Dog [Paperback]

Michelle Herman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2005

Single, childless, J.T. Rosen—a poet and college professor who has failed to live up to her early promise—has constructed a careful, orderly life around her work and the little house she has lived in alone for many years. Long ago, after a tumultuous youth filled with the "Sturm und Drang of boys and men," she gave up on the possibility of love; she has begun by now, in the Middle Western town she cannot bring herself to think of as home, to give up on the possibility of friendship.

When the dog enters her life, almost by accident he takes over her life, as puppies do.

But as the days and weeks pass, the relationship that unfolds between dog and woman provides a glimpse for her of the possibilities that life still offers, of goodness that she begins to understand can be "counted on" in some inexplicable way.

Dog is about how a person constructs a life for herself, about the bits and pieces that make up a life as one goes along, and about the possibility of goodness, always, among those pieces—the possibility of love, and grace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Endearing when its narrator decidedly is not, the latest from Herman (Missing) takes a rather stiff, lonely, mid-40s Midwestern tenured professor of English poetry and gives her the canine humanizing treatment. Having drunk too much wine one night while surfing the Net, Jill (or "J.T. Rosen," as she is known professionally) comes across a dog-adoption site run by a do-gooder named Bill, who relinquishes a dog to her almost reluctantly. She names the puppy Phil, after men she has loved and lost. Worry over Phil's well-being and midnight walks soon have their effect; Jill warms to her students at the university (where she is known as Her Royal Highness) and to her brother, Norman, who teaches at a more glamorous institution and has "a sports car [his] wife and children could not fit into." She even stops mourning her soul-crushing move from New York and is cured of her insomnia. Phil chases away her "limping, broken, bitter night thoughts," and teaches her, more than writing poetry or teaching have, to be patient: "The kind of patient she had never been with any human being." It's a straight-up recounting of animal therapy, but Herman brings it off with grace and humor. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Jill Rosen, who prefers to be called J.T., is a poet and a college professor living in a small midwestern town. Originally from New York, she reads the Times instead of the local paper and wonders how she ended up in this place. After an early and disappointing love life, she has more or less sworn off men--or have they sworn off her? She lives an orderly and careful life that revolves around her work, her teaching, and her little house. Then, on a whim, she adopts a nine-week-old rescue puppy. Phillip, aka Phil, is a dog who is as careful with his emotions as she is, which appeals to Jill. Soon he has her out walking, meeting her neighbors, changing her routine, and examining her life. What develops is a very real connection between two creatures and the mutual healing it brings. Told with humor, insight, and intelligence, this novel is as thought--provoking as it is charming. Elizabeth Dickie
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 191 pages
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage (March 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596921110
• ISBN-13: 978-1596921115
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,172,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michelle Herman was born and reared in Brooklyn and educated at Brooklyn College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has lived for many years in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, the still life painter Glen Holland, and their daughter, Grace. Her first book, "Missing," won the Harold Ribalow Prize for best Jewish fiction in 1990; subsequent honors include an NEA Fellowship, a James Michener Fellowship, numerous artist's fellowships from the state of Ohio, and several major teaching awards from Ohio State, where she has taught creative writing and literature since 1988. Her stories, novellas, and personal essays have appeared in such journals as The North American Review, The Southern Review, Story Quarterly, American Scholar, and O, the Oprah Magazine. When not writing or teaching, she can often be found singing jazz standards. Visit her online at www.michelleherman.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful!, October 3, 2005

By 

Joanna Kalafarski (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dog (Paperback)

Read this book with a glass of wine and an animal you love in your lap. Usually, I get books at the library, but this one's worth buying because it's the only coffee table book I own that people actually read. You can't resist picking it up because the pup on the cover is so cute, and then you start reading it, and the story is every bit as loveable and uplifting. The story pulls you straight through, just like Phil pulls Jill on their walks: all the way until midnight, through warm memories and cold weather, and afterwards you know you're a fuller person for having experienced the trip.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Novel--Even for a Cat Person, October 1, 2005

By 

Cecilia C. Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dog (Paperback)

I'm not usually much of a dog person (cats have always been my thing) but I love Michelle Herman's book about the relationship between a woman and her dog. Herman's prose is elegant at every turn, and the portrait she draws of the friendship between a person and her pet is engaging and nuanced. In the main character, Jill, I recognize myself-not because I'm a college professor or a poet-but because I too am someone who has found my heart expanded and changed by my relationship to animals. This book strikes an extremely relevant chord in that each moment (written in Herman's witty, sympathetic, beautiful prose) illustrates just how hard it can be for us humans to grope our way toward intimacy and connectedness with others. What I love best about this book is the way it confronts that human difficulty with honesty and humor and gives hope that one dog can put us on the right track to opening up our hearts, even to the grouches out there and the grouches inside ourselves.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple. Beautiful., October 2, 2005

By 

Katie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dog (Paperback)

This is the sort of book you don't put down until you're done. This is the sort of book you try to tell your friends about but can't quite describe why it's so good.

Michelle Herman is an author for people who really LOVE books. She writes about real, full characters who do the things that you do and feel the things that you feel, and she writes about them in a way that make them seem new and beautiful again. Herman treats each line as if it were a poem, meticulously choosing each word to say exactly what she means to.

Herman proves again and again that it's the getting there that matters, that the little things we experience along the way are the things that shape us. She's honest. She's funny. She makes you want to be a writer yourself.