The Dog

A Novel

By: Joseph O'Neill

Narrated by: Erik Davies

***A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK***
***LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014***
***PWs Best of the Year 2014***

The author of the best-selling and award-winning Netherland now gives us his eagerly awaited, stunningly different new novel: a tale of alienation and heartbreak in Dubai.

Distraught by a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, our unnamed hero leaves New York to take an unusual job in a strange desert metropolis. In Dubai at the height of its self-invention as a futuristic Shangri-la, he struggles with his new position as the “family officer” of the capricious and very rich Batros family. And he struggles, even more helplessly, with the “doghouse,” a seemingly inescapable condition of culpability in which he feels himself constantly trapped—even if he’s just going to the bathroom, or reading e-mail, or scuba diving. A comic and philosophically profound exploration of what has become of humankind’s moral progress, The Dog is told with Joseph O’Neill’s hallmark eloquence, empathy, and storytelling mastery. It is a brilliantly original, achingly funny fable for our globalized times.

Oh my...sometimes you totally pick wrong

Would you try another book from Joseph O'Neill and/or Erik Davies?

I would never try another book by this author.

What could Joseph O'Neill have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

This book was replete with overly ambitious vocabulary. This was not an SAT review. I want audible books I can listen to and enjoy while working, not those I need to listen to so tightly to understand the language used contextually. I am well educated and well read, so it's not a question of being above my reading level--but seriously overwritten.

Any additional comments?

My job is alone in HOT unconditioned spaces doing flooring estimates for a national company. Audible provides the relieve to get through the day. I got this book, and kept listening to get through a really long day. Bad choice, don't make my mistake.

What?

Not sure what I just listened to. Maybe it’s over my head, but the narrator’s performance sure didn’t help.