Buster: A Dog [Hardcover]

Pelecanos veers from crime fiction with a tender & story of a dog who shuffles from owner to owner in Washington, D.C. Buster, who narrates, fondly remembers his first home in the apartment of a single mother named Darcia, where he lived with his siblings and mom and befriended Darcias son. When pest exterminator Ed Grange visits the apartment, he convinces Darcia to let him take Buster off her hands. At home, Ed verbally abuses his wife and son and beats Buster with a broom handle. When animal control comes to take Buster, he makes a break for it and winds up living with an older man named Joe and his dog Lucy. Then Lucy dies, and Joe passes Buster on to his nephew Top, a weed dealer who dotes on Buster. The story builds to a heart-rending crisis point after Top lands in hot water with his criminal associates. The novella is a quirky genre, and Mr. Pelecanoss? Pelecanoss novella conveys the powerful bond between animals and humans. We cannot help falling in love with Buster and root for him to find a stable, loving home, making Pelecanoss pooch a welcome addition to his impressive oeuvre. Everything George Pelecanos writes is an occasion. You can't wait to dive back into his world of hard truths, flashes of beauty, the crushing weight of sudden loss. With his latest, a deceptively simple story of a dog navigating his way through various homes and owners in DC becomes a much larger parable of urban survival (and occasional, fleeting triumph) among the disenfranchised, the forgotten. A tour de force, an epic novel . . . in dog years! George Pelecanos takes us inside a boxer's point of view to further explore the streets, houses, and alleys of his beloved Washington, DC. You've not read a book like this or met a character like Buster, but he'll soon be your new best friend. This is great writing in every sentence. Yes, it's from a dog's point of view, and yes, we get the primary occurrences in any male dog's life. But this book is about America. You will realCM