Dogland (Hardcover)

by Will Shetterly (Author) "It was a dream, then a place, then a memory..." (more)
Key Phrases: grooming shed, duck boat, dog pens, Captain John, Johnny Tepes, Wayne Lawson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
In late 1950s Florida, the transplanted Nix family opens Dogland, a tourist attraction, and their beliefs in integration attract the attention of the Klan. Young Christopher Nix befriends a black man and a Seminole woman who may know the real secret to the Fountain of Youth. Shetterly captures the rhythm, feel, and language of cracker Florida, its legends, and the clash of cultures. Recommended for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Shetterly makes the transition from young adult (Elsewhere, 1991, etc.) to adult fantasy with assurance and aplomb. In 1959, Luke and Susan Nix travel with their family--four-year-old Chris, whose narrative is informed by hindsight; Little Bit, three; and Digger, two--to Dickison, Florida, to set up a tourist attraction: Dogland, a sort of canine zoo displaying dozens of different breeds of dog, along with a restaurant and gift shop. Their supportive neighbors include Maggie DeLyon, the Seminole owner of the Fountain of Youth motel, realtor Artie Drake, and the old black cook, Ethorne Hawkins, soon hired by Luke along with Ethorne's equally hardworking family, Mayella, James, and college boy Seth. Some locals resent Luke's color-blind approach, while others come to accept it. As the years pass, and new federal laws begin to bite, Luke writes to the local newspaper supporting integration and the banning of prayer in schools. Waitress Francine rejects her violent, bigoted husband, Cal, and runs off with James; attempting to stop them, Cal calls out the Klan, only to be outwitted by Luke and Ethorne. Dogland, meanwhile, receives a steady stream of visitors, many of whom may not be entirely what they seem. John Hawkins, a descendant of the original plantation owner, assisted by lawyer Nick Lumiere, opens a rival attraction, a pirate theme park, then tries to buy Luke out. Another neighbor, Gideon Shale, who serves hamburgers and Jesus, blows his brains out after Lumiere taunts him. Next, Maggie's Fountain of Youth succumbs to the Hawkins-Lumiere axis. Finally, when the Klan makes an all-out effort to run Luke off and defeat Ethorne, Chris calmly lets loose the dogs. Compelling, absorbing, hard-edged work, lit by glimpses of another, more fantastic reality: reminiscent of top-notch Orson Scott Card, child-centered but tackling adult themes fearlessly and with great charm. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 445 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312851715
• ISBN-13: 978-0312851712
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,422,665 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich, complex, thought-provoking look at race relations., January 26, 1999

By A Customer

An avid reader, I can nonetheless say this is the most rewarding book I've read in quite some time. From the book jacket description, I expected a simple tale about a family establishing a tourist attraction. What I got, however, was an enormously rich and complex look at race relations in the American South at the beginning of the 1960s. The narrator, an adult retelling events perceived as a child, presents the story in a magical way that is innocent and yet wise. The rest of the ensemble are as skillfully drawn; no character is entirely black or white (in terms of character or race), rendering them believable and thought-provoking. It's not every day one finds an author with the ability to develop such characters.

Issues are introduced by events that are conveyed in just enough detail to make you put the book down for a while and consider them. Add to that a hint of fantasy and supernatural, and you're left with a book that leads your mind beyond the boundaries of its covers. As I read the last page, my first instinct was to turn the book over and begin reading it again.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Southern Slice of Magical Realism, November 10, 2001

By	Daniel Barer (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read about half of this 400+ page book in one day. (It was September 11, 2001, which should give you a hint about why.) This is that kind of absorbing work. It's about passages and transformations. A naturally-selfish and self-absorbed four-year-old becomes a slightly-less-so seven year old. A possible or actual affair tears a family apart, before it is tenously drawn back together. The time-bomb Eisenhower era ticks into the explosive sixties. And those who hate change lash out. Meanwhile, dieties and devils drift through the text, sometimes identifiable, sometimes not. (This is a good book to read with Gaiman's "American Gods" -- some of the same "characters" show up in both books.) And it's all told with the kind of simple-yet-beautiful prose that's the hardest kind of writing to pull off. The story is worth reading just to meet the best character, Luke Nix -- a dreamer yet a gritty realist, an unfair tyrant of a father yet a man of breathtaking courage and conviction. Read it if you want to get away for a while.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent weaving of magic into ordinary lives, November 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dogland (Paperback)

This book can be read on so many levels. You have the coming-of-age story, which alone would make the book worthwhile, but delicately introduced (and so subtly that many will probably miss it on the first read) is the element of magic. Will Shetterly is an excellent writer, and this is his masterwork.