Apologizing to Dogs

Apologising to Dogs is a terrific read - and possibly my favourite novel by Mr Coomer. The prose is crisp, the plot original, Coomer's characters funny and well drawn. This novel would make a very funny movie.

This convoluted plot would have been less surprising if it had shown itself centuries ago in three acts as a performance before Shakespearean audiences. The book isn't masterly and the plot probably isn't as tightly woven as it might be. But the characters are believable, the setting, almost bizarre enough to have come out of Wentworth, Ohio, by a popular horror writer, minus all the occult and parapsychology. An ingrown neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas, full of personal histories and human flaws reaches a series of climaxes (no pun intended) during a period of a few hours and in the end the reader is left with a handful of seeds for his own imagination to sprout and blossom. Readers familiar with Guy Clark might hear the lyrics of `Boats to Build' repeating themselves through some of the episodes. The coincidence of similarity might suggest Coomer is a Guy Clark aficionado, or that Guy found the story an inspiration for his song. Either way, the two make a matched set.Coomer owes no apologies to dogs or readers for this one.

This is a wonderful example of the wit, whimsy & wisdom of Joe Coomer. Read it with an open mind & a gentle heart and you will laugh out loud. The story is set during one full day in the lives of shop-owners who treasure their antiques & their stores--regardless of the absence of paying customers! You will learn their secrets, fears and dreams, and you'll end up shaking your head in wonder when you discover that it is indeed possible to find yourself apologizing to a dog.

This book is hard to put down, it is chock full of quirky characters. A small community of antique sellers in Texas, everyone has a secret, and they are all woven together. You will also enjoy his other books.

Joe Coomer is, quite simply, one of our best writers. His earlier novel The Loop (out of print, grab a copy if you can find it) is one of the most delightful and moving novels of the decade. Apologizing to Dogs shows again that he can make eccentric characters more alive and real than most of the real people you'll ever meet. Writing novels myself, I usually think when reading, I could do that. But when reading Coomer, I just watch the language flow and and let the mystery and joy overtake me, wondering how he does it. His earlier novels have all been with small publishing houses that were not able to give him the push he deserves. This new one is put out by Scribner, which hopefully will give him the exposure he needs to reach the audience which is surely there. Read this book. You'll consider it the discovery of the year.