My Life As a Dog [Hardcover]

Reidar Jonsson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990

This is the screenplay of the teenager's novel, "My Life as a Dog", made into a film by the director, Lasse Hallstrom. The tale, set in 1950s Sweden, is about a mischievous boy who tries to come to terms with life in spite of his mother's terminal illness and his separation from his pet dog Sickan. "My Life as a Dog" won the Best Film award in Sweden, the Golden Globe award and the New York Film Critics award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as being nominated for Oscars for Best Screenplay and Best Director.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I have an incredible knack of doing the wrong thing all the time although I am always trying hard to do the right thing," confesses the 13-year-old hero of this exceptional Swedish novel, the basis of a recent film (and of inevitable comparisons with Catcher in the Rye ). It is 1959, and Ingemaar's mother has died after a protracted illness. His seaman father absent, the boy's siblings are yet again dispatched to separate destinations, and Ingemaar himself is packed off to an uncle for a second and perhaps indefinite stay. Armed only with his awe-inspiring imagination and desperately good intentions, Ingemaar tries all at once to conquer his grief, satisfy his curiosity about sex (and other aspects of adulthood) and reorder his fractured existence. But his efforts beget new forms of chaos--objects are lost or destroyed, skylights are crashed through, fires started, sexual experiments ruinously interrupted. Jonsson's candor matches his tender poetics as he maps the uncertain land where the comic and tragic meet.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up--Time magazine called the Swedish movie of the same title "the most popular foreign-language film in the U. S." Now, three years later, we have an English-language translation of the novel that inspired the movie, and while it is unlikely to replicate the film's popularity, it is every bit as engagingly quirky and idiosyncratic. The story it tells of 13-year-old Ingemar Johansson's coming of age in the late 1950s is much the same, too--seemingly unloved by his dying mother, the boy is sent off to live with his hapless uncle in remote Smaland, where he encounters the same engagingly eccentric cast of characters who peopled the film. There the similarities end, however, for the tone of the book is much darker than that of the film, and the emotional (and sexual) development of Ingemar--who tells his story in his own unsparing first-person voice--is much more richly realized. That Ingemar survives both his own emotional starvation and personal rejection is evidence of the sheer doggedness of the human spirit. Not a children's book at all, My Life as a Dog 's crossover potential as a YA novel is unfortunately compromised by a clumsy translation. Despite this, the book remains intrinsically a meritorious, powerful novel that should be considered for purchase for the sake of the special readership it will attract. --Michael Cart, Beverly Hills Pub . Lib .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T); 1St Edition edition (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374351082
• ISBN-13: 978-0374351083
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,167,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Literary Read!, July 17, 2009

By 

Ron E. Kendricks "Ron Kendricks" (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Life as a Dog (Paperback)

This fantastic book is an awesome piece of literature! What an inner journey of how the self-alienated forge survival! The youngster creates a defense amidst abandoment by always comparing "how things could be worse." This is not a read for youngsters....but conveys a deep philosophical musing on the impact of our environment in shaping who we are and how we think. This book is just as profound, if not surpassing "The Catcher in the Rye," "Of Mice and Men," "Of Human Bondage," and even "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." What an amazing book that truly examines the human condition. Highly recommended!

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, June 27, 2000

By 

"kdiaz2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life as a Dog (Paperback)

The characters are wonderfully written and the book is compelling. I was sad when I finished reading it!

3 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring!, November 20, 2000

By 

kloie - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Life as a Dog (Paperback)

I tried to read this book, I really did. I just gave up when it finally almost bored me to tears. Please, if you decide to buy this book, remember that you were warned. Maybe I'm just not old enough (I'm 13--shut up) for it, but I really hated it. The kind of langauge in this book, also! I can't believe I found this in my school library!

[This review is severely out of date...]