Pet-lovers and pet hates
Saturday 3 February 2004
The Black Veil, by Rick Moody (Faber, £8.99)
Moody's memoir of alcoholism and psychiatric hospitalisation could easily be read as a psychodrama whose antagonists are the italic and roman fonts. Indeed, as the proportion of italics grows in any given passage in this book, so do the strains of whining, insistent banality: to print, for example, the statement "any memoir is a fiction" in italics, as part of your climactic reflexive peroration, does not refresh the cliché. Furthermore, Moody belongs to the quantitative school of prose-writing, according to which any feeling or event is properly handled by redescribing it repeatedly in increasingly melodramatic terms over several pages, rather than trying to get the formulation right first time. Perhaps it is something more than statistical inevitability which has ensured that there are occasional funny jokes and thoughtful images. But the overall effect is like being told a very long story by someone who is alternately mildly irritating and very annoying indeed.
If Only They Could Speak, by Nicholas H Dodman (Norton, £11.95)
Nicholas Dodman, a vet, believes that "if pet lovers controlled the world, it would probably be a better place". Well, it would no doubt be a better place for pets, but since a lot of the pet-lovers described in this book seem a little bit weird, one may have some reservations about handing over the reins of power. Dodman offers a bunch of inspirational and heart-warming case studies of "troubled" cats and dogs, and how they were treated by him. The prevailing assumption appears to be that any odd behavioural quirks in a particular dog or cat must be "cured", although admittedly, when Seth the cat starts flying in a furry rage at his owner and trying to claw her to bits, we may agree that there is more of a problem. Happy are such pet-lovers as Julie, who tells the author: "I've had more love from my dog than I've ever had from a boyfriend." Quick, elect her president.
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