Dog Years: A Memoir (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Award-winning memoirist (Firebird) and poet (School of the Arts) Doty explores, with compassion and intelligence, the complicated, loving territory inhabited by devoted dogs and their loyal humans. In 1994, when the author's longtime lover was dying of AIDS, beloved pet Arden kept the surviving partner afloat. A new adoptee, the rambunctious Beau, in his "sloppy dog way," becomes a part of the tribe and carries some of the burden of grief. Doty says Beau "carried something else for me too, which was my will to live." In a time of devastating pain, as well as in happier times, Doty's two dogs are the "secret heroes of my own vitality." The dog characters in the book are irresistible, and the arcs of their lives are delineated with the tenderness and passion of the truly smitten. Arden's quiet nobility and slow decline breaks the heart, while Beau's goofy enthusiasm peaks with youth and mellows in illness. With a marvelous ability to present the pain of mourning with a poet's delicate hand, and an irrepressible instinct for joy, Doty delivers a soulful love story which illuminates no less than the big human mysteries: attachment, death, grief, loyalty, happiness. The book nimbly sidesteps sentimentality and lands squarely on a philosophical, inquisitive tone as intellectually evocative as it is emotionally resonant. (Mar.)
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From Booklist

To be loved by Doty, as a human or a canine, is to be elevated into a realm of utter glory, where one is cherished and cradled, sheltered and supported, and, most of all, where one's very essence is acknowledged and appreciated in a manner both simple and sublime. In his latest elegant and elegiac memoir, poet Doty recounts how the love of two dogs, Arden and Beau, sustained him during times of his most grievous losses, and how he, in turn, came to nurse them through their inevitable years of failing health. On the brink of a life-threatening depression, Doty recognized the necessity of caring for his beloved dogs, which then metamorphosed into a life-affirming realization that he was, in fact, the one being attended. Sprinkled among poignant and merry anecdotes about typical and peculiar doggie behavior are Doty's tender yet cogent reflections on the underlying truths such conduct reveals about the canine species, observations that transcendently celebrate the essential connection between man and pet. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006117100X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061171000
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #261,049 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dogs mean more to us than "just pets", March 16, 2007

By	cdkscully "cdkscully" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

Mark Doty handled the other side of the story that "Marley and Me" didn't touch on. He spoke to us from the dog's point of view and how we think they feel.

With every sentence that I read, I kept thinking to myself, "YES! That's what my dog does!" or "I know that is what my dog is thinking!" He truly spoke to the pet moms and dads and siblings in the voice of the dog.

Mr. Doty explained that dogs are more than just pets to some and sometimes others cannot understand how important they are in our lives. They are there for all major life changes and are affected by them just as much as we are.

This is a wonderful book that dog parents and siblings can relate to - from the beginning with the adoption of his dogs until the last, sad, final day which every pet owner dreads. He captured the way we think dogs think perfectly. This book is sure to be a hit amongst pet owners and pet lovers. It's one you cannot put down until the last page is read.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Memoir From One of Our Best Poets, March 29, 2007

By	H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Mark Doty in DOG YEARS has written a sometimes sad and always deeply moving beautiful memoir about loss, grief and the comfort that animals, in this instance Beau, a golden retriever, and Arden, a black retriever, bring to the sick and dying and those who remain. Mr. Doty is nothing if not opinionated: sentimentality is a mask for anger; "compassion for animals is an excellent predictor of one's ability to care for one's fellow human beings;" "no death equals another;" "the wounds of loss, the nicks and cuts made by our own sense of powerlessness, must form a sort of carapace, an armor." The kindgom of heaven may be "the realm of paradox, "attachment and detachment," memory and forgetfulness, "everything and nothing." Whether you agree with Mr. Doty's conclusions hardly matters although he is convincing and persuasive. What is just as important is that the reader is swept along by the writer's precise and beautiful language. (We should expect no less from a first rate poet.) So on September 11 the hole in the north twin tower reminds him of "an unfamiliar continent in a school geography book. A version of Australia." New York is a "pierced city." An old woman who runs a kennel in Key West has a voice "shredded by decades of Chesterfields." An old house in Provincetown has "straggly irises" in the yard. Furthermore, Mr. Doty strews gems from the greatest of American poets, Emily Dickinson, throughout his narrative. Just as his canine friends overlook nothing on their daily scavenger hunts, Mr. Doty's reader must use the same care for he skims this book at his peril.

Whether you are a dog lover or not, DOG YEARS is not to be missed. It is in the league of other recent nonfiction books on grief: Elizabeth Edwards' SAVING GRACES: FINDING SOLACE AND STRENGTH FROM FRIENDS AND STRANGERS, Joan Didion's THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING and Calvin Trillin's ABOUT ALICE. It reminded me of another poet Wendell Berry's fine short story "Mike" about the death of a dog and is every bit as good as my favorite nonfiction book by Doty: STILL LIVE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON; ON OBJECTS AND INTIMACY.

Reading Mr. Doty is always a joy, regardless of his subject matter.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About dogs, the human condition and, uh, the dog condition, March 23, 2007

By	D. W WISELY "chiffandfipple" (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those in the sad condition of not already being aware of Mr. Doty's splendid body of work may be tempted to overlook this book. Readers who know Mark Doty's work will already know that they are in for more than just another book about dogs. Last night in Harvard Square, I attended a reading by Mark Doty from this fine book. It turns out to be, of course, a set of meditations on dogs and their relationship with their owners, but also of grief and loss. No one writes about the latter with more grace and wisdom than Mark Doty. Last night, he reminded us, "The agreement to participate in this life is a pact with grief." This book is highly recommended.