Dogfight, A Love Story [Hardcover]

Matt Burgess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2010

What Jonathan Lethem did for Brooklyn, Matt Burgess does for Queens in this exuberant and brilliant debut novel about a young drug dealer having a very bad weekend.

Alfredo Batista has some worries. Okay, a lot of worries. His older brother, Jose—sorry, Tariq—is returning from a stretch in prison after an unsuccessful robbery, a burglary that Alfredo was supposed to be part of. So now everyone thinks Alfredo snitched on his brother, which may have something to do with the fact that Alfredo is now dating Tariq’s ex-girlfriend, Isabel, who is eight months pregnant. Tariq’s violent streak is probably #1 worry on Alfredo’s list.

Also, he needs to steal a pit bull. For the homecoming dogfight.

Burgess brings to life the rich and vivid milieu of his hometown native Queens in all its glorious variety. Here is the real New York, a place where Pakistanis, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, An ­glos, African Americans, and West Indians scrap and mingle and love. But the real star here is Burgess’s incredible ear for language—the voices of his characters leap off the page in riotous, spot-on dialogue. The outer boroughs have their own language, where a polite greeting is fraught with menace, and an insult can be the expression of the most tender love.

With a story as intricately plotted as a Shakespearean comedy—or revenge tragedy, for that matter—and an electrically colloquial prose style, Dogfight, a Love Story establishes Matt Burgess as an exuberant new voice in contemporary literature. The great Queens novel has arrived.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Alfredo Batista of Queens wants to welcome his older brother, José, home from a 28-month stretch in prison for a burglary in which Alfredo was supposed to take part. So Alfredo acquires some Ecstasy for his brother (thereby seriously alienating a Russian drug kingpin) and plans a dogfight to mark the occasion. But there’s still the problem of Isabel, the girlfriend of José (who turned Muslim in prison and now calls himself Tariq); she fell in love with Alfredo and is pregnant with their child. Not to mention the fact that Alfredo and his best friend, Winston, are one dog short of participants for their fight. First-novelist Burgess has created full-bodied characters with on-the-mark dialogue, and he evokes his hometown of Queens (which, he notes, has the most efficiently run drug trade of the five boroughs) in a story that is alternately antic and drop-dead serious. Death is always just around the corner, as Alfredo fears, and several characters do die violently, but in the end, it’s life that is celebrated. An impressive debut, bristling with energy, from an author to watch. --Michele Leber

Review

"With an acute ear for dialogue and the poetry of the street.....a cliche-free depiction of gritty urban reality, reminiscent of Richard Price. But Burgess's city novel is less 'Clockers' than 'Portrait of the Artist as an Ambivalent Drug Dealer.....bursts of narrative bravado....DOGFIGHT burns through this explosive weekend like a lighted fuse.....takes a mighty swing at this streetwise drama about loyalty and betrayal"--New York Times Book Review

"Arresting and vibrant....electrifying"--Vanity Fair

"Matt Burgess' "Dogfight, A Love Story" was my most memorable read of 2010. As the title implies, the novel mixes everyday urban conflict with slice-of-life tenderness and momentary grace. Burgess captures the bass-heavy symphony of the neighborhood and gets the voices just right. Mixing the comedic and dramatic is a tricky thing to pull off, but the author does so with astonishing success. Most surprisingly, this is his literary debut. I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with next."--George Pelacanos

"[A] talent to watch. He possesses an ear for dialogue that rivals Richard Price and a pacy sense of plot reminiscent of another fantastic recent debut, Josh Bazell's "Beat the Reaper". His style is strikingly visual—Mr Burgess doesn't sketch scenes so much as paint them as big and bright as a playground mural.....Burgess is an energetic and disciplined writer. Most importantly, "Dogfight" is tremendously fun to read."--The Economist

"Absorbing....rich....Like those before him, Burgess lives and dies by the credibility of his dialogue and details, and his portrayal is clearly the product of much close study."--Time Out New York 

"Matt Burgess serves up a savory dish with his new novel, but the meat of the story is his writing....[an]exciting and really-tough-to-put-down novel....The plot is fun, original, addictive....The landscape Burgess paints (setting: Jackson Heights, Queens) has the alluring exoticism of a Gauguin....not merely funny or incisive but also feel true, and intimately so, as if revealing to us hidden parts of a world we already know....There's something more expansive at play here, as we watch Alfredo grapple with his conscience and fall deeper into an unknown yet eerily familiar world."--Minneapolis Star Tribune


"Every once in a while you come across a book that completely captures a place. Even if you've never been there yourself, it's like you can see it, smell it, taste it. Theres a new novel out that does that for New York. Specifically: the borough of Queens. Author Matt Burgess nails the places."--NPR's Weekend Edition


"Sharp wit and enormous heart fill the pages of Dogfight, A Love Story.....intense, emotional and funny....a dazzling debut"--MetroMag


PRAISE FOR DOGFIGHT, A LOVE STORY


“Matt Burgess’s debut novel is a beautifully made, street-smart novel that is both funny and disturbing. Written with an almost furious energy, Dogfight has an amazingly well-rounded cast of characters and a plot that leads up to a violent and probably inevitable climax. This is the best first novel I have read in years.”
—Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love and The Soul Thief


“Dogfight takes you on a gritty tour of a city exploding with diversity, violence, and love. Matt Burgess is a major talent, blessed with a unique voice full of humor and an attitude that’s ready to elbow its way into American letters.”
—Ernesto Quiñonez, author of Bodega Dreams

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (September 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385532989
• ISBN-13: 978-0385532983
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #919,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matt Burgess, a 28-year-old graduate of Dartmouth and the University of Minnesota's MFA program, grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Funny, Tough Story With Bite And Heart--Just Like Its Title, September 3, 2010

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dogfight, A Love Story (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Matt Burgess, in the perfectly titled "Dogfight, A Love Story," has crafted a delicately balanced novel with both bite and heart. Set in the post 9/11 era borough of Queens, "Dogfight" introduces us to a low-level criminal type named Alfredo Batista. Alfredo has a big day ahead--his brother Tariq is getting out of prison! Whether that is good or not remains to be seen. You see, some think that Alfredo turned his brother in. While that may be up for debate, the one thing that is undeniable is that Alfredo is now living with Tariq's ex-girlfriend and is fathering a child with her. What's a good brother to do for this homecoming event? Why, of course, he needs to steal some drugs as a present and set up a dogfight for a party! It only makes sense!

But lest you think that "Dogfight" is a brutal story about the mean streets--let me just interject that the novel is genuinely funny as well. Burgess's principle success is his characterization of Alfredo. A hero, a villain, a lover, a fighter--Alfredo is mostly a mixed up kid with good intentions that is surviving anyway he knows how. Unfortunately, the thing he seems to do best is to get over his head. With real dreams and even bigger worries, Alfredo's trying to step up and be a responsible man. It's a dynamic and fully realized character--and I absolutely loved Alfredo as much as I wanted to throttle him.

Interactions between Alfredo and Tariq are suitably complex. Alfredo's relationships are all well formed, in fact. His parents, his best friend, his surrogate father figure, his girl and even his unborn baby all figure prominently in Alfredo's decisions. There is a real underlying sweetness, despite the unpleasantness, that keeps you really rooting for things to work out! But as the day rushes toward an inevitably violent climax at the dogfight, Burgess builds suspense like a pro. Gritty, yet tender--brutal, yet heartfelt--tragic, yet laugh-out-loud funny--"Dogfight, A Love Story" walks a tightrope in its tone and does so perfectly. A definite recommendation because I actually cared to see what happened with these characters!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just terrific, August 31, 2010

By 

sb-lynn (Santa Barbara, California United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dogfight, A Love Story (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Brief summary and review, no spoilers.

The year is 2002, and Alfredo Batista is 19 years old. He and his pregnant girlfriend Isabel live with his parents at their small home in Queens. Alfredo is a high school dropout who makes little money dealing drugs along with his best friend Winston. Alfredo's most pressing concern however is the return of his brother Jose (now going by the name Tariq.) Tariq is being paroled from prison for a burglary committed 2 years earlier. And Tariq might not be very happy because Isabel used to be his girlfriend, and word on the street is that Alfredo ratted Tariq out.

The story is told from various character's point of view. We hear from Alfredo who is understandably stressed about his brother's return and is also apprehensive about his own bleak economic future. We hear from Isabel, and learn about her own upbringing and her concern for her unborn child. And we hear from Tariq, newly converted to Islam, who is struggling with his own demons and inner conflicts.

Alfredo, in an effort to win over Tariq plans to give him some Ecstasy when he gets home. He also plans to stage a dogfight with the same purpose. The problem is that when getting the drugs off of a school drug dealer, Alfredo and Winston end up getting the unwanted and unintended attention and ire of the Russian mob. And their plans for the dogfight have a hitch too - they don't have a dog.

There's a cast of colorful characters, including a 300 pound drug dealer with Cushing's Disease named Baka, an old feisty Jewish shop owner named Max, and a Chevy Impala full of not-so-undercover policemen. To name a few.

This is an astonishingly good book. As you read on and on, there is a palpable sense of tension and dread. It's difficult to put this book down, especially towards the end. You get an absolutely fantastic sense of place and time. This author manages to bring these characters to life and I got a real sense of what life was like for those on the gritty streets of Queens in 2002.

There are many things to recommend about this novel. I thought the writing was just fantastic, and the dialogue was just spot on. This author manages to combine a frightening, bleak and violent story with literally laugh out loud moments. Brilliant, really, and I found myself constantly reading aloud passages to my husband because I thought they were so clever and astute. Such a incredible mix of humor and horror pulled off so adroitly.

Highly recommended. This novel is going on my best of of 2010 list for sure. It's that good.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong characters and a funny, powerful story, January 31, 2011

By 

TChris (Tzer Island) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dogfight, A Love Story (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Dogfight, A Love Story was a love story for me in this sense: I loved reading it. The novel is fresh, very funny, occasionally morbid, and always energetic. It is the product of a very talented writer. In its setting and characters it reminded me of Clockers (a book I greatly enjoyed) minus the cops and with added humor, but the writing in Dogfight is of a higher quality. Burgess' writing style is exactly right for a literary crime novel: sharp and zestful and evocative. The dramatic climax (coming just before an ending that is essentially an epilogue) is frenetic, explosive, intense: powerful stuff that made me utter an involuntary "wow."

Dogfight follows Alfredo Batista during the days before and after his brother Tariq (f/k/a Jose Jr.) is released from prison. While Tariq has been serving his sentence, Alfredo, a small time drug dealer in Queens, has taken up with Tariq's girlfriend, who is now pregnant with Alfredo's child. Worried about his brother's tendency toward violence, Alfredo wants to give him a homecoming present. To that end, he engineers a robbery from a Russian street dealer -- a poor decision that will soon lead to unexpected trouble. He also tries to arrange a dogfight, despite never having seen one (dogfights not being the competition of choice in Queens).

Matt Burgess does a masterful job of merging the plot-driven demands of genre fiction with the character-driven sensibility of literary fiction. Some readers won't like Alfredo or some of the other characters because they commit crimes. But even readers who generally want to read about morally pure characters might find Alfredo to be worth their time. He's imperfect (aren't we all?) but he isn't thuggish. Despite doing something during the novel's course for which he will probably never forgive himself, he has a conscience and he experiences some personal growth, if not full redemption, by the novel's end. In any event, all of the central characters in Dogfight have distinctive, fully realized personalities. It is easy to understand their actions even if the reader might disapprove of them. At least to me, they were all interesting, filled with credible emotions, self-doubt, yearnings, regrets -- all the stuff that makes us human.

Finally, lest you be alarmed by the content of single star reviews from reviewers who didn't bother to read the book before complaining about it, be assured that no dogs were harmed in the writing of this novel. This is a work of fiction, after all. Speaking as someone whose best friend is a golden retriever, I can safely predict that most dog lovers will recognize that this novel does not glorify or glamorize dog fighting. Quite the opposite, in fact. Animal lovers should not avoid this excellent book because of its unfortunate title. In this dog lover's opinion, it is a five star novel.