Good News & A Dog's Purpose Review
A while ago I made a post called "Some Not-So-Great News" in which I talked about how my confirmation/youth group leader, Julie, was diagnosed with breast cancer and a boy who goes to my church, Patrick, had surgery on his heart. Well, now that there is good news to share, I think I should share it. Julie had surgery and is doing very well and there is no evidence of cancer. Patrick's surgery went smoothly and as far as I know, he's back home and doing well. So yay! Good news! I just wanted to tell you, because I don't think it's fair to burden you with bad news and not tell you the good news when it happens.
Now to the review.
When my aunt gave me this book to read, I was not supremely enthusiastic. In fact, I was skeptical. I don't like books about animals. I like books about people. But my aunt has great taste in books and knows the kinds of books I like, so after I finished The Program, I decided I would go ahead and read this sure-to-be-less-than-stellar book about a dog.
Well, as you may have guessed, the book was not at all what I had thought it'd be. I thought it'd be kind of a Marley & Me remake, and this cute little puppy would grow up in this perfect family and maybe the boy would get sick and die and the dog would get really lonely and die too, but he'd served his purpose. Or something like that.
But that's not what happened.
Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that A Dog's Purpose is told through a dog's point of view. This is what made me originally very skeptical, as I do not particularly love animals and have never particularly loved dogs, although I like them better than cats. From the beginning, though, I could tell that the story being told through a dog's point of view would not be a problem. The author, W. Bruce Cameron, did a great job making the story humorous and smart, and yet still sound like a dog was narrating it. After a while, the constant description of smells and the always hoping to get fed a treat of some kind got a little tiresome, but it was necessary for the story because it's a dog. Dogs smell things a lot and love food. It would have been weird and inaccurate had the dog never talked about smelling and eating and the things dogs do. There was dialogue in the story, even though the dog couldn't understand it. The dog never talked; don't worry, it wasn't a talking animal story. I can stand stories narrated by animals, but not ones where they communicate with humans. My imagination is limited that way.
The reason why I keep calling the dog "the dog" is because he has more than one name throughout the story. In fact, he has several lives. Some of his lives are longer than others, but at the end of each one, he becomes reincarnated as a new puppy and he has to figure out his purpose in life, and once he (well, he's not always a he) fulfills his purpose, he can die peacefully and not come back. This, I know, sounds ridiculous, and if I were reading this review having not read the book, there is no way I would read it. But believe me, if I liked it, and I am not a dog lover, you have to trust me that it's a good book. In fact, it made me see dogs differently. Like, what if Mya (our dog) has lived before this life? Like, what if she was someone else's dog in a past life, but she hadn't fulfilled her purpose so she came back as a new dog and came to live with us as Mya? Okay, granted, I don't believe that, but I do believe that, after reading A Dog's Purpose, dogs are more intelligent than I gave them credit for, and humans are not a smart as I gave them credit for, especially when it comes to understanding and taking care of animals.
I'm going to give you a bit of a spoiler, so if you intend on reading this book and want everything to be a secret, please skip this part.
__________________________________SPOILERS!!!!!_________________________
So at one point, the dog comes back as a German shepherd puppy and this is after she's lived two lives previously (both as boy dogs, so the concept of being a girl dog is very confusing) and this guy adopts her because she's a lot smarter than the other puppies (having already learned things like sit and down and what-not) and it turns out that he's a police officer in the K-9 unit, and he trains the dog, whom he names Elleya, or Ellie, to be a Search and Rescue dog. However, on one of their search and rescue missions, after finding the little girl that got kidnapped, Ellie and the police officer, Jakob, go after the kidnapper, who happens to be a serial killer, and they find the guy, but Jakob gets shot and then Ellie bites the guy's arm and then another police officer arrives and shoots the guy. But anyway, Jakob can't work anymore and can't take care of Ellie, so she goes to live with another police officer, a woman named Maya, and she trains to become a K-9 officer (I wonder if they did that on purpose... K-9 and canine?) and she works with Ellie and they go to El Salvador after some kind of disaster or bombing or something and Ellie saves a woman but gets chemicals in her nose and loses her sense of smell and can't find people anymore. Then Ellie becomes a retired Search and Rescue dog and Maya takes her to schools and nursing homes and stuff and on one of the trips to a school, a little girl comes forward and hugs Ellie and the teacher says, "Alyssa has never actually met Ellie before, but if it weren't for Ellie, Alyssa would never have been born" and then we find out that Alyssa is Jakob's daughter, and Ellie is happy to see Jakob with his new wife and daughter because Jakob had never been happy before because his wife died of cancer before he got Ellie. So Ellie fulfilled her purpose in life by giving Jakob a family, and then she fulfilled her purpose by helping Maya, too, and by saving people. (Spoiler: she still dies and comes back to life because it turns out she hadn't truly fulfilled her purpose). Ellie was my favorite of the reincarnated dogs, and reaffirmed that if I ever get a dog it will have some German shepherd in it.
______________________________SPOILERS OVER!!!____________________________
So yeah, it was a really good book, and made me like dogs a whole lot more. I actually got teary at a few parts. Even if you're not a dog lover, I recommend this book. In fact, I recommend it specifically for non-dog lovers.
There was a National Geographic magazine sitting on the coffee table and the front cover article was about "Hero Dogs" and I hadn't read it yet, because I hadn't been all that interested, but as I was nearing the end of A Dog's Purpose, I picked it up and looked through the pictures and read the captions and I was surprised at how many similarities there were between these dogs and Ellie (mentioned in the above spoilers. She was one of the reincarnated dogs, a Search and Rescue dog) and I thought it was really cool that I admired these "Hero Dogs" so much more after reading a fictional book.
Day 211 Song Recommendation: "Cats and Dogs" by The Head and the Heart.
Wow, I can't believe I'm posting before dark! This feels so weird!
-SE Wagner
Now to the review.
When my aunt gave me this book to read, I was not supremely enthusiastic. In fact, I was skeptical. I don't like books about animals. I like books about people. But my aunt has great taste in books and knows the kinds of books I like, so after I finished The Program, I decided I would go ahead and read this sure-to-be-less-than-stellar book about a dog.Well, as you may have guessed, the book was not at all what I had thought it'd be. I thought it'd be kind of a Marley & Me remake, and this cute little puppy would grow up in this perfect family and maybe the boy would get sick and die and the dog would get really lonely and die too, but he'd served his purpose. Or something like that.
But that's not what happened.
Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that A Dog's Purpose is told through a dog's point of view. This is what made me originally very skeptical, as I do not particularly love animals and have never particularly loved dogs, although I like them better than cats. From the beginning, though, I could tell that the story being told through a dog's point of view would not be a problem. The author, W. Bruce Cameron, did a great job making the story humorous and smart, and yet still sound like a dog was narrating it. After a while, the constant description of smells and the always hoping to get fed a treat of some kind got a little tiresome, but it was necessary for the story because it's a dog. Dogs smell things a lot and love food. It would have been weird and inaccurate had the dog never talked about smelling and eating and the things dogs do. There was dialogue in the story, even though the dog couldn't understand it. The dog never talked; don't worry, it wasn't a talking animal story. I can stand stories narrated by animals, but not ones where they communicate with humans. My imagination is limited that way.
The reason why I keep calling the dog "the dog" is because he has more than one name throughout the story. In fact, he has several lives. Some of his lives are longer than others, but at the end of each one, he becomes reincarnated as a new puppy and he has to figure out his purpose in life, and once he (well, he's not always a he) fulfills his purpose, he can die peacefully and not come back. This, I know, sounds ridiculous, and if I were reading this review having not read the book, there is no way I would read it. But believe me, if I liked it, and I am not a dog lover, you have to trust me that it's a good book. In fact, it made me see dogs differently. Like, what if Mya (our dog) has lived before this life? Like, what if she was someone else's dog in a past life, but she hadn't fulfilled her purpose so she came back as a new dog and came to live with us as Mya? Okay, granted, I don't believe that, but I do believe that, after reading A Dog's Purpose, dogs are more intelligent than I gave them credit for, and humans are not a smart as I gave them credit for, especially when it comes to understanding and taking care of animals.I'm going to give you a bit of a spoiler, so if you intend on reading this book and want everything to be a secret, please skip this part.
__________________________________SPOILERS!!!!!_________________________
So at one point, the dog comes back as a German shepherd puppy and this is after she's lived two lives previously (both as boy dogs, so the concept of being a girl dog is very confusing) and this guy adopts her because she's a lot smarter than the other puppies (having already learned things like sit and down and what-not) and it turns out that he's a police officer in the K-9 unit, and he trains the dog, whom he names Elleya, or Ellie, to be a Search and Rescue dog. However, on one of their search and rescue missions, after finding the little girl that got kidnapped, Ellie and the police officer, Jakob, go after the kidnapper, who happens to be a serial killer, and they find the guy, but Jakob gets shot and then Ellie bites the guy's arm and then another police officer arrives and shoots the guy. But anyway, Jakob can't work anymore and can't take care of Ellie, so she goes to live with another police officer, a woman named Maya, and she trains to become a K-9 officer (I wonder if they did that on purpose... K-9 and canine?) and she works with Ellie and they go to El Salvador after some kind of disaster or bombing or something and Ellie saves a woman but gets chemicals in her nose and loses her sense of smell and can't find people anymore. Then Ellie becomes a retired Search and Rescue dog and Maya takes her to schools and nursing homes and stuff and on one of the trips to a school, a little girl comes forward and hugs Ellie and the teacher says, "Alyssa has never actually met Ellie before, but if it weren't for Ellie, Alyssa would never have been born" and then we find out that Alyssa is Jakob's daughter, and Ellie is happy to see Jakob with his new wife and daughter because Jakob had never been happy before because his wife died of cancer before he got Ellie. So Ellie fulfilled her purpose in life by giving Jakob a family, and then she fulfilled her purpose by helping Maya, too, and by saving people. (Spoiler: she still dies and comes back to life because it turns out she hadn't truly fulfilled her purpose). Ellie was my favorite of the reincarnated dogs, and reaffirmed that if I ever get a dog it will have some German shepherd in it.
______________________________SPOILERS OVER!!!____________________________
So yeah, it was a really good book, and made me like dogs a whole lot more. I actually got teary at a few parts. Even if you're not a dog lover, I recommend this book. In fact, I recommend it specifically for non-dog lovers.There was a National Geographic magazine sitting on the coffee table and the front cover article was about "Hero Dogs" and I hadn't read it yet, because I hadn't been all that interested, but as I was nearing the end of A Dog's Purpose, I picked it up and looked through the pictures and read the captions and I was surprised at how many similarities there were between these dogs and Ellie (mentioned in the above spoilers. She was one of the reincarnated dogs, a Search and Rescue dog) and I thought it was really cool that I admired these "Hero Dogs" so much more after reading a fictional book.
Day 211 Song Recommendation: "Cats and Dogs" by The Head and the Heart.
Wow, I can't believe I'm posting before dark! This feels so weird!
-SE Wagner
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