Good Book Afterglow
Aug. 15th, 2007 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishI've just reread Diane Duane's Wizards at War. Yeah, young adult fare, but still great stuff. The writing's good, not spectacular, but solid and occasionally quite subtle. The planning that goes into the stuff on each page, however is much better. Duane really clearly plans out everything in a story line, from the greater theme of the book, to the little ways she hints and suggests to the characters that something is going to happen. She digs deep into mythology and science and wraps everything she comes up with in this firm sense of ethics and good-natured love for the myriad variety of the universe. It's just a nice, nice read.
This book, however, makes me rethink how I treat my grandmother's dog. Ponch is a strange character, and he gets stranger the more you know him, but he is a quintessential dog. He makes me wish I could hold conversations with my pooch to see what's going on in her head. Reading this book, the segment at the end, where Kit is wandering around his house feeling the hole where his dog no longer is and not quite knowing what to do with himself, reminds me vividly of Yoko and the week or so after she died. Overall, it makes me want to treat Cleo, my grandmother's dog, better than I have been- she's been spoiled rotten by my grandmother, but grammie's not here, so there's a fair amount of misplaced ire directed at the dog for grammie's failings. But the dog's done nothing to deserve it, and I'm trying to be nicer to her. She not just my grandmother's dog, or a dog in my house. She's my dog, even if I would never have gotten another one after Yoko. I'm good with dogs, and she needs a person to look out for her.
This book, however, makes me rethink how I treat my grandmother's dog. Ponch is a strange character, and he gets stranger the more you know him, but he is a quintessential dog. He makes me wish I could hold conversations with my pooch to see what's going on in her head. Reading this book, the segment at the end, where Kit is wandering around his house feeling the hole where his dog no longer is and not quite knowing what to do with himself, reminds me vividly of Yoko and the week or so after she died. Overall, it makes me want to treat Cleo, my grandmother's dog, better than I have been- she's been spoiled rotten by my grandmother, but grammie's not here, so there's a fair amount of misplaced ire directed at the dog for grammie's failings. But the dog's done nothing to deserve it, and I'm trying to be nicer to her. She not just my grandmother's dog, or a dog in my house. She's my dog, even if I would never have gotten another one after Yoko. I'm good with dogs, and she needs a person to look out for her.
