Dogs of God

This a a must read for anyone who loves an enthralling, although at times, disturbing read. Truly a work of literary art.

THIS STORY IS EXCELLENT. Ingenius, Unique, Beautiful, Morbid, Sad, Uplifting, Violent, Depraved, even humorous at times. I hate when people say "For a first time novelist this was good". That is BS, every writer on the planet would PRAY to leave 1/2 the mark that this novel has. There is simply nothing else like it I have read. If you want to know my best way to describe it, it would be this: 1/4 Cormac Macarthy "Child of God" + 1/4 David Bottoms "Easter Weekend" + 1/4 Tim Willocks "Bloodstained Kings" + 1/4 Flannery O'Connor "A Good Man is Hard to Find". "Dogs of God" is a masterpiece plain and simple

Imagine a suicidal goth-obsessed Eastern European director wants to remake Any Which Way You Can. But the studio, in sending him the script, manages somehow to interleave the pages with parts of Deliverance, High Risk, and Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke. The director receives the script, reads it, thinks it's a work of avant-garde genius, and films it. Pinckney Benedict has written the novelization of that nonexistent film and called it Dogs of God. Vulgar, brutal, unassuming, twisted, and intensely fascinating in all the right places, Benedict has taken the modern-primitive concept, applied it in novel form, and succeeded all too well. A profoundly disturbing book, on my top 15 reads of '99 list.

An interesting first novel, particularly for its subject matter and characters. Benedict is at his finest when a) describing the lust West Virigina hill country that he seems familiar with. and b)creating violent imagery. On these merits alone, I recommend this book and would compare it to, oh, Elmore Leonard and Brett Easton Ellis. The plot of the book seems rather tangential to what Benedict is trying to achieve. The story, such as it is, seems to serve as an exscuse for Benedict to show off his talent and his choice of venue. Benedict, to me, seems similar to Bret Easton Ellis in that he enjoys portraying grotestque situations with a peculiar kind of flatness. Character's speak with strange inflections (by this I don't mean sterotyped hillbilly drawl) and motivation is not always evident. This book is a fascinating read, particularly for those of us who don't interact, on a regular basis, with crazed Hill Country drug lords. I'll be interested in his next book.

While literary types are skulking around sucking back lattes and debating the death of the novel, Pinckney Benedict has arisen from the rural backroads of West Virginia to write `The Dogs of God`, the most impressive first American novel since Thomas Pynchon released `V` almost a half century ago. Benedict`s story revolves around Goodie, an itinerant bare knuckles fist fighter looking for one last payday before his hands give out. He`s on a collision course with Tannhauser, the local drug lord, a 12-fingered maniac who makes Conrad`s Kurtz look like a boyscout leader. Benedict has a master`s feel around narrative. His ability to pull a half dozen disparate threads and storylines into a magnificent and compelling read is fantastic. The atmosphere of menace and imminent violence is unrelenting, even though it takes the better part of the book to be realized. In the end, the best thing you can say about `The Dogs of God` is that it does what all good books should - shows you another time and place and makes you think (and maybe even wish) you were there