The Difficulty of Being a Dog

It's not always easy to be a dog-to be a companion to those strange human animals, as Roger Grenier shows us on this literary dog walk. In forty-three self-contained and lovingly crafted vignettes, esteemed French author Grenier visits the great dogs of history and legend, beginning at the beginning, with Ulysses and his dog, Argos, the only creature to recognize him after years of absence. From Virginia Woolf, who became the self-appointed biographer of Flush, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel, to André Gide, whose diary records his bemusement at his dog's propensity to mount his ancient cat, Grenier reveals how dogs have inspired writers.

Grenier also surveys the opinions, writings, and experiences of men and women throughout history for clues to the mysterious symbiosis between people and dogs. He introduces us to Freud's chow Lün, who was able to make him understand he was about to die; to Fala, FDR's Scottish terrier, who now has his own statue in Washington; and to Michael and Jerry, the heroes of Jack London's novels. We learn of the dog who shared Napoleon's bed and of the dogs collected and deported from the city of Constantinople in 1910, sent to a desert island without food or water. Along the way, Grenier tells us about a few of the dogs who have occupied his own life and heart. Though the rapport between dogs and people remains a mystery, it is also, for him, the source of the purest form of love.

Grenier's poetic sense of the streets of Paris, his artful use of literary quotation, and his humor and humanity made The Difficulty of Being a Dog an immediate bestseller in France. "A pet is a protection against life's insults, a defense against the world," writes Grenier. His book reminds us on every page of that sentiment, making it the perfect literary companion for dog lovers and the perfect dog book for literature lovers.