The Dog Who Danced
By: Susan Wilson / Narrated By: Fred Berman, Christina Delaine
Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
Probably Wilson’s best!
I must admit that Susan Wilson isn’t the best writer in the world (and after swimming in Irish authors for a time, one can TOTALLY see the difference between writing mere words and writing sheer poetry). But with The Dog Who Danced, we can see/hear that she very much knows how to craft a good story.
Justine is off to tend to her dying father and gets left behind at a truck station, the truck driver accidentally hauling off with her dog, Mack, in tow. Chaos ensues, but it’s not a funny story; rather, it’s heartfelt and long on regret and the sorrows and betrayals that life brings.
Mack finds himself with Ed and Alice, an older couple who are dealing with the suicide seven years before of their 15-year old daughter. Alice is holding onto her anger at Ed for insisting the girl take anti-depressants even though they discover later that they could’ve instilled suicidal thoughts in teen-agers. Ed, holding onto guilt, just tries to make as few waves as possible in their silent and empty lives.
Naturally, Mack, now Buddy, brings lights and joy into their world, even as Justine is going crazy trying to find him. And Justine is on her own emotional journey, remembering her failings as a single mom, constantly uprooting her son for that great, new “tomorrow” that’s just around the corner with each new job, each new man. She has memories, too, of a sad childhood where her widowed father chose his new family over her time and time again.
Wilson tells a story of hope and longing, of loss and forgiveness, of love going on even after life has ended. And even though Justine acts like a manic freak a few times, we get to see that she’s had her reasons for her brittleness, her lack of faith in humankind, for her turning the holding of grudges into a contact sport. Ed and Alice are written as broken people learning to love again, even as they know it can all fall in on them at the drop of a hat.
You won’t find any fine writing here, but you probably will find yourself with a lump or two in your throat as you go along with this audiobook. Christina Delaine does a fine job voicing Justine’s world, and Fred Berman, tho’ he kinda gets high-pitched with his delivery of female voices, does a good job voicing Mack/Buddy’s world. Plus, Berman brings it all home with the epilogue that brought a tear to my eye.
Okay, okay, okay! I’m a sucker for a good animal story! And that’s one thing Susan Wilson does well: I’ll take her dog stories over fine literature any day of the week. I’m a TOTAL loser like that…
But The Dog Who Danced, my friend, is a TOTAL winner!
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