Read Online You Can Have a Dog When I'm Dead Essays on Life at an Angle Paul Benedetti Books

Product details Paperback 256 pages Publisher Dundurn (February 18, 2017) Language English ISBN-10 145973811X

You Can Have a Dog When I'm Dead Essays on Life at an Angle Paul Benedetti Books Reviews

• WOO!!! I laughed, I cried, and I laughed again. Great read!
• This is a collection of funny stories and brief essays. It’s geared for the Boomer generation, and is billed basically as bathroom reading. Thank you to Net Galley and Dundurn Press for the DRC, which I received in exchange for this honest review. I rate this book with 3.5 stars and round it upward; it will be available to the Canadian public –and presumably anyone anywhere that wants to buy it digitally—February 17, 2017.
  
  I confess I made an assumption when I saw the title. I was expecting jokes and essays dealing with man’s best friend; actually, I find very few stories related to dogs, but an unexpected number related to death. Of course, many of the essays are not humorous, but of a more reflective nature. This is all well and good, and the quality of the writing is worthy of such a sobering topic. But when I saw the book billed as being similar to the work of Dave Barry, I wasn’t anticipating reflections on my own mortality. I was expecting jokes.
  
  That aside, there are indeed some very funny pieces here, and although I am on the borderline in terms of being in—or out—of the Boomer generation, a lot of the humor does resonate. I love seeing Benedetti try to explain a home phone to a young person
  
  “I should probably explain to anyone under thirty that a home phone is an actual device about the size of a toaster that remains in your house. The reason you cannot take it with you to the bar, to your class, and into the toilet, where I’m sure you’re receiving very important calls, is that it’s attached by wires directly to the wall in your house.”
  
  I enjoy the piece on his garden, and about his elderly mother’s dance class. I am disquieted to learn that every person, real or imagined, in any of these stories is assumed by the writer to be Caucasian.
  
  I also find myself wondering why every story has to have booze in it somewhere. Wine, beer, whiskey, Bailey’s, more beer, more wine, gin, Kahlua…what’s up with this?
  
  Should you pick up a copy for yourself? I suppose that depends upon what the purchase price looks like and how much time you spend at home.
  
  But I imagine Mr. Benedetti would prefer you to purchase it before you get that dog. Because…yeah.
• This was a lovely collection of essays covering several years in the life of Canadian journalist Paul Benedetti. He writes about "normal" family life, about raising kids, getting older and dealing with mortality, but not much about dogs. I missed a few of the Canadian references but learnt a bit more about life in Canada, which was great. Due to the short articles, the book is perfect for dipping in and out of, which was my intention, but I actually felt so engaged and entertained by this, I ended up flying through it, reading larger chunks.
  Some of the essays were very funny, others made me tear up, all of them were very relatable and readable. The pieces about mortality were very touching and encouraged reflection.
  Personal note to Paul Benedetti You so need to get your wife a dog! It'd be awesome and I believe she deserves it!