“Comparisons to The Road are inevitable. Let’s face it, that book really opened a big door for literary, emotional, respectable apocalyptic fiction. And I love it dearly. So much so that I think it’s really hard for me to read a lot of apocalyptic stories. They just don’t measure up.
I know this isn’t the opinion of the entire world, but it’s how I felt when I read it, after re-reading it, and after then listening to the audiobook.
So maybe a different comparison is in order?
The writer James Galvin, author of the Meadow and some pretty great poems, also wrote a lesser-known novel called Fencing the Sky. The plot is pretty spare, basically a guy kills another guy in a moment of anger, regrets it, but makes the decision to run away on horseback.
It’s an interesting book. It comes to a slow, winding conclusion that you start dreading from the very beginning. It’s a sort of thriller, just at a slow trot instead of a gallop.
One time I got to hear Galvin speak, and he said he came up with the plot points as an excuse to keep things moving along while he described the flowers and the trees. Because that’s what he really wanted to do. That was the book he wanted to write.
The Dog Stars has a bit of a similar feel. There’s an apocalyptic element here, no doubt. But at the same time, I think the author wanted to write about the Colorado outdoors, love, and loss. The apocalyptic element seemed like a good way to distill those ideas down to their essences.
There are great moments in this book. You do care about the characters.
To bring back to a comparison to The Road, this one would be a great read for someone that maybe felt the Road was too intense, too dark. Too hopeless.
This book does have moments of levity, and there are glimmers of hope. Though the human population has been decimated by disease, the natural world is beginning to return to its natural way, and these portraits of nature and the small moments the narrator enjoys are a relief.
If I had to sum it up in one sentence: It’s the Road for people who are too kindhearted for The Road.
Which is not such a bad thing.”