The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Three Wild Dogs (and the thruth)

Series: Standalone

Author: Markus Zusak

Genre: Adult, Non-Fiction, Memoir, Dogs

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

(I think the synopsis is just super beautiful, so I am going to copy it down from Goodreads)

There’s a madman dog beside me, and the hounds of memory ahead of us . . . It’s love and beasts and wild mistakes, and regret, but never to change things.

What happens when the Zusak family opens their home to three big, wild, street-hardened dogs—Reuben, more wolf than hound; Archer, blond, beautiful, destructive; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm?

The answer can only be chaos: There are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property damages, injuries, hospital visits, wellness checks, pure comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that must be read to be believed.

There is a reckoning of shortcomings and failure, a strengthening of will, but most important of all, an explosion of love—and the joy and recognition of family.

Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) is a tender, motley, and exquisitely written memoir about the human need for both connection and disorder, a love letter to the animals who bring hilarity and beauty—but also the visceral truth of the natural world—straight to our doors and into our lives and change us forever.

This book! It was heartwarming, real, and heartbreaking. Definitely one of my favorite books I have read this year.

Markus Zusak has a way of writing. I love The Book Thief and when I saw he wrote a book about his own dogs, I immediately checked it out.

I loved it! It was just so real. Too often I see things were people have their dogs, and they are their everything and they’re perfect angels. And don’t get me wrong, I love my dogs, but sometimes I really can’t stand them (while still loving them to death). Zusak wrote like this, and it really resonated with me because it felt real and something I related to.

He also wrote about his rescue dogs. I only have rescue dogs, and while mine have been fairly well behaved, they have their own challenges and always bring about an adventure. It is never boring loving a dog.

Ultimately, I saw myself and my dogs in this book. No, my dogs haven’t bitten anyone, and they have never killed a possum, but for whatever reason I saw my dogs and the love I have for them in this book. I was touched and truly engrossed. I stayed up way too late multiple times reading this book. And again, Zusak had a way of describing his dogs, and I understood exactly what he was saying.

This book did break my heart a little. This book starts out and you know that the two dogs this book is primarily about have already passed away. But when you get to the pages where they actually die, it was heartbreaking. Anytime I read a book or watch a movie, and a dog dies, I get a little emotional. This one just hit me really hard.

I highly recommend this wonderful book. If you have ever loved a dog, this is what it is like- it is messy and chaotic, sometimes it kills you a little, but you wouldn’t give it up for anything, and you love them, and they love you. This is what Three Wild Dogs (and the truth) shows in a beautiful, real way!

Quotes:

“We take these animals in, often grudgingly, and all they do is love us (and, you know, all that other terrible stuff, like destroying book deliveries, attacking people, killing other animals, threatening your friends) – but that’s also why they get under our skin. We realize that no one could love them like we do. A great friend of mine, Camilla (who’s had some problem dogs herself), says a pet dying is almost more devastating, because humans come and go – they have more connections, they’re out more in the world, out in their own lives. But a pet is totally ours. They stay. Only we knew them best. Only we really understood them. Only we could forgive them.”

“For they know us like no one else does, and they forgive us better than humans.”

“If it’s true that our lives flash before our eyes at the moment we die, I’m sure my dogs will be in that light. More so, if they’re waiting on the other side? I’ll know I’m not in heaven, but a place just left or right of it – some purgatory of love and chaos – and to be honest, I won’t complain. I’ll crouch and clench my eyes. I’ll breathe and smell that smell. I’ll grab those necks of fur.”