Walking the Dog
A Novel
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A "brilliant and layered" novel about a prodigy turned convict turned dog walker in her 40s from the celebrated author of My Depression: A Picture Book (Oprah.com).
A former child prodigy and rich-girl, eighteen-year-old Ester is incarcerated after her kleptomania gets way out of hand. There, she is given the very gentile name Carleen (for her own protection) and for two decades, time is the enemy. When finally let loose onto the streets of New York, Carleen finds a job as a dog walker in Manhattan's most elite neighborhoods. But despite her remarkable gift for canine communication, Carleen is determined to finally prove that she is a real person. To this end, she tries to reconnect with her estranged—and ferociously Orthodox—daughter.
Amid the strained brunch dates, unsent letters, and the continuing trauma of prison, Carleen begins a slow and halting process of self-discovery. Strikingly funny and self-aware, this belated coming-of-age novel asks the question: How do you restart after crashing your first chance at life?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The fourth novel by playwright, musician, and director Swados (My Depression), who died in early 2016, tells the slightly surreal story of Manhattan art prodigy Ester Rosenthal, who goes to prison for 25 years after she and her boyfriend stage a prank robbery that kills two police officers. Told in short, punchy chapters, the novel alternates between 2008, when the newly released Ester who changed her name to Carleen Kepper when she entered prison earns a living by walking Manhattanites' dogs, and scenes from her prison years. The 2008 scenes, with comically touching mini-portraits of the dogs and their owners, are vivid and sharply realized, and Carleen's attempts to forge a bond with her unhappy 11-year-old daughter move at a believably halting pace. The prison sections are more problematic: those set at a Dickensian federal prison in Ohio, where Carleen is nearly beaten to death, are generic, and the ones at a more liberal prison in upstate New York, where she is supervised by a "tough-lady" nun, verge on fantasy. Though it's not Swados's best work, the novel's wit and intelligence showcase her talent.
