Customer Reviews

One Good Dog

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book held my attention as soon as I started reading. Author Susan Wilson combines skilled writing with plot strategems that will positively be called "classic" and negative derided as "trite," depending on your perspective.

The book begins with a scenario in an animal shelter with a clever twist. We soon meet Adam March, a demanding self-centered CEO candidate of a prestigious company. March is the stereotypical man on the way up, owning three homes with a "money is no object" lifestyle.

One day, following an accidnetal emotional trigger, he commits an act that has legal, moral and financial consequences. He loses everything and ultimately finds a new life through working at a homeless shelter and yes, inadvertently adopting a dog. His pit bull mix also has been cast out by society and also experiences trouble escaping his past (sometimes literally). There's even a romantic connection to Adam, his new life, and of course, the dog.

I read the book before reading reviews, barely skimming the book jacket blurb. It's a tribute to the author that I didn't find myself questioning the plot, characters or setting. I wanted escape fiction and there it was. The pacing and suspense were flawless. The ending was plausible...just.

Inevitably this book will be compared to Garth Stein's Art of Racing in the Rain. Stein's writing is tighter and more lyrical. His book is much more painful to read, but also has stronger descriptions of the environment and some truly memorable passages.

One Good Dog should stand on its own. If I were looking for comparisons, I'd compare it more to Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan, rather than Racing in the Rain.

I cannot recommend this book enough. The book is good, and the writing style of the author fantastic. As an added bonus, the story takes place in Boston, and as a former resident of that great city, I can relate immensely with many of locations described in the book.

The story is really two stories. Half of the book details our hero Adam March's rise and fall within corporate America. Without giving anything anyway, Adam suffers a nervous breakdown at work which results in him losing his job. This starts a cascade of events that eventually results in Adam losing everything. The rest of this story chronicles his comeback from the abyss, as well as offering glimpses into his background that explain the reason why he is who is.

The other half of the story is told from from the perspective of a Pitt bull who started his life out as dog fighter. He is eventually rescued, and adopted by Adam March. The rest of the story chronicles the bonding process between this dog and Adam in beautiful detail. As a dog owner and animal lover, I found everything that the author described as far as the dog's thinking to be extremely believable, and not unreasonable.

In short, this story was extremely moving, and I found myself tearing up at several points in the book. I have a few key takeaways after reading this story - (1) Don't judge a book by it's cover. Pitt bulls are great dogs, and I think if you are able and in the market for a great dog, you should consider taking one of these guys into your home, and (2) dog fighting is abomination, and those engaged in this practice should be thrown in prison for life.

It has been a while since a book really held my attention to the point of missing sleep and thinking about it in the middle of the day like this one did. It was a bit predictable but that didn't matter. I saw the charactors and felt a part of the story. It was about each finding resolution after a lifetime of hardknocks. Also about the bond that grows creating a better life for both of them. It really touched my heart.

In the tradition of Marley and Me and The Art of Racing in the Rain, One Good Dog is a moving book about how a dog changes a human's life for the better.

Adam March, a ruthless, self-made Boston millionnaire seems to have it all, living a picture perfect life, surrounded by wealth and privilege. Then, in one instant, all of that changes, and he finds himself alone, unemployed, and doing community service in a homeless shelter. Chance, a pit bull mix bred as a fighting dog, living in a dark and vicious world, takes a random moment to escape from his captors. Human and dog come together, and as One Good Dog unfolds, both fight for a chance at a new life. This is a tale of love, loyalty, new discoveries, and redemption, told from the point of view of Adam March, but also from the point of view of Chance, the former fighting dog.

Wilson masterfully lets Chance tell the story in his own words. Some of the passages describing his fighting life are disturbing, but his gradual introduction to the world of being a pet dog are charming and heartwarming. I found this book hard to put down. The narrative from the two different points of views fascinated me and added to the pace of the story. You'll find yourself routing for the initially extremely unlikeable character of Adam March and for the dog with the rough beginning.

Entertaining, moving, and heartwarming, fans of dog memoirs, or pet memoirs in general, will thoroughly enjoy this book.

I highly recommend "One Good Dog." It is a story that will tear at your heart strings and make you believe in the good in all creatures. Not just for dog lovers, this book has universal appeal because it speaks to the various bonds we create in our lives.

Adam March, the main human character in One Good Dog by Susan Wilson, is arrogant, pompous and superficial--yet strangely sympathetic.

His deprived youth has led him to an adult world where he feels he must play by someone else's rules. And he is very good at the game. He is rising in the corporate world, accumulating the symbols of wealth and power until a memory from childhood causes him to snap. In that moment he loses it all.

Instead of a jail sentence the judge gives the arrogant Adam community service to work in a center feeding the homeless. Life becomes a humiliating series of bleak, lonely days for him where he begins to see no way out.

The book alternates between a third person narrative of Adam's tribulations and a first person channeling of a most delightfully charming Pit Bull with a heart of gold (except for his desire to fight most of the dogs he meets).

Chance, as he is later named, tells us he was raised in a cage in a dark cellar as a fighting dog. In spite of scars and a mostly missing ear, he lets us know he was quite a gladiator. After making an escape, for a brief time he becomes a free dog of the streets, making fun of dogs subservient to humans. Then he is captured and bound for death row at the shelter.

The two social outcasts meet by chance and change the course of each other's lives. The more Adam communes with the dog, the more he understands what is important in life. The fighting Pit Bull, raised without human affection, understands how much his human needs him.

I won't spoil the ending except to say while it isn't sunshine and flowers, I didn't suffer Old Yeller Syndrome.

One Good Dog is easy to get into and I didn't want to put it down as it moved along comfortably predictable without the sentimentality that often creeps into dog books. "Predictable" isn't meant to be a negative.

I couldn't help but think that if Jay Gatsby had found a dog to love, he would have seen that there was more to life than pursuing the very shallow Daisy and all that she represented. And he'd be alive today.

I recommend the book to anyone who has ever had a dog in their lives--or needed one.

As a dog lover, i expected to love this book. The story is great. The graphic description of the dog fighting, however, was just more than I could stomach. Unfortunately, the author does not get into this until you are already emotionally invested in the characters. I tried and persevered until the end when the punks that orignially owned him and fought him kidnapped him and then I just had to let the book go. Even with a good ending, it just isn't worth it to me. Some of those images I still can't get out of my mind. Yes, dog fighting happens but this book would have been so much better had the author just stated that and left out the details.

What an amazing story. It opened up my eyes to the horrors of dog fighting and the wonders of healing.
A must read book.

This is an excellent book, but you need to have tissues nearby when you read it. As a lifetime dog owner and lover, I found parts of it very difficult to read because of the dog fighting explained in it. After reading it, I believe that Michael Vick and all those who promote dog fights should receive much longer sentences than they do. We truly must eliminate this "so-called sport" no matter how difficult it is. I could not go to sleep one night when I was reading this book--that is how moving it is.

In summary, an excellent read, but be prepared to really, really be moved by it.

So touching, so insightful and so moving... any one who has rescued a dog will love this very well told story of how animals actually rescue humans and how much they teach us. The book on tape is well narrated and your heart will melt at Chance's story. Great book!