Michelle de Kretser: The Lost Dog

[NotQuiteCockney]

Just finished this, I know some MNers wanted to talk about it.

I liked it ok, but ... what was the extra theory he got in the shower near the end? It was a bit confusing and weird. And wtf happened to the dog? Did Denise do that? It was a bit ... 'deus ex machina' the dog appearing when it did ...

I actually thought it was meant to remain ambiguous - was one of the things I really liked about the book. Don't know if you've got to The Secret Scripture yet, but that was a beautiful book very nearly completely ruined by a neat-bow ending which totally went against the grain of the rest of the book, which was all about never entirely knowing the truth. For me, The Lost Dog was a lot like that - about lying and suppression and ambiguity and never really knowing for sure but having to get on with it anyway.

Deus-ex-machina is a fair allegation though. I'd got to the point of believing the wretched thing was never going to turn up.

It's really Canus-ex-machina, isn't it.

Not up to The Secret Scripture yet. Having a small detour into a book about the Yorkshire Ripper ...

Always important to balance one's reading diet, I feel

The Lost Dog intrigued me because I would never in a million years have read it if I'd just been picking it up off the shelf rather than reading the Booker list: crap design, stupid title, appallingly dull jacket blurb. But it was just really my kind of book, and the kind I loved so much I've been looking out for her other stuff too.