The Power of the Dog : A Novel
by Thomas Savage, Annie Proulx
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Book Summary Information
Author: Annie Proulx, Thomas SavageEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-06
ISBN: 0316610895
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of The Power of the Dog : A Novel
Book Review: The Impotence of the Unexamined Life
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Power of the Dog" is an ingenious novel. Thomas Savage runs circles around such contemporary male fiction writers as Cormac McCarthy, Tim O'Brien, and Kent Haruf. Reminiscent of Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky," Savage exposes the dark motivations and secret vulnerabilities of both men and women through subtle, discursive internal monologues. While it is an art to reveal characterization via dialogue and observation, it is a giant talent that is able to get inside disparate minds and uncover their most fervent thoughts and yearnings. This Savage accomplishes with a multitude of characters, and he does so in a lean, intelligent manner. Upon finishing "The Power of the Dog," the reader knows he has walked around in enough heads to grow and learn about people and life in the deepest, possible manner. Since this is why some of us read literary fiction, such a book is bound to satisfy many.
The story revolves around the domestic conflict of two brothers: Phil and George Burbank, Montana ranchers in the 1920's, whose aristocratic parents have endowed them with culture and education but who have not imparted to either of the boys a firm sense of identity and self-acceptance. Phil, a homophobic, sadistic, crude man who doesn't bathe and prides himself in his folksy manner even though he's secretly proud of his blue-blooded heritage, taunts both his brother's wife and her son, driving the wife to alcoholism and the son to murder. George, a gentle, meek man who needs to be respected for what he is and not his wealth, allows Phil to overshadow him in the management of the ranch to the detriment of both his wife and stepson. While the brothers have their conflicts, they are nevertheless bound by the harsh requirements of ranching and the challenges of the vast Montana landscape. Both have survived the southern values their parents forced on them, such as reading and intellectuality, yet both have rejected their upbringing, reserving only a minimal allegiance to those who raised them.
A major theme of the book is homosexuality, which for the most part, is unacknowledged by all the characters. Phil, who grew up in awe of Bronco Billy, a shadowy macho trainer who died young in Phil's presence, has never ceased to romanticize this man of his adolescent yearnings. George's wife, Rose, has a sensitive, effeminate son who is the object of Phil's scorn but who recognizes his uncle's homosexuality and uses that proclivity on Phil's part to seduce Phil into letting down his guard. Because Peter appears to know what it takes to trick his uncle, we realize he has acknowledged his own homosexuality on some level, but George, Rose, the grandparents, and even Phil seem unaware of that. Savage seems to imply that the "power of the dog" is so strong that it cannot be restrained; it will exert its control to survive, as Phil struggles to protect his self-image until Peter wields the same power to destroy it. The danger in that power arises from the fact that no one acknowledges its existence or the rage that propels it. It is suggested that Phil and George's parents denied the existence of homosexuality and thus did not impart to their sons the capacity to discuss the subject, thus giving rise to the homophobia that is at the heart of Phil's depravity and Peter's psychopathology. Yet the power of the dog is more than just homosexuality; it is the "implacable malice" behind deception and narcissism.
Related to homosexuality is the theme of misogyny. Both brothers share a repugnance for their mother - for the scents and clutter of a woman's life. The boys allow their mother's geraniums to die, showing their lack of regard for her. Phil is admittedly repulsed by women's odors and gestures, by all that is feminine. Even Peter is contemptuous, not only of his mother Rose's drinking, but of her weakness of character and her cloying ways. Although he would protect her in any circumstance, he does not recognize power in her any more than he does in George. Kindness of the sort that his own father displayed and that of Rose as well is not enough to arouse his respect. It is the power of the intellect, the capacity to outwit the opponent that matters to Peter, as it does to Phil and Bronco Billy. For all of these men duplicity and courage rule the day. This, too, is the power of the dog.
Castration is a major motif in the book. The beginning of the novel has a brilliant scene where Phil is castrating the cows. He calls their testicles "mountain oysters" and suggests that the young ranch hands eat them to empower them with the girls. Phil prides himself that he doesn't need gloves to protect him from the various ranch chores. In this sense, he sees himself as invincible, much like Bronco Billy, his idol, and befitting a man who didn't need the sexual pleasure most men sought. Phil also prides himself in his emotional detachment and notices that others admire him for that trait. Curiously the man does not drive, instead relying on his brother to take him into town for his quarterly haircut. Educated in California, he feels superior to his brother who flunked out of University. George is the simpler of the boys, relating more to animal magazines than novels, scientific writings or pieces of philosophy. People recognized that Phil was the intelligent one and George the follower. Also curious is the fact that the widow Rose, whose husband had been a doctor who read and was sensitive, married the pragmatic, simple George.
Rose's husband once told her in referring to their son's aspirations, "Every man lacks something." Thus do we accept our failures, by admitting them, the passage reminds us, yet her husband was unable to do that. Humiliated by his seeming cowardice, which was actually a gentleness akin to kindness, he commits suicide. Only through the most skillful internal narration and subtle dialogue can these secrets of the human heart be revealed so artistically, but Savage does it with aplomb. Finally, the complex motif of castration suggests the impotence that results from not accepting who you are. Johnny, Rose's husband, admits he's fearful of acknowledging his cowardice; Phil never recognizes his homosexuality, nor is Peter honest on the subject. Only Rose admits that she has no real identity, that she needs to believe she is wanted. Phil notes that George always feels sorry for people; he would argue that is not love, but George doesn't realize that is what motivates his connection to Rose, who subsequently surrenders to self-hatred and alcoholism because she does understand that about George and is chastened by it.
Savage uses symbolism adeptly but not excessively and always appropriately. Phil is repeatedly associated with spiders as his hands glide over the banjo strings and as he cunningly weaves his elaborate web to trick Peter. Always, his hands scrabble, surreptitiously seeking their target, whether it's a dead cow, a sensitive boy or the wife of his brother. Flowers are another symbol, signifying various ideas. Rose is a flower - beautiful and sweet, always smiling up at people. In fact, it is the image of her so readily disposed to a smile of acceptance that endears people to her for it displays her natural kindness. Flowers decorate the aging parents' rooms after the funeral of their son, Phil, and are carefully alluded to in veiled references to Phil's sexual orientation which his mother always ignored rather than address, as she did any issue that might be difficult or controversial. The brothers' parents have always hid behind appearances as they do in their final discussion about their son. The old lady reminds her husband in oblique terms that "You had nothing, precisely nothing, to do with it. One is what one is, does what one must do, and ends as fate requires." It is not her husband's fault Phil was homosexual, as likewise he suggests the same: ..."But you said you were braced. And remember you were always patient, you were always kind," he reassures his wife. The woman kneads her hands to stop their trembling. "Kindness! What else in God's name is there?" she demands, reminiscent of Blanche Dubois' claim that she had "always relied on the kindness of strangers." It is the way of the southern aristocrat, as Tennessee Williams penned it in "A Streetcar Named Desire," and true of Savage's vision of the rich southerner, even unfortunately, when he has moved out West. The old lady's eyes rest on the flowers. "Oh, so many flowers," she says, wondering how many of them will be left to give to the charity wards at the local hospital. Like her insincere gestures, the flowers camouflage unpleasantness. Similarly, the reader recalls the claw-like chrysanthemums that remind the brothers of their mother and her geraniums that are allowed to die. Flowers are part of the backdrop each time the old gent protects his wife from self-knowledge: "It's not your fault..." they continuously remind each other. Not your fault that both sons have no relationship with you. Not your fault that Phil is a homosexual and cruel and narcissistic. Not your fault that George lacks confidence and is homely and clumsy. Not your fault that he married beneath him a woman who sang in a bar and has a sissy son.
And, of course, there is the symbol of the dog whose power extends over all the characters, humiliating and subduing them until Peter goes after the Goliath Phil and slays him at last, not with a sling shot but with poison Phil himself bred - metaphorically and otherwise. "The dog is dead," Peter observes of Phil. The dog symbolizes homosexuality, but it connotes more than that. It is about power unfairly wielded and destructive, the kind of force that the most unscrupulous use to intimidate and disown others perceived as weak or threatening. For Phil, it is Peter's effeminate tendencies that repel him, but Peter knows it is something deeper than Phil would care to acknowledge. "You want me, Mr. Burbank?" he asks, knowing exactly what he is implying. Phil glosses over the request. "You want me?" Peter asks again, emphasizing his recognition of what Phil is. But that is what Peter is as well and why he understands Phil in the first place. It takes one to know one, and if Phil had any self-knowledge he would have recognized his latent longings, but he didn't. The dog symbolizes the predator as well. "The dog would have its prey," Phil notes with satisfaction as he watches the supernatural giant dog of his imagination that no one else can see, not even George. It is the one animal Phil relates to, and he sees it juxtaposed with magpies and carrion, two other symbols of corruption and predation.
"The Power of the Dog" is a fascinating glimpse into those whose identity has never been adequately formed because they have refused to acknowledge what they are. For Phil, it is his homosexuality that renders him a caricature of a man because he so adamantly ignores it. For Peter it's his willingness to do anything to prevent his own acknowledgment that he has no remorse and no feelings for anyone; he is a classic psychopath. For Rose, it is her inability to be "anything unless someone believed in her." In the end she rests in her drunken sleep with dollar bills scattered beside her, "like leaves." She is insubstantial in her lack of identity and willpower. She is painfully aware that George will eventually discover she is as fake as his mother and leave her. The reader realizes that the governor's wife's keen observation that Rose had "probably failed already" means that she no longer has any power over George, as Rose herself has feared. Likewise, the brothers' aging parents still protect each other from unpleasant truths of their parental mistakes. After all, they are the architects of their family, and in that their accomplishments are dubious.
The novel is tight, insightful, deep and richly textured - a rare triumph comparable to "Revolutionary Road," as one reviewer noted, or "Brokeback Mountain." The characters are well defined, the plot original, the pacing good. Most of all, the book achieves a rare depth of characterization by the intelligent use of interior monologue. Because of this tendency to develop the thoughts of complex characters, the novel is a magnificent achievement.
Marjorie Meyerle
Colorado Writer
Author: Bread of Shame
Summary of The Power of the Dog : A Novel
First published in 1967, Thomas Savage's western novel about two brothers and the competition between them when one marries now includes an afterword by Annie Proulx.Classics Books
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