Monday, January 08, 2007

Walking in Circles Before Lying Down


Walking in Circles Before Lying Down
By Merrill Markoe

1. Do you feel the author described animal behavior accurately? Did you find her portrayal of Chuck to be funny?

2. Can you relate to Dawn and her family situation in anyway? How do you think you would cope with a sister and parents like Dawn's?

3. Do you think Dawn ran away from her relationship problems or do you think she handled her problems well?

4. Describe what you think about Chuck? Do you think he was a good dog? Do you think he was envious of the other dogs in Dawn's life?

5. What was your overall opinion of this book? Did you like it or dislike it? Explain


Booklist
by Allison Block
When her latest boyfriend leaves her for another woman, twice-divorced Angeleno Dawn Tarnauer buries her face in the fur of her mixed-breed canine, Chuck, and cries. The dog, it seems, sensed trouble all along. "I should have said something before," he laments in a gravelly voice. "Couldn't you smell her on his pants?" Has Dawn gone nuts, or is her dog actually talking to her? This latest offering from multiple Emmy winner and one-time David Letterman head writer Markoe (It's My F***ing Birthday, 2002) may be her best yet, delivering the drama, dark humor, and dysfunctional characters that have become the author's cachet. There's Halley, Dawn's dim, cell phone-addicted sister, determined to succeed in her new career as a Life Coach (thanks to the encouragement of her friend, convicted-killer Scott Peterson); their woefully nonmaternal mother, Joyce, inventor of the hokey but potentially very profitable Every Holiday Tree; and Dawn herself, a tall, blonde California beauty who feels more comfortable sharing confidences with mongrels than men. Markoe's fans will delight in her hilarious doggy dialogue, as when Chuck enlightens his owner on the topic of urination: "There's two kinds of peeing," he says. "There's regular peeing, because you have to pee. And then there's auxiliary competitive peeing. For acquiring an empire. I'm all about the real estate."


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