Customer Reviews

Dog Days

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Having read an advance copy slipped to me by a confidential publishing source (in the finest traditions of Wonkette herself), the most prominent emotion this novel evokes is disappointment. Cox is a funny and brilliant writer in the short--her Wonkette blog entries are often laugh-out-loud funny--but she doesn't have the stuff to keep the reader's attention page after page through the long haul of a novel. Her characters are, at times, cartoonishly one-dimensional, and they display exactly the emotions you would expect in each predictable situation. Where is the zing, the zip evident in her blog posts? The dialogue is flat, sit-commy in structure, and flows as evenly and naturally as lumpy chili. I was bored with the story halfway through, and by the end was struggling not to make comparisons between this novel and Primary Colors or that god-awful Michale Keaton/Geena Davis film, Speechless.

The most significant disappointment is that Cox goes to the Washingtonienne well again. Cox's site "broke" the story of Jessica Cutler, who blogged about her trysts with staffers and politicos under the name "Washingtonienne" (and who subsequently milked her sexual adventures into a snore-inducing Playboy spread and an utterly forgettable book by the same name). And here Cox relies on that frankly mediocre political-sexual scandal as a significant plot point. The problem is, it feels like a creative crutch. Okay, write what you know, sure. And, yeah, we know, we know, your site broke the story, such that it was, and yeah, okay, we get it already. But to revisit it again instead of striking into original territory is almost inexcusable for a writer of such promise. What is undeniably inexcusable, however, is to give this lame plot point a this-is-so-crazy-it-just-might-work plot construct (get this! she's only pretending to be Washingtonienne, er, whatever, because Washingtonienne is totally made up, har harr!) worthy of a bad "Silver Spoons" episode.

I won't repeat what's already been rehashed in previous reviews, but I just had the feeling that Cox didn't take the time to truly develop her characters and plots. The unique slice-of-life details were interesting but certainly not sufficient enough to sustain this work on its own. The plot wraps up too quickly and too unrealistically in many ways, not the least of which is Melanie's sudden attack of moral conflict. The story begins while she is in the middle of an affair with a married man, which suddenly looks like a bad thing only after her lover gets involved with the scandal at hand (not to mention yet another woman).

Another thing that really irritated me was the whole "Democrats - good, Republicans - bad" dichotomy. Themes should be universal. I think even fellow liberals like me can handle a small dash of neutrality in fiction.

Perhpas the nicest thing I could say about Dog Days is that, at 274 pages, it's a quick read...but brevity, in this case, ain't the soul of wit.

The book was well written, even though the author, Ms. Cox used a kind of "you are in my head" stream of conciousness that went out with Joyce. She accurately potrayed the shallow, self-absorbed people who plan and execute political campaigns. Nobody has an iota of conviction about them. No wonder we wind up with plastic men in high office.

Was expecting something dynamic and subtle - the theme presented a great opportunity, apparently not up to the writer's capabiliities at all. This book is silly and just not worth the read time.

Noting that Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds linked to this book on his blog, and respecting the good professor as the blogosphere's most trenchant commentator, I expected Dog Days to be bold, edgy, or in some way irreverent. Regrettably, I found nothing at all distinctive about it. Indeed, it has a humdrum, so-last-year feel to it -- as exemplified by the author's obsessive focus on the main character's fetishizing of her blackberry as though it were a hot new gizmo. Similarly, the plot so barely fictionalizes people and events that have already received massive coverage (Washingtonienne Jessica Cutler, the 2004 Kerry and Bush campaigns) that I was left bemoaning the author's lack of imagination. Cox does write the occasional witty and sardonic repartee for her two leads, but I agree with an earlier Amazon reviewer's comment that the book feels like a rush-job and is substantially devoid of the clever thinking and writing so emblematic of today's most popular bloggers.

Wonkette devotees and Beltway insiders may enjoy this book more than I did. It was a pleasant enough read, but not memorable.

Bored and dissapointed --- where do i get my time back ?

"Dog Days" isn't interesting for its characters or the plot, which is chick lit meets roman-a-clef political satire.

Indeed, the best parts of the book come from a few lines where the characters observe life in Washington for the political/media elite.

For example, one character had a great take on why 40-year-old men in DC date twentysomething interns. Another describes what a Washington cocktail party is REALLY like. Later in the book, another character muses on the effectiveness of President Golden (read: Bush) "pushing Mom, flag, apple pie, pickup trucks and mortgages" during his re-election campaign.

"There's a whole generation of young people who live a life based on absentee parents and McDonald's vegetarianism, credit card debt and one-night hookups," the character says. "They're entering the professional class now and their mores and norms will define the new middle class."

This remark would have made a more interesting essay to read than passing dialogue in a novel. I think this book would have been better if the author threw out the fiction and stuck to full-length essays in the style that made her noteworthy in the first place.

While I adore Ana Marie Cox's irreverent, policy-packed blogs, this novel comes short on delivering the same punches. Cox paints a world of Blackberries, Washington cocktail parties, strategy sessions, and media professionals who spend lifetimes cultivating respectability only to lead private lives of recklessness. If you're a fan of the fast Capitol political machine, the trappings of this world will keep you attentive. If you're not, this novel's weak storyline might not cut it for you.

I was a casual fan of the Wonkette blog so I borrowed this from the library despite the lukewarm reviews. Cox scatters some hilarious political commentary within a tepid, barely fictionalized story of August 2004 Washington DC. The clichéd characters evoke little besides disinterest and annoyance, especially when speaking. Cox excels when describing the incompetence of the Democratic campaign staff or parodying the Swift Boaters with the 'Citizens for Clear Heads'. However, few outside Washington cared about the Jessica Cutler 'Washingtonienne' scandal but the second half of the book focuses on a similar `Capitolette' blog (coincidentally, Wonkette's biggest splash was the original Cutler story). The book definitely seems rushed to market and some passages seem nearly identical to Cox's posts. While I admire Cox's attempt, her talents are probably better suited to commentary than fiction.