Thoughts on Dogsbody for #DWJMarch

Surprise! Yes I AM posting two days in a row for the second time this month! That's because today is Dogsbody day at #DWJMarch, and when Kristen M first MENTIONED the imminent arrival of #DWJMarch, I said, "Sounds like an excuse to read some fiction again," and turned to my "get at some point" list on my library catalog account. When we converted our library to a county-wide system last summer, allowing us to easily request things from other libraries in the county and use our cards wherever and so forth, I searched for all kinds of things I'd been wanting to find for awhile, and put them on a list for, you know, whenever I felt I had the time to read and/or watch them-- including a search for all the Diana Wynne Jones in the county that I hadn't yet read. I chose Dogsbody from that list the other week because I knew it was a favorite among several people whose opinions I trust.

Then about halfway through the second chapter I laughed at myself, and thought, "Wait, I forgot I hate dog books."

Luckily, there are exceptions. Books where the dogs have a clever way with words and are always getting pulled into scrapes by melodramatic cat friends (the Bunnicula books), books that are just so utterly charming you're really not sure HOW they overpowered your dog book aversion in the first place but you'll recommend them to both dog book lovers AND dog book haters from now on (Because of Winn-Dixie), and books by Diana Wynne Jones are all okay by me. Anyway, it's not so much the presence of DOGS as much as the general overarching genre of ANIMAL books, where the fact that you love dogs, or cats, or horses, is supposed to carry you through an otherwise dull and usually emotionally manipulative plot.

Diana Wynne Jones is incapable of writing such mediocracy unironically. When she writes a dog book, she makes her dog the actual Dog STAR, sent to Earth in the body of a dog as punishment for a murder he didn't commit unless he can find the alleged cosmic murder weapon before this mortal canine body dies. See? Yes. Every so often while I was reading I'd smile and think "I have NO IDEA where this is going!" That's DWJ for you. If you should by any chance correctly predict anything about where one of her stories is going, it's only because she WANTS YOU TO.

But it's still a dog book, at heart, in that the story is grounded in the relationship between a dog and his person-- here a mistreated girl living with relatives while her dad's in prison for being a revolutionary, because DWJ can't do realism in a boring predictable way, either. It's a rough book, full of rough people, but I appreciated that it was never ALL bad. Kathleen's aunt is cruel, but her uncle is merely uninvolved-- when he DOES notice what's up, he's even supportive; her older cousin is a bossy jerk but loyal when push comes to shove; her younger cousin is outright loving. There are trustworthy townsfolk and there are neighborhood bullies. There are moments of justice that aren't just at the very end. (But yes, it can be heavy).

Dogs are such a pure example of LOVE. I like that about them, in real life. I'm not much of an animal person (though certainly more than I am an animal BOOK person), but I definitely consider myself a Dog Person above, say, a Cat Person (which is apparently sacrilege for a librarian. I'M SORRY. CATS ARE OKAY BUT I DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM. I DO NOT COLLECT CAT PINS). I love dogs because dogs are LOVE. There's so much loyalty, concern, genuine REJOICING IN THE VERY EXISTENCE of their pack.

And I like that about Sirius, whom you meet as a hot-tempered immortal, but who truly embodies the loyal affections of his new doggy nature in time. Which brings us to another weird bit of symbolism I got out of it which probably wasn't intended at all. I was fascinated by Sirius's early attempts to reconcile his dog-ness with that green power inside, his mortal and immortal selves. His luminary past was something fleeting and vague that he couldn't quite grasp with his stupid fleshy brain. It reminded me of trying to find Enlightenment, of reconnecting to the Divine while living in a mortal body. Sometimes we touch the star in us-- other days we just slog through our dogginess. OOOOOOO.

So do I recommend the book? Sure! I recommend it if you like dog books for the doggy loyalty, and if you don't like dog books because you'd rather have supernatural mysteries. I recommend it if you like the complete ORIGINALITY of Diana Wynne Jones, though I'll caution if you mostly just like her funny books, because while her sense of humor is always there, it's generally a much more serious book than, say, the Chrestomanci series.

I for one am just still grateful that I still have DWJ books left to read in my life. I know I'm always guaranteed a real trip.