Customer Reviews

Girl On A Leash: The Healing Power of Dogs: a Memoir

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It's more than that. As a sociologist I have learned much about the effects of multiple identities on the psyche of a Chinese American and appreciate how dogs came to her rescue. Her experiences will reverberate in your mind and heart.

An extraordinary story for everyone to read. A wonderful insight into the minds of people and dogs. The true tales of a young woman as she struggles with her heritage, growing up, racial issues and familial acceptance wonderfully combined with touching stories of her true love for dogs. You must read this book!

I am interested in animal welfare and Asian culture, so for me a book combining the two is like finding a gem. The way out of an inner struggle is unique as it is admirable. It's wonderful to know that other cultures different from mine, love animals as I do -- maybe even more.

I could not put this book down. The stories about different climes, different dogs, make you want to read on and on at least to finish a chapter, and then to start another after that. They tug at your heartstrings: the little girl whose own grandmother wanted her dumped in a baby "tower" for the vultures, just because she was a girl too many; the other grandmother, the gentle one, the Buddhist who never had a pet in China but finally got one whom she loved too much. Then the remarkable mutt in Paris, who was intensely funny as the French are not. Hey, if one can be reborn again, I'd like to be a dog in Paris. Then, a sad tale of killing a pet by someone who could not accept what is different. This book teaches love for the different and "lowly"..

The book is a fascinating, colorful, unique collage of all the components that make up the writer's life - then and now. Weaving across and throughout her life is the "karmic" presence and significance of her beloved dogs. I never had a pet in my life, although my sister and her daughters have two huggable, affectionate labradors living with us in our New York apartment, the fact that I love dogs vicariously, even more, through the book, demonstrates how effectively Ms. King has written about this often-overlooked subject matter. If that is not powerful writing, I do not know what is....Her voice is authentic, uncommon and incredibly exquisite...Now that I myself am very much immersed in China, I can appreciate more fully the enigma and "stigma" of being Chinese...The book is beyond wonderful and I am in awe."

Love is a fire that remains lit in the trouble life of a Chinese immigrant family. This is a beautiful story of how a Chinese girl finds solace in the company of different dogs who come to her life, and in the end, how they set her free from the demons of her ancestral past.

This marvelous book has opened the gates that lead to the teeming millions of Chinese who live amidst the various races of Southeast Asia. I have met Chinese people living in Simla and Mussoorie on the southern edge of the Himalayas, in Calcutta and in major cities of India. I have seen the industrious Chinese in Singapore and read a lot about the Chinese diaspora in distant lands. By ingeniously weaving political history that shaped the lives and defined the direction of overseas Chinese, the writer gives this special,often mysterious,breed of Chinese a human face. The straightforward way in which the sketch of a Chinese family living in Asia, migrating to the West, ultimately to the Mecca of the elite - the United States of America, has created a lasting impact on my mind. I love the characters... humans and canine. I enjoyed reading the pen pictures of Paris, life in the American suburbia, great upheavals like the Cultural Revolution - the blunders of the great. The writer subtly takes you through a wealth of thought-provoking ideas, in just a few lyrical sentences. Asian Studies become a story about Asians. The sketches that adorn the book are delightful. Leash? My God! This Chinese girl will take her readers on her leash. She will make you fall in deep, abiding love with a specie that has forever been the best friend of the bi-ped. It is enchanting to know how they communicate with her, by mere looks, vocal sounds, and on some occasions, by using a bite here,or there! We consider the dog was created by the Lord to be a friend of man, but for all we know, in His great Wisdom, he may have created Man to serve His other children,living on land or in the sea, or in pasture green to reflect the glory of His Abode. While I have little knowledge of the communication within the world of the quadrupeds, I have observed buffaloes communicate with their mates, with members of other herds as also with other genus.

This is a must read!

The author gives a powerful voice to the often stifled voice of Asians living in strange circumstances. A must read for students of race, class, and gender. Very readable.