Book Review- A Dog Year

Name: A Dog Year

Author: Jon Katz
Genre: Non-Fiction, Animals
Publication Date: 3rd July 2008
Publisher: Ebury Press
Synopsis: "Jon and his wife live in a New Jersey suburb with two perfectly behaved Labradors. Then into the mix comes Devon, who creates havoc from the moment he arrives at the airport, when it takes Jon, two baggage handlers and three police officers to track him down after he escapes. Jon learns the hard way how to encourage Devon to behave. But amongst the difficulties in their first year together, Jon discovers his life is enlivened by a creature with so much mischievousness and joie de vivre. In fact, Jon finds that he is to change as much as Devon."

Warning: this review does contain spoilers of the book, if you want to read this non-fiction book, don't look at the review. If you're not bothered, carry on...




Goodreads: Add Here
Amazon UK: Buy Here
Amazon US: Buy Here
Source: Paperback

Review: I'm really not sure what I think about this book. To start with, I can't review it how I review a fiction book, plot wise and character wise, because this is a true story about Jon, his two Labradors (Stanley and Julius) and how his life changes when this troubled border collie (Devon) comes into his life. I honestly didn't like the writing style, I just found it too plain and boring, I can't even explain my reasons for it, it's just how it is. This book though does have it's sad parts. It says it's the book that inspired 'Marley and Me' and I guess you can see why (even though I haven't seen it but I think everyone knows what happenes). Jon unfortunately does have to put a dog down, but not Devon. Jon does seem to make the decision too quickly, the dog didn't really show any signs of pain and got put down anyway. I am a complete animal lover, I hate it when I see an animal in pain, but I also hate it when people make big decisions like that without first considering the other options to save the animals life. As I've said before, I didn't like the writing style, but I also don't like the way Jon Katz handled things, which is what makes me give this a low rating. After I read the book, I looked up Jon Katz to find out how Devon is doing, and I found out that he got put down for aggressive behaviour, but apparently Jon did not get Devon checked at a behaviour clinic thing, but was just put down straight away. A good thing about this book though is that Jon does explain in good detail his love for Julius and Stanley, and how he does care about them. Do I recommend this book to dog lovers? I guess so, just to see their opinion on how Jon handles things. 

Rating: 3/5 Stars