The Dogs of March [Paperback]

Ernest Hebert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1995

"His life had come to this: save a few deer from the jaws of dogs. He was a small man sent to perform a small task."

Howard Elman is a man whose internal landscape is as disordered as his front yard, where native New Hampshire birches mingle with a bullet-riddled washer, abandoned bathroom fixtures, and several junk cars. Howard, anti-hero of this first novel in Ernest Hebert's highly acclaimed Darby series, is a mixture too.

Howard's battle against encroaching change symbolizes the class conflict between indigenous Granite Staters scratching out a living and citified immigrants with "college degrees and big bank accounts." Like the winter-weakened deer threatened by the dogs of March -- the normally docile house pets whose instincts arouse them to chase and kill for sport -- Howard, too, is sorely beset.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book rises or falls on the strength of Howard Elman, and this man could hold up a house. By turns tormented, funny, poignant and appalling, he lodges in the memory - and successfully launches the career of Ernest Hebert." --New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 trim. LC 94-44580

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: UPNE (February 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874517192
• ISBN-13: 978-0874517194
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I never set out to create my own genre, complete with derogatory phrase, but when I look over my career and my writing interests it all boils down to Hick Lit. I write mainly about working class rural people at risk, probably because of the way I grew up, in New Hampshire. My father was a factory worker, my mother a nurse; they spoke Canadian French in the house. I love working people. The guys who collect garbage, the women who take care of old people in nursing homes, the wait people, the ditch diggers and lumber jacks and fishers, the taxi drivers and maids: they're the backbone of America.

I think one reason that writing is so important to me is that I don't think that well. I have to write to know what I know and sometimes even what I feel. Writing is my conduit to understanding.

My interest in novel writing is the interior world of the characters. Everyone has two dramas in their lives, the drama on the outside--how we relate to our loved one, our jobs, our friends, our enemies--and the drama on the inside--how we relate to that steamy, dreamy on-going nut-case story in our heads. When the story in the head comes into conflict with the story in the outside, well, that's a problem for this novelist.

You can catch me in greater detail on my web site, which is pretty simple, since I made it myself. Just google my name.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hebert Knows Yankee Hicks, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dogs of March (Paperback)

I was sorry I waited to read it. I am from New Hampshire, a strange place but home. I have been in Seattle for several years. This book gave me flashbacks of growing up. I didn't realize then some of the odd behavior of those around me as well as myself. If you are from the sticks of N.E. you will love this book. It is hilarious, smart, and tight. If you are not and you like to read non-industry writers, writers with imagination. Pick up this book. It is great. I was truly blown away. I grew up with a TV but we had no channels but for PBS (Durham NH) and cable was not yet in the hinterlands. I read many books in New Hampshire and about New Hampshire, this is the very best. Hebert nailed this story. Trust me if you like original, new, fresh, material read "The Dogs of March."

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than "Beans", February 24, 2001

By 

michael c. white (wilbraham, ma United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dogs of March (Paperback)

I read Hebert's novel many years ago and was surprised when it went out of print. It is a wonderful novel, much better and more profound I think than "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" in honestly protraying rural poverty in New England. Hebert's characters are beautifully rendered and unlike with Chute's, the author does not condescend to them nor does he make them larger or smaller than life, though he does portray them with empathy and with heart. His characters have their own pettiness and desires and dignity, and he allows them to follow their own paths without making them cartoon-like puppets or grotesques. They are poor but they are not made to argue for some political point of view (though of course one can hardly not be moved when the main character talks about "teeth"--when referring to the lack of dental care for the poor). As with all great art, this novel makes its politcal statement by fashioning characters we do identify with. This is a profoundly moving novel that deserves to be rediscovered and applauded as the gritty and realistic novel it is.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary, August 29, 2005

By 

Mark W. Furlong "PrairieFire" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dogs of March (Paperback)

I was born and raised in New Hampshire and, to echo a previous reviewer from the Granite State, this is spot on.

I love Russo's books, but "Dogs of March" is far more gritty and, at a dirt level, far more realistic. The town I grew up in had trash men that were constantly building "additions" to their tin, aluminum foil and tar paper shack out by the railroad tracks. They were clones of the Ollie Jordan family in Hebert's novel.

Besides the characters, there is a powerful story of what drives men to do extraordinary and bizarre things.

This is among a handful of novels I've read twice.