like dog books, I suggest instead James Oliver Curwood's books Kazan and Baree (in that order), though I'll admit I read both long ago but they were very engaging at the time.
Book Review: First book I ever threw away!
Summary: 1 Stars
The Plague Dogs: A Novel
I could not stand the pain of reading this book. I know, things like this happen to our animals. After reading the ending of the book, I was so angry that I went to the wastebasket and threw the book away. I wish, the ending had been more clear.