Customer Reviews

Dogrun

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm an impatient reader, I'll be the first to admit. Very often when I'm about halfway through with reading a novel, I'll skip to the back to see how it ends, or I'll often glance at the page number on the bottom and wonder, "how many more pages of this do I have to read?" But I loved Nersesian's Dogrun. Truly enjoyed it. I was thoroughly entertained -- and laughed frequently, which rarely happens even when I'm reading a novel.

The setting of the book is New York's East Village during the 1990s. The East Village stands as a kind of archetype "hipster" enclave (famous for its long history of resident artists and writers and burnouts). But what makes Dogrun work is it's sarcastic comic protagonist, Mary Bellanova. She comes home "after a long day of temping" to find her boyfriend, Primo, zonked out again watching TV. She yells at him, makes him supper and only much later realizes he isn't zonked out -- he's dead! A hilarious beginning, which sets the tone for the rest of the book. From there, starts a Citizen Kane-like exploration of who this boyfriend (who she apparently hardly knew) really was. That's the structural device that propels the narrative forward and Nersesian provides many madcap, picaresque adventures along the way, which includes Mary looking up his mother and ex-girlfriends and lovers.

The book, in part, is about Mary the "artist" (the protagonist is a would-be author), whose time may be running out (she 29, about to turn 30 -- signaling the end of her protracted adolescence).

The book is also, in a big way, about bohemia - or in this case the East Village, which represents it. (As much as the protagonist comes to realize that Bohemia is not a place, it's a state of mind -- or should we say a dream?) As in The Losers' Club by Richard Perez (which another reviewer mentioned), we're given a tour of this unique, offbeat place - pre-9-11. "In the East Village, that soiled and unkept fountain of youth, there was no such thing as growing old gracefully," writes Nersesian. The pressure is on for Mary to do something with her life. Working for minimum wage at Kinko's no longer is a responsible option. "When you're young, you have all these chances, and with time you blow them, one after the other," Nersesian writes elsewhere. Since this a book about an artist, it also greatly involves failure and humiliation. (Failure and humiliation being the staple of any artist's life.) Learning to face certain realities and exasperating "market-place" expectations.

But along the way, there's great humor. Pratfall slapstick mixed with goofball sarcasm. I laughed on almost every page. If I have one complaint (or two), it's that the book should've ended a little earlier (page 235, for instance). Also the first half of the book is more carefully written than the last half in which Nersesian undercooks and overstuffs the narrative, dropping in too many characters and whacky mis-adventures -- every party needs to come to an end. But that's a minor complaint. Obviously, I enjoyed the book well enough to write this long review. This funny book get an A grade from me!

Nersesian seems to the master of the madcap Downtown NYC novel. In Dogrun (like in the F**k-up) he's done it again. We follow the trail of a deceased boyfriend whose trail leads us through a tour of the surreal of world of New York City's East Village. Not since The Losers' Club by Richard Perez have I read a more vividly rendered book depicting that whole scene. This novel is a blast! Wacked out and funny! Also recommended: The Losers' Club, the F**k-up, Manhattan Loverboy

I was referred to this novel after reading The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, another short, lively novel that takes place in the East Village. And after reading Dogrun, I must say that I think it's the funniest, most entertaining novel Nersesian has written so far. Better than the F**k-Up (by far), better than Manhattan Loverboy, much, much better than Chinese Take-out, which after a while totally runs out of energy and is actually an effort to read, lacking in that fun, manic energy Nersesian?s early novels have. In Dogrun, we have a sarcastic female protagonist who 'investigates' the secret life of her deceased boyfriend, and in the course of doing so comes to re-examine her own life. Much as in The Losers' Club, we have something of a ground-level view of downtown NYC, both novels have a kind of manic style. I must say I haven't laughed or enjoyed a book as much as I've enjoyed Dogrun. It's totally goofy and freewheeling and fun; and you can relate to the protagonist's fear of turning 30 and her feeling that 'the party may be over.' Anyway, pick up a copy of this fun book!

As someone who's visited New York only once and that was ten years ago (back when Times Square was Disney and Carson Daly-free), I was skeptical about reading Dogrun. Many novels that focus on a particular geographic location tend to forget that some semblance of universality is needed. And based on other reviews of Nersesian's work, it seemed his appeal was limited mainly to New Yorkers and East Village inhabitants.

After finishing this book, however, I realized I couldn't be more wrong. Nersesian has a gift for creating new yet familiar characters that take you for a weird, funny, neurotic and frantic ride. While Dogrun's plot does tend to get a bit soap opera-ish as another reviewer commented, the book's true appeal is its narrator, Mary Bellanova. Cynical yet loveable, neurotic yet hopeful, Mary is an absolute charmer. Her wry, appealing view on all things related to love and living in New York is universal enough that any late twentysomething/early thirtysomething urban dweller can identify with her predicaments.

But the true test of Dogrun's success is it's ability to leave the reader wanting more. Few books these days succeed at that task. While Nersesian's roster thus far hasn't included any sequels, one hopes that Dogrun isn't the last we've heard of Mary Bellanova and her wacky gallery of friends, deadbeat boyfriends and obnoxious employers. Highly recommended.

I found "Dogrun" hilarious. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. Our heroine, Mary Bellanova, arrives home from work, yells at and serves dinner to her boyfriend Primo's corpse before she realizes what has happened. Can things possibly get worse or more absurd? If you've read Arthur Nersesian before, you know they absolutely can. Mary realizes she didn't know Primo as well as she thought so becomes determined to learn more about him. Hilarity ensues as she meets a more than a little bizarre cast of characters, ends up joining a band with two of Primo's exes, and secures a loathsome job at Kinko's with a man she detests. Arthur Nersesian's writing is witty, sharp, and wonderful. You are immediately sucked into his characters' lives and problems and find yourself not only going along with, but agreeing with their slapstick antics and questionable decisions. I can't wait till his next book comes out.

This book is a quick read that opens up with a suck-you-in plot revolving around the main character, Mary, finding her lover, Primo, Dead. The real story enfolds afterwards as Mary discovers more about Primo (and herself) than she ever knew when he was alive. There are a few unexpected twists and turns thrown in and some great realistic detail on the "artsy" lower NYC lifestyle. I was impressed that this was written by man considering how spot-on he was into my female psyche.

Mary Bellanova comes home from work one day to find her boyfriend dead. She starts to track down his old girlfriends and finds she doesn't know as much about him as she thought. What follows is hilarious and touching while staying a frighteningly real look at life in the East Village of NYC. Arthur Nersesian develops a great (and occasionally-insane) female character that anyone can identify with. I picked up the book based on its front cover and my familiarity with the Tompkins Square Dog Run where a bit of the action takes place, but now I'm hooked on Nersesian's work. With my having just moved away from the East Village, this book is like coming home.

Like many of Nersesian's other works, "Dogrun" was a page-turner. I couldn't put it down from the moment I read the first page until I finished it. As the main character, Mary Bellanova, explores her deceased boyfriend's life and discovers disconcerting facts about his sexual past, she slowly begins to find herself as well. A surprising twist toward the middle-end of the novel made it all the more pleasant of a read.

Nersesian's characterizations of this generation's 28-29 year olds, failed and jaded but tenacious artists, and almost-broken, beautiful women are so seductive. His writing is just gorgeous in that straightforward, concise way that Hemingway had, but without the sexism and in less rural and romantic settings. The prose is sensual, tender, and oddly hopeful while at the same time maintaining the characters' cynical outlook on the world. Nersesian even manages to sneak some semblance of a happy ending into the novel. Definitely a recommended read.

This is my favorite Nersesian book so far. Well paced (I have a short attention span so pace for me is key) and well written, I enjoyed the zany characters (all are humorously flawed) as much as the "peek" at twentysomething life in the East Village. The plot twists (and there quite a few) become somewhat soap opera-esque, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless.

Name-dropping and allegedly cool settings don't make a novel - and neither does stiff prose, 2-D caricatures instead of *characters* or a laundry list of literay cliches.

Ever watch a show like Saved By The Bell or Dawson's Creek, when they parade around a few punk kids, a couple of goths and maybe a tattooed, pierced "freak"? This novel trots out laughably cliched versions of characters in a more clumsy and chinless way than those shows' attempts to create "interesting" people.

Our narrator's musings on "what life is like" in the city as a career-handicapped young single person is juvenile at best. How many 2-cent words can one use to describe how evil and intrusuve places like Starbuck's Coffe and Loews Multiplexes are, only to then completely devalue any of that angst when she willingly and thoughtlessly patronizes these purportedly "uncool" establishments? Nersesian uses trite angsty proclamations to give the narrator "edge", yet fails in every way to make her a person of any REAL opinion, thought or idea. The character development here is severely lacking - our precious narrator is of course attractive and insecure yet spunky - and her friends/cohorts are just useless copies of copies from other city-centric "young people" tales.

The whole punk band subplot device is just plain silly too - Armistead Maupin himself would stay away from such silly B-grade stuff. The whole Primo/Joe From Upstairs "thing" was so devoid of any real tension and mystery - I was thoroughly disappointed.

And the dialogue? I expect more from a writer who taught college English for close to a decade than One Life To Live-styled banter - especially in a work so focused on young people and the way they live.

Even more insulting? The final page of the book, where "MTV Books" (insert sarcastic laughter here) refers to this author as "the young, the hip and the up-and-coming."

I mean, come on.