Koontz, Dean (2009). A Big Little Life: a memoir of a joyful dog. New York: Hyperion. ISBN: 9781401323523.
Why do so many of us sit cold-hearted, distant when we read or watch a scene of a person’s death, vioolent or valiant, but weep copiously at description of a dog’s demise? It took Dean Koontz’s memoir about his special relationship with his dog Trixie to put these thoughts into concrete words for me. If at time s it seems as though Koontz is a bragging parent relating how gifted his child is, well… he is. Tricks, cookies, routines, walks, medical problems, uncanny events: all are things that anyone who has ever had a dog will realte to, and be glad someone with Koontz’s gift for words took the time to express so beautifully. Along the way we are let into the private life of a writer, glimpses of the challenges and rewards of being a successful novelist.
I connected with this book as a dog lover, savoring every story, every excuse as to why dogs are so supreme. Having lost my own dog in 2008, I knew exactly what Dean Koontz and his wife were going through at each stage of their dog’s life with them.
The book goes deeper than an account of a single beloved dog and becomes a sort of treatise on neo-romanticism. As the writer discusses his beleifs about innocence being an ideal state, I was reminded of William Blake. And his discussion of how his relationship with his dog brought about profound changes int he way he wrote and thought about writing, I thought of other Romantic writers (Coeridge and his defense of poetry especially seems reflected here). Likeso much of the fiction by Dean Koontz, this book is enjoyable on multiple levels.
Dean Koontz personal website: http://www.deankoontz.com
Dean’s dog Trixie has a web page as well: http://trixie.deankoontz.com