Customer Reviews

Diamond Dogs

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Diamond Dogs is a wonderful work of fiction you can't put down from the moment you read the first page. Alan Watt has written an exciting, non-stop story centering around a hit and run accident and its subsequent cover-up. A wonderful suspenseful tale of a mixed-up but loving relationship between father and son.

High School quarterback Neil Garvin, a much-worshipped high school football star narrates the story. It's thru his eyes that the whole story enfolds, and you quickly realize that teenagers today are much more mature than we give them credit for. It's over the course of the next three days following the accident that Neil's life is completely changed when his father, the sheriff, helps cover-up the accident. We become a participant in the events that follow, whether we like it or not, and we get drawn into the complexities of small-town life, and father and son bonding.

Whether it takes you a few hours, a day, or 2 days, this is a book you won't forget. A very promising debut novel from this author. An easy read that will keep you very entertained. Bravo!!

"Diamond Dogs" refers to those elite who possess the talent and charisma to rise above the pack...and Alan Watt has captured perfectly the double-edged sword that such talent becomes, especially when you're 17-year-old Neil Garvin. His young life changes dramatically one fateful night as he drives home drunkenly from a friends party, and he strikes and kills a fellow student in his father's car. Not even his sheriff father can save him from the personal hell which he endures when he makes a series of bad choices. Although the story ends in triumphant redemption, this victory is bittersweet for both Neil and his tormented father. Both have abandonment issues that color their every decision, and by the final page, each deals with those in cataclysmic ways...resulting in one of the most powerfully triumphant stories to grace a page. Watt has captured Neil's tortured soul in an original voice, and aptly portrays the effects of two men's choices that go horribly wrong on a family that is already deteriorating beyond repair. Far from being depressing, "Diamond Dogs" is hopeful and poetic. A highly recommended read!

Also recommended as companion books: "Good Times, Bad Times"--James Kirkwood

"A Separate Peace"--John Knowles

"The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"--Chris Fuhrman

Powerfully written, deep but approachable, Diamond Dogs is a great read. The book's best quality is the first-person narrator. Seventeen-year-old Neil tells us the story in his own voice, but unlike other first-person teenage narrators, Alan Watt captures the thoughts, actions, fears and emotions of a young person extremely well. In so many other books the narrator seems like a kid written by an adult, either too wise or to naïve for his (or her) supposed years. As Neil tells us his story, Watt deftly moves from action to thoughts, from detail of the crime to the results of the action within the walls of his school, at home and in Neil's private world. Terrific teenage first-person narrative of a multi-layered story makes Diamond Dogs an important book.

You know the cliche, I couldn't put it down.
I'll put it like this: painfully good. Painful in the way I emotionally
connected with the characters. Well written and deep; Alan Watt
is a writer to track.

A fine book buried behind a lousy cover and poor marketing, "Diamond Dogs" is a real treat that I might easily have over-looked had a friend not mentioned it to me. It is the engaging narrative of Neil, a high school football star from a troubled family who, after a night of drinking and recreational cruelty, accidentally kills a classmate. His father, the local police chief of their Nevada town (just outside of Las Vegas) disposes of the body without even talking to Neil, and thus begins three days of tension and mayhem.

Some of the elements of "Diamond Dogs" are a bit over-cooked. I found the father's obsession with Neil Diamond more gimmicky than believable, which is too bad because the rest of the father/son relationship is drawn brilliantly. I found Neil's problems with his father, his yearning for his long-departed mother, and his relationships with his friends and girlfriends both believable and moving. Neil is not a particularly likable character, but what makes this novel so compelling is that Alan Watt had built him around an utterly irresistible narrative voice. I was hooked from the first page, and I just kept on reading.

I don't know if it is true, but I have heard a rumor that Watt wrote this novel in six weeks. If that is the case, I tip my hate to him and bow in awe. Even if it is not the case, I am very impressed and I look forward to more good things from this talented young author.

Alan Watt's "Daimond Dogs" packs an enormous punch. Set in the physical and emotional wasteland outside Las Vegas, the novel chronicles the unspooling impact of a vehicular homicide on the lives of the protagonist, Neil Garvin, and his controlling father. Watt's pacing is impressive, and the novel gathers strength as it progresses. By the time I has reached the final day of the three days elapsed since the homicide, I felt completely immersed in the inner dynamics of Neil's emotions and the tense outcome of the criminal investigation following the victim's disappearance. Because the author invests so much of the novel with moral universals (What are our responsibilities when innocent blood is shed? What limits are there to friendship and family ties?), transendent familial values (loyalty, love, and loss), and overwhelming emotion (fear, anger and betrayal), "Diamond Dogs" will remain with the reader long after completion.

Star quarterback Neil Garvin appears to have it all. The son of handsome but aloof sheriff Chester Garvin, Neil lives an emotionally crippled life. Plagued with questions about his mother's abrupt departure from his life when he was but a child, Neil at once envies friends whith coherent families but never allows himself to share his most intimate feelings with anyone. Despite his academic talent, Neil elects to play the fool in class, drink heartily with his pampered football cohorts and seethe with quiet anger over his father's fascination with Neil Diamond. The Las Vegas setting skews his view of women, and with the absence of any stable woman in his life, he is left with his father's predatory attitude as his model of relationships.

Watt's characterizations are superb. Neil's father possesses wrath and anger which the author uses to advance the narrative and ultimately explain the development of Neil's character. Neil's best friend, Reed, comes to symbolize fealty and innocence; his evolution as sacrificial lamb explores the limits of friendship. Even minor characters, such as the school principal/football coach (whose respectable venality contrasts nicely with the jarring and blatant corruption of Las Vegas), are drawn with precision and present themselves as utterly believable.

"Diamond Dogs" is Alan Watt's first novel. With this impressive debut under his belt, Mr. Watt must know there is an audience eagerly awaiting his next work.

Like its protagonist, this book is tough and lean, with a soft spot buried deep beneath. It benefits from a compelling narrative voice and an escalating plotline that keeps you turning pages. It also benefits from a surprise ending that gives some seemingly two-dimensional characters more depth and motivation. I read it in two sittings, the same night, and enjoyed every minute.

My only criticism was in missed opportunities. While the spare prose style is tight and the plot sharp, there are sacrifices made in the name of brevity. Potentially interesting characters are left undeveloped, intriguing plotlines unexplored, and the ending is so sudden it seems to have been driven more by deadline concerns than anything else. It's not surprising the author is a Hollywood guy -- in some respects the book reads like a fleshed-out screenplay, with a director, cinematographer and actors needed to fill in the gaps.

Bottom line: in some ways this novel reads like a Cliffs' Notes version of a longer story -- but it's a great story, and that's more than good enough.

The novel Diamond Dogs by Alan Watts is about a young boy named Neil Garvin. Neil was a popular high school quarterback whose life changes after he commits an accidental crime while driving home drunk after a party.

Neil's father was the sheriff of their home town Carmen. To everyone else, Chester seemed like the perfect father, but in his own house he was an alcoholic and abuser. "He was always bragging about me to everybody. I think most people thought he was just this charming guy who really loved his son. He hardly showed his other side, at least not outside the house." Chester covers up Neil's crime by burying Ian's body without consulting Neil.

Neil and his best friend Reed have plans to play football at the same college after high school. Neil become very discouraged after the accident and quits the football team. Reed becomes very worried about him. But on the other hand, Neil's father becomes very furious with him because he is living out his dreams through Neil and football.

The FBI is called in by the victim's family. Agent Clive Burden questions everyone who was at the party. The evidence provided by the kids proves that Neil is responsible for the disappearance of Ian Curtis. People become suspicious and distant from Neil, including his best friend Reed. "I could feel the stares. I sat there wondering if they knew - everyone who'd seen the condition I'd been in that night."

In the end, Neil realizes and regrets all the mistakes he's made in life; his dishonest and unfaithful behavior to his girlfriend; making fun of students who weren't as popular as he was; teasing teachers, just because they knew they would get away with it because they were athletes. "We'd throw chalk at him when he wasn't looking and yell in class while he was writing on the board. And when he turned around pretend to be studying. We'd just be yelling nonsense. And we'd really yell, I mean we would scream... We did it to torment him." The biggest regret Neil had was that he had turned into his father.

Overall, I would give Diamond Dogs four stars. It was a truthful book that is great for teenage students to relate to. The author describes very well what the life of Neil Garvin was like. It is a book with interesting conflict of interest.

Heard the taped version of DIAMOND DOGS by Alan Watt,
a disturbing first novel about a high school quarterback who has
his life turned upside down when he commits a terrible
crime . . . how he dealt with this incident, as well as his abusive father, made for an interesting story . . . the small town setting was very realistic, as was the son's relationship
(or lack thereof) with his father . . . some heavy psychological
themes and sex scenes would definitely NOT make this
reading for anybody but a mature teenager; i.e., it seems
to me that is more written for an adult reader.

DIAMOND DOGS pulled me in from the first pages. It's about the complexities of a father-son relationship, with a compelling plot: Neil Garvin is the 17-year-old protagonist and he accidentally kills a classmate. His father covers the boy's tracks, thinking he is protecting his son's future.

What engaged me is how easily the author lets us see beyond Neil's cool facade into his scarred psyche. On the surface Neil seems like a typical high school star quarterback who dreams of getting out of his crummy town on his "million-dollar arm". He drinks beers with his buddies and is sometimes a bully. Inside, Neil's a real mess. He misses his mother (who he thinks deserted him as a boy) and he can't communicate with his father (the town sheriff and Neil Diamond fanatic). When the accident occurs, it further distances Neil from his father until the situation implodes.

DIAMOND DOGS reminded me of another book: BEFORE AND AFTER by Rosellen Brown also about a father covering up for his son. DIAMOND DOGS isn't as good as the Brown book because the story starts to stall toward the end, but Alan Watt is an excellent writer--a diamond in the rough--and I look forward to his next book.