A Book A Week - Week 50: Brown Dog

This week's book:
   Brown Dog   by Jim Harrison

Grade:  A

I've said before that I like my fiction to be muscular, to have a mustache and whiskey breath and know how to change a tire and fell a tree.  Well, I found my kind of story with Brown Dog.

This book is actually a collection of short stories published from the 90's to 2010, though they're set even earlier, in the 70's.  Brown Dog is the main character, a man who never quite grew up or settled down.  You might think from the name that Brown Dog is Native American, but he isn't, not even a little bit.  But that doesn't stop him from taking advantage of the misunderstanding when it suits him.

I've been trying to think of an adjective to describe both the character of Brown Dog and the quality of the narrative, because they're echoes of one another.  'Charming' isn't even close to right, 'engaging' sounds too pleasant, and 'captivating' is far too fey.

Rakish.

That's what the narrative is, and that's what Brown Dog is.  Rakish.  Brown Dog lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, he's constantly broke, falling in love or having his heart broken, and getting in trouble because he only nurtures his baser urges.  Everyone knows a guy like Brown Dog, except in real life their misspent lives usually come back on them.  Brown Dog lives in the moment, and he's getting by all right.

The prose is rakish too, and I loved reading it.  If Brown Dog makes no apologies, then neither does Mr. Harrison.  His hero is flawed, and weak, and noble, and all too human, and the words reflect that.  This is prose the way prose was meant to be, evocative, startling, and familiar all at once.  The first story is written in first-person but the rest are third-person.  I think it's a suitable intro to the character and Mr. Harrison's style.
   Honestly, I was reminded of Hemingway when I read this.  Not so much for the spare prose, but for the brawny way the author wrestles with his words.  Plus, I don't really care for Hemingway and I like Mr. Harrison's writing a lot.  But with Mr. Harrison, just like with Hemingway, you get the sense that the man writing those words knows how to do things, other than sit at a keyboard and tap out stories, that he's not all that far removed from his main character.

I think I found a soft spot when, in one of the stories, Brown Dog owns a '72 Chevelle.  My first car was a '72 Chevelle, a genuine POS that I loved more than life itself, and that I miss to this day.  I like to think that, because of that car, the fictional Brown Dog and I have at least one little thing in common. 

Next week:
  George Washington's Secret Six   by Brian Kilmeade
Even though this sounds like a really great comic book, this is non-fiction.  It's about spies during the Revolutionary War.