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An utterly convincing and moving look at the beauty and perils of consciousness. -- I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence. -- I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals - any animal you like - would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence. And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles withnew thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks. Andre Alexis's contemporary take on the apologue offers an utterly compelling and affecting look at the beauty and perils of human consciousness. By turns meditative and devastating, charming and strange, Fifteen Dogs shows you can teach an old genre new tricks.… (more)
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This is a strange little book, which will probably make all dog owners give their pet a surreptitious glance to try and work out what he or she is really thinking. But very interesting.
–An earth year? I’ll take that bet, said Hermes, but on condition that if, at the end of its life, even one of the creatures
And so begins Alexis’s modern take on the apologue, with a wager placed between two gods in a Toronto bar, which, as it happens, is very near to a veterinary clinic. The brothers decide the fifteen dogs within will form the treatment group for their wager, and the god of light grants the dogs human conscious and intelligence.
Apollo and Hermes watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world: Prince becomes a poet, Atticus learns about leadership, and Majnoun forges a close relationship with a kind couple. But the dogs are heavily burdened by thoughtfulness and conscious, by language and the concept of time: It keeps us from being dogs, and it keeps us from what is right. Some die bitter and disillusioned, demeaned by the condescending relationships they have had with their masters. And Zeus is furious with his sons when he learns of their interference with the dogs, admonishing that The only thing certain about humans is their brutishness, and that the dogs, given intelligence and conscious, will suffer twice as much as humans do. As for the dogs, Majnoun summarizes: … of course, it was impossible to know a state (to know the human) by subtracting things in oneself, as if ‘human’ were what is left once the best of dog has been taken away.
Fifteen Dogs is as charming as it is strange: both a meditative and troubling look at the perils of human consciousness. Alexis is easily deserving of the Giller Prize for his work here, and Fifteen Dogs is easily recommended.
Ultimately, Fifteen Dogs was fascinating and devastating in equal measures. It made me want to get in the shower and cry, but I'm also still thinking about it, especially the poetry, so I don't really know what to say. I am glad I read it, though.
The story is pretty simple or at least it seems simple on first encounter. The gods Hermes and Apollo are drinking in a tavern in Toronto and wonder what it would be like if animals had human intelligence. Apollo wagers a year's servitude that animals with human intelligence would be even more unhappy than humans. Hermes accepts the bet with the condition that if even one animal is happy at the end of its life then he wins the bet. They go to a veterinary clinic that is close and give the dogs that are there human intelligence. With this intelligence it is easy for the dogs to escape the clinic but three of the dogs stay close by so only twelve actually go out in a pack. From then on the dogs struggle with what the intelligence adds to their life as a dog. Some want their life to continue much as before but others want to take their intelligence and do something different. Prince, a mutt originally from Alberta, starts to compose and recite poetry. Majnoun, a black Standard Poodle, wants to use their new thoughts to explore. Atticus, the de facto pack leader who is a Neapolitan Mastiff, decides with his lieutenants Frick and Frack, Labrador Retrievers from the same litter, to get rid of all the dogs that don't want to return to their canine roots. Several dogs are killed and Majnoun is left for dead but he is found by a kind couple, Nira and Miguel, who nurse him back to health. Prince is spirited away by Hermes before he can be assaulted. Throughout the rest of the book all the dogs die and it looks like Apollo may win the bet. Prince, the poet, is the last of the fifteen dogs to die. Read the book to find out which of the gods wins!
Interactions between the dogs are interesting but, at least to me as a person who has had a number of dogs as close companions, it is in the interactions between the dogs and humans that Alexis really shines. Nira and Majnoun have a relationship that is so close they know how the other feels without having to speak a word. At one point another of the dogs from the pack, Benjy, comes to live with Nira, Miguel and Majnoun. Benjy, a Beagle, is a manipulative schemer and he soon has Miguel devoted to him. His personality will have you wondering whether your dog really likes you or is only pretending to in order to get the finer things in life. Prince is a loner but he is willing to spend some time with humans providing they don't hinder his activities. None of the dogs I have known have ever been so independent but this book gives me something to ponder about strays. I always thought they must have difficult lives but maybe they are happy going their own way.
The unexpected bonus in this book is the poetry. Small poems composed by the dogs are sprinkled throughout the book. Here is one:
Longing to be sprayed (the green snake
writhing in his master's hand),
back and forth into that stream--
jump, rinse: coat slick with soap.
All the poems are short and it is not hard to believe that they were composed by dogs as they have a point of view that is like a canine's. Of course, since this is fiction the poems have actually been written by humans. Only when I read the note at the back of the book did I realize that each poem, when read aloud, would have the name of one of the dogs within it. This is a genre of poetry invented by Francois Caradec, a French poet who lived from 1924 to 2008. For me, this discovery pushed the book from the good category into the truly great.
But, back to my review … seriously, two gods – Apollo and Hermes – walk into the Wheat Sheaf Tavern in downtown Toronto to have a couple of drinks. As gods are want they begin a discussion about the nature of humanity.
“Apollo argued that, as creatures go, humans were neither better nor worse than any other, neither better nor worse than fleas or elephants, say. Humans have no special merit, though they think themselves superior.”
Hermes took the opposing view feeling that human creativity and language using symbols is interesting. After further discussion, and a few more bottles of Sleemans, they decide to make a bet and conduct an experiment. Wondering if animals – any animal chosen – would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they had human intelligence. With a human year’s worth of servitude to the winner at stake Hermes takes the bet, but on the condition that if, at the end of its life, even one of the creatures is happy, he wins.
“As it happened, the gods were not far from the veterinary clinic at Shaw. Entering the place unseen and imperceptible, they found dogs, mostly: pets left overnight by their owners for one reason or another. So dogs it was …”
As each of the fifteen dogs awoke they were confused and a little frightened by their new “awareness”. Their first order of business, of course, was to get free of the their cages and as far away from the clinic as possible. And so starts the story of how fifteen dogs lived (and died) with the gift of human awareness and language.
The subject matter, and the gods referring to it as an experiment, harbingers – I’m sure – those readers who will not be able to resist analyzing this work of fiction to death. They will site Allegory, Existentialism, Philosophy, Raised Consciousness and Societal Realities. Those readers are probably deeper thinkers than I and they could possibly be right. This book could be construed as one writer’s study of the evolution or de-evolution, depending on your perspective, of humanity (albeit starring dogs). I simply consider it a wonderful book.
Fifteen Dogs explores so many themes that it is difficult to narrow down any one particular. My suggestion would be to not even try. Think of it as well thought out and beautifully written prose that also happens to make you ponder life a little. If you have ever owned a dog, or any other pet for that matter, that you imagined having conversations with, this book will appeal to you on the level that it did me. My only criticism, if I had to make one under duress, might be that winning the bet for either Apollo or Hermes rests on whether the dog “dies happy”, so by necessity the book features each dog’s passing. Some are quiet and dignified while others are bloody and brutal. Those were heart-wrenching pages to read but they were well balanced in other sections with humor and tenderness.
Mr. Alexis has written several other books, and being on a little bit of a “reader’s high” after reading this one, I wanted to run out and get all his others as well. I hesitate, because if they are of a similar vein I’m not sure I can handle the emotional roller coaster.
So who wins the bet? Does one or do all of the dogs die feeling happiness?
Uh-uh, not telling!
The most immediate difference for the dogs who receive the gift is their newfound ability to perceive colour. But much more than that is their heightened linguistic and communicative skills. This is both a blessing and curse, and thus something that some will turn towards and others against. And this largely divides their individual tales subsequent to their escape from an animal hospital on the evening of their transformation.
What fascinates here is how Alexis sustains our interest without merely transforming his dogs into humans. They are clearly not human. Yet he makes no pretence that they are still dogs. Indeed, other dogs fear them just as they too become wary of their unnatural natures. As we follow first the pack and then individual dogs, it becomes clear that there may be many lessons to be learned in this apologue. And each lesson is doubtless as subtle as the manner in which the names of the dogs are embedded into the poems that one dog, Prince, writes. (A note on the poems is found at the end of the novel.)
This is remarkably deft writing, unsentimental, crisp, and vibrant. Easily recommended.
Like all such stories they reveal just what a bunch or arseholes humans are by and large.
I found this to be absolutely
A great read for anyone with a heart.
This bet leads them to a veterinary clinic on Shaw where fifteen dogs are overnighting. They are granted human consciousness and awareness. And so it begins.
The dogs escape the clinic and strike out on their own. Some embrace their new consciousness; some fight against it; some love the freedom and creativity of language; others fear that new skills will upset the traditional hierarchy of the pack. Do any of them die happy? Who wins the bet?
I bought and read the book because it is this year's Giller Prize winner. I might not have ever picked it up otherwise. The book can be a very fast read - I did it in three sittings. Here's the thing - two days later I've started a new book, but I'm still thinking about this one.
Alexis challenges that, trying to keep dogness as the main component. I think he fails, but his attempts are at least
The exercise dragged on through most of the book without establishing much in the way of sympathy with most of the pack. Most of them didn’t appreciate their new self-awareness, and did all they could to negate it. It became more ‘dog eat dog’ and he short changes both species.
I love the central idea of this book. The gods Hermes and Apollo have a
This idea is so fun to me because it can be used to explore the differences between the ways that humans and non-human animals experience the world and whether it's true that ignorance is bliss, i.e., that not having a sense of mortality or temporality does make animals happier. Unfortunately I feel like this book fails to deliver on those ideas. For one thing, the dogs in the book act on behaviours that have been shown not to be the innate nature of dogs. They follow the model of alpha and beta wolves which has been disavowed by even the first scientist to describe the theory.
This is a problem because the book is trying to make a point about humanity's capacity for happiness by comparing our consciousness to that of dogs so it just doesn't work when you're aware that the mode of behaviour being presented for dogs is not at all how they actually behave. How can we make meaningful conclusions about how the dogs have been affected by their newfound intelligence when their baseline is not at all accurate? There is so much discussion in this book, for example, about dominance and "stronger" dogs mounting "weaker" dogs to prove their place in the hierarchy and that's just not how they do.
Also, there are 15 dogs given human intelligence, a mix of male and female, yet the only dogs whose point of view we see are male. The female dogs are all peripheral and
Overall I think this book is a really good idea with poor execution but some really beautiful passages that elevate it above the average.
While sitting in a bar one night Hermes and Apollo were arguing about humanity and as Greek gods are wont to do, they made a wager over what the granting of human intelligence would do to other creatures. Apollo argued that any other creature given human intelligence would end up miserable while Hermes maintained that at least one of the creatures would die happy despite this complicated gift of consciousness. Seeing a vet clinic on their walk home, they decided to play out the bet and chose to grant human intelligence on the 15 dogs spending the night in the clinic. And then they moved on, leaving the dogs to realize and accept or reject their confusing new reality on their own.
The changed dogs immediately start acting out of character (species?), escaping the vet, and creating a sort of proto-human society amongst themselves. The novel mostly follows one or two dogs at a time, from their awakening into an awareness that changes everything to their respective deaths. Their lives are not lengthened, remaining realistically short, and many face graphic and terrible deaths as the reader, along with Hermes and Apollo, wonder if even one can in fact die happy or if this intelligence has robbed them of the ability to maintain happiness and joy. While the gods make occasional appearances in the story, for the most part, the dog's lives are left to nature and chance and whatever each dog can create for him or herself using their newly awakened intelligence. There is literally a deus ex machina in black poodle Majnoun's life arc and Prince, a poetry loving mutt, also suffers the meddling of the gods. There is a bleak ferocity here, a relatedness to Lord of the Flies in this apologue, as it examines the nature of happiness, the importance of language and poetry, and the philosophical idea of the cost of awareness. The fifteen dogs represent so much that drags humanity down, their weaknesses and fears, their brutality and power structures, but in the end, the passing of the last dog and the answer to Hermes and Apollo's wager is a reflective and philosophical experience full of the power of possibility, of language, of love. This is a strange but intriguing story, a morality tale that tells a big story using well-rendered small, furry characters. It's surprisingly accessible but is probably not a book for everyone. In the end, I enjoyed the thought behind it and I will probably never look at the dog sitting in my lap quite the same way again.
I was very surprised at how quickly I became absorbed in the lives of these dogs and how much I enjoyed the book.
Essentially, the gods Hermes and Apollo,
Although the story starts with 15 dogs, it focuses on the lives of Prince, Benjy, mahjoun and Atticus. Each of these are part of the original pack which quickly takes on human characteristics of caring, planning, domination, bullying, shunning and cruelty which result in exile, escape or murder.
As the dogs develop language, emotions and reasoning, Prince is the first to excel at English and he recites poetry. The others also learn basic English but this soon causes division and competition among the pack. Atticus becomes the top dog and the others do his bidding. Prince and Mahjoun and Benjy escape and we follow their lives with kind humans.
As intelligent dogs with rational thought, they are able to manipulate their situations and come to love their masters.
This book is surely an allegory for human conscience, reasoning and emotion which once transferred to these dogs, transforms how they behave with their pack mates and their humans.
I quit at page 72. This is not a book I would have chosen for myself and I can find nothing in it to make me keep going. I am confused at how the dogs have to develop language, but clearly communicate with each other in complex ways almost immediately. Majnoun can speak to his owner -
I can't do it any more.