A Dog's Life
||A Dog's Life
Meet Boy -- keen observer of human behavior; witty chronicler of the
joys and contradictions of modern life; dog. Peter Mayle, author of
such winning works of prose as A Year in Provence, gives
delightful voice to his adopted dog.
In A Dog's Life, Boy tells us his own story -- that of a
dog in Provence, who progresses from a puppyhood of abuse and
abandonment to the good life with a writer and his wife. Witty and
urbane, Boy engages us with his opinions and observations on the
foibles and quirks of life with his two-footed companions. On being
forcibly groomed for the first time:
Traumatic is the only word to describe what
happened next: drenched with water, smeared with soap,
rinsed and soaped and rinsed again, and that was just the
overture. There followed an interminable session with a
miniature lawn mower, and then an attack by scissors,
snipping away at ears, mustache, tail, and other sensitive
regions. The final indignity was a dusting with powder that
smelled like a mixture of Evening in Paris and weed killer...
So that was toilettage, and as far as I'm
concerned, it ranks with kennels, obedience classes, rectal
thermometers, and supervised celibacy as one of man's great
On crime and punishment, for which he later outlines the "seven
gestures of appeasement" for offenders:
One lesson I've learned in life is that everything is
negotiable. No crime, however foul, is beyond redemption.
You can steal the Sunday lunch, shred books, bite off the
heads of live chickens, and pretty much despoil to your heart's
content as long as your conciliation technique is sound.
It's known as plea bargaining, and it has allowed far worse
villains than I to walk away unpunished, with scarcely a
blot on their escutcheon. If you don't believe me, read
On the apparent cleanliness of cats:
There's a popular misconception -- shamelessly encouraged,
of course, by ostentatious displays of washing and licking
and paws behind the ears -- that the cat is one of nature's
cleaner creations, odor-free and community-minded when it
comes to waste disposal. This is bunk. Put a ripe old
tomcat in an enclosed space, such as the garage, and you'll
need to hold your breath. It's that bad.
On the aerobic benefit of playing with tennis balls:
I mentioned stairs earlier. These have the double attraction
of noise and healthy physical exertion, in contrast to the
visitors' usual program of elbow bending and free-weight
training with knife and fork. The falling ball provides
multiple bouncing sounds, and the retriever has to climb up
the stairs to give it back to me. As any doctor will tell
you, this is very beneficial for the legs and lungs.
In a house where dinner parties are frequent, guests include non-practicing painters and salesmen of wine, antique dealers and touring
Americans. Boy tartly assesses them all. Mayle has uncovered here
a lovable, unforgettable character in a wickedly funny book. Edward
Koren doubles the fun with fifty-nine whimsical drawings. You don't
have to be a dog lover or Francophile to enjoy A Dog's Life,
but it might help to be at least one of the two. Once you've read
this, you may well dash off to the bookstore to snap up all the Peter
Mayle you can get your hands on. It's good to laugh.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Sharon Schulz-Elsing, 1996