Cormac is a novel based on real events, and tells the tale of a Golden Retriever, who ran away from his Alabama home while the owner was on a book tour in San Francisco. Cormac had always been afraid of storms, they made him cower and tremble. Or, in this case, run, run like the shrieking wind that blew the rain across the land. Maybe if Cormac s master had not been away from home, and his food and water poured for him by a stranger s hand, things would have been different. But on that day the young male dog took off into an adventure that would land him in the bed of a red pickup truck, driven by a mysterious woman who would hand him over to the dog pound, and the dog pound would hand him over to a rescue group who would take him to a clinic to be fixed by a routine scalpel and end his royal lineage. Cormac would be hauled to Connecticut in the back of a van, and turned over to another rescue group that would offer him for adoption on the internet. These things are known because Cormac s owner, Sonny Brewer, the author of this book, went door to door in his neighborhood gathering one clue and then another, one bit of information and then another. When the trail led him to the dog pound and the director there refused to disclose information to Sonny, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist friend promised the story would make national news in 48 hours unless Sonny was told everything he wanted to know. Doors and phone lines then opened and Sonny attempted to determine if the Golden Retriever the foster family called Cognac was in fact Cormac. Sonny felt 90 percent certain it was his dog and agreed to take him, paying a pet transport driver $300 to bring the Golden south to Alabama.
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About the Author
Sonny Brewer is the editor of the anthology Stories from the Blue Moon Café, out each fall from MacAdam/Cage, and author of The Poet of Tolstoy Park (Ballantine) and A Sound Like Thunder (Ballantine). The fifth volume in the Blue Moon Café series is published under the title,A Cast of Characters and Other Stories.
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More About the Author
Sonny Brewer is a writer and editor, and founder of Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama. His novels include The Poet of Tolstoy Park, A Sound Like Thunder, and The Widow and the Tree. Cormac-The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing is mostly a true story of losing his Golden Retriever and finding him a month later, 1200 miles from home, neutered and up for adoption on the internet.
Sonny founded Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope and its annual literary conference, Southern Writers Reading. He is also founder of the non-profit Fairhope Center for Writing Arts.
The Poet of Tolstoy Park and A Sound Like Thunder, Sonny's first two books, painted a historical backdrop of the author's bayfront hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. The Poet of Tolstoy Park was set in the 1920s, and A Sound Like Thunder in the 1940s. A present day Fairhope novel, The Widow and the Tree, is a fable-istic tale of a 500-year-old oak tree presiding at the intersection of lives and emotions in Coastal Alabama. The book is based on a true story, and actual news accounts of events surrounding the intentional killing some twenty years ago of Inspiration Oak, a champion Live Oak near Magnolia Springs can still be found on the internet. The cover art for The Widow and the Tree is an original wood engraving by celebrated artist Barry Moser.
Sonny edits the anthology Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe, published now and then by MacAdam/Cage. The fifth volume in the Blue Moon Cafe series is published under the title, A Cast of Characters and Other Stories.
Sonny spent three minutes of his fifteen-minute allotment of fame when he got some press in the New York Times for wearing a seersucker suit while riding his Harley, with a front story about Henry Stuart's hundred-year old odd round house of hand-poured concrete that was the basis for his novel, The Poet of Tolstoy Park.
A children's book called Rembrandt the Rocker, which Sonny self-published, you can sometimes find on the used book market illustrated by the author. If you're in the mood for some dime-store philosophy, look among the out-of-print titles for A Yin for Change.
Sonny also composed a ghost-written biography of Clarence Darrow.
Sonny is the former editor-in-chief of Mobile, Alabama's city magazine, Mobile Bay Monthly; he also published and edited The Eastern Shore Quarterly magazine and edited Red Bluff Review. He was a reporter on his college newspaper, and co-edited The Southern Bard literary magazine at the University of South Alabama.
Sonny's training as a writer began with his first real job at 15, where he flipped burgers as a short-order cook at Woody's Drive-In in Millport, Alabama. His story-telling education continued as service station attendant, pants folder, folk singer, used car salesman, sailor and electronics technician in the U.S. Navy, tugboat deckhand, traveling used tire salesman, carpenter, building contractor, real estate salesman, purveyor of collectible automobiles, magazine editor, newspaper columnist, teacher, lecturer, and coffeehouse manager. Sonny knuckled down in there somewhere and collected a couple of college degrees, which might or might not have helped. He built a cabin on Fish River in Lower Alabama recently and is proud that he ran the wiring and the plumbing without major incident or injury.
Knowing that a writer never lets the truth stand in the way of a good story, Sonny believes he is missing some critical experience in embellishment: He has not yet made a bid for political office nor preached a tent revival--though, regarding the latter, he has always hankered to do so, choosing not to, however, under threat of divorce.
Sonny is married to Diana, and has two sons, John Luke and Dylan, and a daughter Emily.
Sonny founded Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope and its annual literary conference, Southern Writers Reading. He is also founder of the non-profit Fairhope Center for Writing Arts.
The Poet of Tolstoy Park and A Sound Like Thunder, Sonny's first two books, painted a historical backdrop of the author's bayfront hometown of Fairhope, Alabama. The Poet of Tolstoy Park was set in the 1920s, and A Sound Like Thunder in the 1940s. A present day Fairhope novel, The Widow and the Tree, is a fable-istic tale of a 500-year-old oak tree presiding at the intersection of lives and emotions in Coastal Alabama. The book is based on a true story, and actual news accounts of events surrounding the intentional killing some twenty years ago of Inspiration Oak, a champion Live Oak near Magnolia Springs can still be found on the internet. The cover art for The Widow and the Tree is an original wood engraving by celebrated artist Barry Moser.
Sonny edits the anthology Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe, published now and then by MacAdam/Cage. The fifth volume in the Blue Moon Cafe series is published under the title, A Cast of Characters and Other Stories.
Sonny spent three minutes of his fifteen-minute allotment of fame when he got some press in the New York Times for wearing a seersucker suit while riding his Harley, with a front story about Henry Stuart's hundred-year old odd round house of hand-poured concrete that was the basis for his novel, The Poet of Tolstoy Park.
A children's book called Rembrandt the Rocker, which Sonny self-published, you can sometimes find on the used book market illustrated by the author. If you're in the mood for some dime-store philosophy, look among the out-of-print titles for A Yin for Change.
Sonny also composed a ghost-written biography of Clarence Darrow.
Sonny is the former editor-in-chief of Mobile, Alabama's city magazine, Mobile Bay Monthly; he also published and edited The Eastern Shore Quarterly magazine and edited Red Bluff Review. He was a reporter on his college newspaper, and co-edited The Southern Bard literary magazine at the University of South Alabama.
Sonny's training as a writer began with his first real job at 15, where he flipped burgers as a short-order cook at Woody's Drive-In in Millport, Alabama. His story-telling education continued as service station attendant, pants folder, folk singer, used car salesman, sailor and electronics technician in the U.S. Navy, tugboat deckhand, traveling used tire salesman, carpenter, building contractor, real estate salesman, purveyor of collectible automobiles, magazine editor, newspaper columnist, teacher, lecturer, and coffeehouse manager. Sonny knuckled down in there somewhere and collected a couple of college degrees, which might or might not have helped. He built a cabin on Fish River in Lower Alabama recently and is proud that he ran the wiring and the plumbing without major incident or injury.
Knowing that a writer never lets the truth stand in the way of a good story, Sonny believes he is missing some critical experience in embellishment: He has not yet made a bid for political office nor preached a tent revival--though, regarding the latter, he has always hankered to do so, choosing not to, however, under threat of divorce.
Sonny is married to Diana, and has two sons, John Luke and Dylan, and a daughter Emily.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A written testimony to the strength of a bond between man and his pet,
By Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cormac: The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing : Based on a True Story (Paperback)
Sonny Brewer dedicates his heartwarming and heart-rending novel, which is based on real events, to his beloved dogs, Rex and Cormac. The cover art, a full-color photograph of Cormac, is in itself a testimony to the nature of his relationship with his pet. CORMAC took more than three years to be written, so gut-wrenching it was for Brewer to accomplish. He introduces us to his dog in this manner: "Now I think about the world's handsomest and sweetest Golden Retriever, as smart as any four-year-old child, who answers to the name, Cormac..." He goes on to describe Cormac's home in an aging farmhouse on the outskirts of Fairhope, Alabama.
But Brewer's agony begins upon receiving a phone call from his house-sitter while on an extended business trip. The voice rings in his ear: "Man, your dog is missing. I can't find Cormac anywhere." Stunned by the unwelcome news, Brewer is emotionally unglued. What on earth has happened back in the sleepy town of 12,000 in Alabama? He adores his wife and two children, but Cormac has found a comfort space in his heart that deepens with each passing day. Anguish now fills that void with the realization that the dog may be dead, stolen, a runaway stray and lost to him forever. Cormac's entry into the Brewer household had been a story in itself. Having promised his wife and children a puppy, they embark on a trip to see a litter of Golden Retriever puppies. The dog's sire was known as "Rock" and the grandfather was "Bear." A reddish-brown pup had shadowed Brewer from the moment he stepped from his vehicle. As he related, "The adoption seemed fated...a ball of fur the color of Ann-Margaret's hair...between red and auburn." The family agrees on the name "King," but Brewer holds out for his favored author, Cormac McCarthy. Cormac becomes king of the household. The founder of Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Brewer spends time and money investing in rare manuscripts and first editions. The bookstore is successful, but additional funds from the sale of his debut novel will feed his family. It is well-stocked and well-known, yet sales are occasionally thin. Cormac is purchased as a family pet but becomes his master's best friend in a short time. The majority of his day is spent in quiet repose at the bookstore. Thunderstorms change quiet repose to anxious roaming. Cormac, usually docile, can turn into a terrified wanderer. The family yard has boundaries, but a young dog becomes exuberant and crosses the line. Brewer hires a company to install an electric fence, buried underground. When a line is crossed, the wire will send an impulse to shock the unwitting animal. On the fateful day that Cormac disappears, the shock waves do not work. CORMAC is a story written by a deeply artistic soul. Brewer's personal anguish over the loss of his dog runs throughout his written pages. The reader feels his pain, panic and depression when his real trial begins: the business of recovering Cormac, if possible. He is a man with a mission. We cheer him with each step he takes to find his lost canine friend. CORMAC is a short book that is lengthy in warmth, a written testimony to the strength of a bond between man and his pet. --- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A dog truly loved.,
By
This review is from: Cormac: The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing : Based on a True Story (Paperback)
I don't agree with the 1 star review.Having just read Mr Brewers book about his wonderful loving dog Cormac and his un-needed adventure thanks to a unkind neighbor who was the cause for all the trouble not the owner( I would have left a flamming bag of Cormac poo for the old bat at her door step.) This book show a true love of a dog for the owner and, a true love of a owner for the dog. Mr Brewer went to the ends of the earth for Cormac to get him back. I'm sure Cormac is glad to be home.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hurrah for happy endings!,
By
This review is from: Cormac: The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing (Audio CD)
Having recently lost (and found) a cat who went missing for 21 days, I can relate to the anguish the author felt when his dog, Cormac went missing. It was especially endearing to listen to the book read by the author with his engaging southern accent. I felt transported to Fairhope, Alabama and the Over the Transom Bookstore as the author recounted his heartbreaking experience of losing his beloved pet and his struggle to reclaim him.
The author has been criticized for not having his pet neutered and for not keeping it fenced in (he did however have an electronic fence). How about a neighbor who would knowingly take someone's pet to the pound after removing his identification, potentially making it difficult for him to be reunited with his owner? That should be criminal!
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