Carry the Dog
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3.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Powered by insight and true wit.” —Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion
“I can’t remember the last time I was as completely bewitched by a fictional character as I was by Bea Seger . . . What a treat to view life through the eyes of this funny, smart, gutsy woman.” —Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and Chances Are...
Bea Seger has spent a lifetime running from her childhood. The daughter of a famous photographer, she and her brothers were the subjects of an explosive series of images in the 1960s known as the Marx Nudes. Disturbing and provocative, the photographs shadowed the family long past the public outcry and media attention. Now, decades later, both the Museum of Modern Art and Hollywood have come calling, eager to cash in on Bea’s mother’s notoriety. Twice divorced from but still entangled with aging rock star Gary Going, Bea lives in Manhattan with her borrowed dog, Dory, and sort-of sister, Echo. After years of avoiding her past, Bea must make a choice: let the world in—and be compensated for the trauma of her childhood—or leave it all locked away in a storage unit forever.
Carry the Dog sweeps readers into Bea’s world as the little girl in the photographs and the woman in the mirror meet at the blurry intersection of memory and truth, vulnerability and resilience.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman nearing 60 looks back on her life in this bounteous if unfocused novel by Gangi (The Next). Bea Seger was the youngest of three children of Miriam Marx, a photographer made infamous for the nude pictures she took of her children and who died many years earlier by suicide. Bea has recently discovered a stash of Miriam's work in a storage unit, and has to decide whether to show it at the Museum of Modern Art or allow a Hollywood producer to use it for a biopic. The work brings up unresolved speculation for Bea that she might have been abused by one of her twin brothers, who died at 16, and about what happened to her other brother, with whom she lost contact after he left for college. Meanwhile, she's dealing with a possible cancer diagnosis, an ongoing, sometimes complicated friendship with her rock star ex-husband, the challenges of sharing an apartment with her father's adopted aspiring musician daughter, and a long-term dog sitting job. There's plot to spare, but the many mysteries, when solved, have little consequence, and the tone veers inexplicably between dark and light. Most endearing is Bea herself, who deals with the physical, psychological, economic, and romantic challenges of aging with humor and attitude. The memorable main character makes an otherwise flawed novel worth reading.
