Customer Reviews

Dogfight: And Other Stories

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Knight's work to date seems to me like a gentile version of "Goodbye Columbus." He has Roth's eye for the lusty details that make the blood go to the skin. I recommend this book especially to young readers and writers like myself who are interested in the way that middle class experience can be made into meaningful fiction. In response to one of the critics above, I think "Birdland" (NewYorker) is the best of all Knight's stories, with the exception, perhaps, of "Bad man, So Pretty." If you want to see someone get a lot better at fiction writing with time, read "Birdland" after Dog Fight. Hope to see more from Knight soon. Am very jealous of his talent.

I picked up this book after reading `Killing Stonewall Jackson', the author's contribution to the outstanding collection STORIES FROM THE BLUE MOON CAFÉ. I enjoyed what I found here, but not as much as that story - which is not to say for a moment that Knight is not a talented writer.

The works that touched me the most in this slim volume were `Gerald's monkey' (a terrific coming-of-age piece in which a privileged young man experiences the shock of empathizing with some of the workers at his uncle's shipyard); `A bad man, so pretty' (another coming-of-age tale in which a young man watches his brother throw away any chances of making it in life); `The man who went out for cigarettes' (a look at a man toiling over an excruciating, life-changing decision); `Sundays' (one of the most painfully evocative depictions of loneliness I've read); and `Tenant' (in which a college professor comes to know his landlady after her death, through her German shepherd.

Knight's characterizations are well drawn and compelling - the people in these stories never come across as false or contrived. I didn't find myself drawn into the action or premise of every single story - the ones mentioned above managed to do that, exerting quite a strong pull on me. `Killing Stonewall Jackson' is, I think, a newer work, with more of a surreal quality to it than anything here - I'll definitely be inclined to check out anything I find by Knight in the future.

There's something about Michael Knight's writing that keeps me turning each and every page. I loved every story in this book. If any other author had written these stories, they would most likely only be mediocre, but Michael Knight can take these stories and make them real. He's an extraordinary writer, a wonderful teacher, and a great person.

I thoroughly enjoyed this clever and thoughtful collection, though I did feel it was a little inconsistent. The strong stories outnumber the weaker ones by far, and the strong ones will knock your socks off.

Michael is a wonderful writer (and a wonderful teacher, and a super-nice guy).

Stories as good as "Gerald's Monkey" and "A Bad Man, So Pretty" have no place beside pieces as weak as "Poker". People who can write stories as well as Knight can can also do better than "The Blonde" (his recent story in The New Yorker). I really enjoy/like/respect Knight's writing, so I want him to preserve his growing rep by being a little more careful about what makes it out of the gate. To his credit, I rarely enjoy short story collections at all anymore (except those nasty ones of Mary Gaitskill), and I did enjoy Dogfight.

Michael Knight's stories are evocative and stirring without being too big to get your hands around them. Another short story, "Birdland," is in the New Yorker's Nov. 9, 1998 issue and well worth the search. I'm really looking forward to his first novel, "Divining Rod."

To be honest, I picked up this book out of sheer guilt. I took a few classes from Michael Knight, including an independent study which I am completely indebted to him for as it helped me graduate on time, and I felt bad that while this man has had such influence on my writing, I still hadn't read any of his work. I was not disappointed. The stories are cleanly written, and very deep-hitting despite the simple facade to them. I haven't finished this book yet but so far, the title story: Dogfight is my favorite. Recommended for folks who enjoy reading short stories and anyone else for that matter.

I'm glad to see this book out in a new print. It's one of the best collections I've ever read. Stories like "Now You See Her" and "Sundays" are as good as it gets.

This neat collection of southern fried stories is most notable for some of the remarkable characters who come alive in its pages. Despite the title, many of the stories have no canine characters. All of them, however, play on the themes that grow from man's relationship with his favorite pet. Pride, devotion, fidelity, death--all the emotions that come to light through man's bond with dog--are intimately woven together to create tales of honest humanity.

Some of the stories resonate enough to recall Faulkner, in particular "A Bad Man So Pretty", about a hardscrabble delinquent and his long-suffering brother. "Tenant" is another story dripping with southern nostalgia for the nobility and grandeur of times past.

A couple of the stories, while interesting, seem misplaced in this collection. "Amelia Earhardt's Coat", about a little girl's encounter with the famous aviatrix while growing up in the social heights of Rye, New York, seems more suited to a John Cheever collection. Others, like "Sundays" and "Poker", don't rise to the quality of the rest--they seem like practice runs, sophomoric and self-conscious.

Ultimately the stories' strength rests in the complexity and colors of its many memorable characters. While the collection overall is uneven and the writing sometimes underdeveloped, the people in the stories become outrageous stories themselves.