Dog House: A Love Story by Carol Prisant

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I was given a copy of this book by the publisher.

Summary: A woman tracks her marriage and family life using pets as guideposts.

Good, but dull. That’s how the author describes her own life, and since this is a rambling memoir, that’s also an apt description of the book.

Parts of the book were hysterically funny, and in other parts, I wondered why she would write what she did.

This book was almost like a tell-all from an aging, long-ago famous Hollywood starlet, saying, “These are the men (dogs) in my life. Some I loved, some I didn’t.”

It’s supposed to be a love story about the dogs in her life, but instead it seemed just sad and pitiful. Carol’s mother didn’t like dogs, but Carol tried to bring home three. Then, in preparation for her child, she adopts a monkey (!), who she eventually gives back.

And that’s a general idea of how the book went.

I adopted a pet.

I gave it up. (or it died.)

Good but dull.  I also think that Carol married an undemonstrative man, and she instead poured all that love and affection and attention into her son. They eventually start a business together but have to sell it to save their mother-son relationship.  And when Carol and her husband Millard do find a dog, you get the feeling that Millard loves the dog more than he loves Carol. Just sad.

While reading this, I wondered, “What’s the point here? What’s the message? What’s the theme? There didn’t seem to be any kind of unifying element, except that they had dogs in their lives at varying points. Okay.

I’m not supposed to quote from an uncopyedited manuscript, but so I won’t here. There are parts in this book that will make you shout with laughter, but with an unsatisfying ending, I’m not sure how polished this book is yet.