The Dogs of Babel

Why all the positive reviews?

I don't get it at all. The vast majority of people on this site seem to love this book. Why? Lexy is an extremely self-centered, unlikeable 'heroine' and Paul is a complete dolt whose moronic actions cause horrific consequences for the poor dog, Lorelei. What is there to like in this book? If you're a dog lover or want to get caught up in characters you can actually care about, run, don't walk, away from The Dogs of Babel.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Appalling!!

The book starts off fine but as an avid dog lover, I was appalled that someone could even think of dog mutilation as described in detail in the book much less write and publish it. It could have been a lovely story. I'd give it zero stars if I could!!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

I couldn't stand it...

First of all, why do people feel the need to summarize the book when giving a review... Having said that, being a dog lover, this book was probably the worst book I have ever read. I don't know how some one could possibly come up with something so completely cruel and inhumane. Whose mind works like that? And even more, what publisher thought it was a good idea to publish it? When I finished the book, all I could do was sit in the floor with my girls (dogs) and love them. I was stressed that there was some one out there that could even think of something like this. If there was an option for no stars, I would choose it instead of one star.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Deeply Disappointing

I bought this book at a local resale shop, thinking the premise sounded interesting. The lead female character Lexy has obviously had psychological problems since her teenage years. She did have an interesting profession, but ultimately I found her character self-centered and exhausting. Then I reached the part starting on the grotesque animal experimentation. I have spent decades trying to eradicate animal abuse of all kinds and if I had known it contained this aspect I would never have started reading it. Because her husband Paul could not admit to himself that his wife committed suicide he embarks on a ridiculous quest to teach his dog to talk, leaving his job, and sinking into depression. Then comes the part about the demented group of men who surgically experiment on dogs thinking they can teach them human language! This aspect of the story made me ill, and I don't care how the book ended, I stopped reading and will probably get rid of it. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not convinced

I had high hopes for this book. It kicked off powerfully, but later lost momentum and finally crashed and burned somewhere out in left field. The book is about a man's quest to use his dog to find out the truth about his wife's murder. However, as a dog owner and a woman, I found Parkhurst's portrayals of the wife (Lexy) and the dog (Lorelei) as contrived and outright unbelievable. The author included many flashbacks to describe the dead wife's previous time with the husband. The wife was supposed to have been portrayed as slightly wacky but lovable, but I found her to be selfish and spoiled and not lovable at all. The crux of this novel is to have a shared nostalgia for this dead wife. I disliked her character and therefore cared not about how she died, instead I was confused and annoyed at her husband who was obsessing over her death. The novel ends weakly, when the husband discovers the manner in which the wife died, which was no real surprise. The author has some gift for prose, but no gift for realistic or believable storytelling. I will be trying to get my money back for this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Amazing!

When I read the reviews of this book, I thought it sounded rather strange. I am a dog lover though, so I was also intrigued, so I bought it anyway. I'm so glad I did. The writing is marvelous, the story is compellingly told, and I actually cried. I can't recommend this book highly enough. You won't be sorry!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

In my top 20

Haunting, this story is achingly beautifu, sad, sweet and has the least trite description of what it is to love someone. And even when love cant save certain people its still everything.

Not very good

Not believable or enjoyable. I feel like I wasted my time.

!

This book broke my heart. Broody, introspective and a bit...weird. I love it.

The DOGS OF BABEL

this book is the best its got all the detail in it.

Highly recommend to any reader

I was a little unsure if I'd like this book but I decided to purchase it anyways. I'm so glad I did, it is now my favorite book. You fall in love with the characters and can't stop reading. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good book with mystery, heartbreak, and love. After reading this book I'm definitally interested in reading Carolyn Parkhurst's other books, I just hope they can compare. Definitally read this book, you won't be disappointed.

From Dogs To Nobodies

If you want to read Dogs of Babel after reading Carolyn Parkhurst's latest novel, The Nobodies Album, be prepared for a very different kind of book. Dogs of Babel does not match up to the latest, but it has its own quirky appeal, as it is very offbeat while at the same time a touching story. On the other hand, it's not as good as her latest. Getting better with each novel is a good thing!

Great read!

As a science fiction scholar and as a lay scholar of linguistics, I was pleased to start reading what I thought was a work of "soft science fiction" -- that is, I thought the novel would focus primarily on the supremely wonderful idea of a linguist's teaching a dog to communicate, for crushingly sad reasons. That misunderstanding was what made me start to read the book.
When I realized I was mistaken, I was too hooked, too emotionally involved, to stop reading.
Let me be clear: I adore every scene in which Paul Iverson tries to teach the Rhodesian Ridgeback, Lorelei, to communicate. These scenes fill me with joy. Iverson (that is to say, Carolyn Parkhurst) has brilliant ideas, which, alas, are more suited to teaching another primate or a deaf child to speak. Lorelei's wonderfully doggie inability to understand what Paul tries to communicate is always delightful and exactly right.
But the central, painful focus is the story of Paul's grief and guilt and search for redemption.
Parkhurst provides genuinely scary moments, and lovely moments of loving, and I wept over all of them. In her word-jokes, in her stories about the creation of masks, in Paul's grieving yet exalted memories of his dead wife, I felt the touch of the numinous sublime, again and again.
I wholeheartedly recommend it to ... well, to everyone. There truly is something for every reader in this marvellous novel.

the Dogs of Babel

Reading this book was like getting punched in the gut. The emotion of it - I can't even find words to do it justice.This is a MUST read.

Unlike any other out there, something to make you think and touches the heart.

This is one of the best book I've read in a long time, by far. It's so different, something that makes you think and makes you want to try to piece things together long before you have each pieces. It touches the heart and truly leaves you breathless.

You follow Paul, who just recently lost his wife Lexi in an accident. She fell from a tree in their back yard and the only one who was there to witness it were their dog, Lorelei. After police determine it as an accident, Paul still finds some details a little fishy. What does he do? He intends to teach his dog to speak English in order to tell him what really happened to Lexi.

The book begins normally, just making you assume Paul's a little strange and grief stricken. But soon, it takes a turn that truly makes you believe Paul is absolutely out of his mind, which only gets worse, as you'll see. The chapters are divided between past and present, in some he discusses Lorelei and in others he talks about Lexi and when they first met.
The characters (besides Lorelei) change so much from the beginning of the book to the ending, especially Lexi, who you will gradually see change into a person that is completely opposite from the beginning.

I won't spoil anything but this is definitely one book that will mess with your head and tug at your heart strings and may even make you question the mind of man-kind and question what monstrous things we are truly capable of if we wish it.

The Dogs of Babel

In Carolyn Parkhurst riveting story, The Dogs of Babel, linguistics professor Paul Iverson tries to figure out if his wife's death was accidental or on purpose. The mystery begins when Paul comes home one day, to find police flocking his house. And as it turns out, their Rhodesian Ridgeback named Lorelei is the only witness to Lexy's, Paul's wife, death. With such things as books in the wrong places on their shelves, and a mysterious phone call, Paul starts to notice something about the weeks leading up to Lexy's death. These hints, may even lead him to figuring out the mystery that has been thrusted upon him. Parkhurst alternates between the present, with Paul and Lorelei, and the past. From when Paul and Lexy first met, in which they go on a week long first date from Virginia to Disney World, eating only appetizers and side dishes along the way. Up until the weeks before her tragic death. She takes you through their meeting, falling in love, and eventually their marriage. Not every marriage is perfect however, and as you get flashes from the past, you begin to realize this ''..for every dark moment we shared between us, there was a moment of such brightness I almost could not bear to look at it head-on.''. The story takes a surprising turn when Paul tries to teach Lorelei to speak. He uses a variety of ways to try to get Lorelei to speak. Lorelei, as Paul knows, is the only one who saw Lexy dies and the only one who knows the truth about it. Paul wants more then anything to find out the truth about Lexy's death. Even going as far as contacting a man in jail who was arrested for doing such unheard of operations on canines. And if you, like Paul, want to know the truth about Lexy's death, you will just have to read through and find out.

A reviewer

I had never read anything from this author before but I will definately be looking for more books. I thought this book was very well done. I thought I would have a problem with the dog mutilation part, but it was more fascinating that anything else. Lex needed some professional help partnered up with some drugs, but even so she made the story what it was. She was sad and confused, just like most of the book. Highly recommended! I had to read this book as soon as every oportunity arrose, even for 5 minutes.

A reviewer

The beautiful prose and the tying up of little details here and there throughout the book made up for the completely unlikeable character of Lexy. When I finished the book, I was breathless, because the writing style was so fluid and there were many clever details (for instance, when Paul dissects other characters' names and forms the letters into different words befitting that character). Like most other reviewers, however, I found Lexy too depressed and wacky to be considered quirky and kooky in a cute way. Why was therapy never suggested to her? Probably because she would've just gone into one of her stupid little maniacal fits, stabbing a book or calling a tv psychic or whatever. And the part about her wearing the mask of a dead girl while making love to her husband? What the hell? Did Paul not know right then and there to get the hell out of there? Because obviously, the only way their marriage was going was toward disaster. However, the part that most readers seem to take offense with, the Cerberus Society (the dog mutilation part), I didn't really mind, and in fact I thought it was somewhat fascinating the way those people were so hardcore about making a dog talk. I had the most problems with Lexy--while I felt sad and laughed at times when I read about their (mis)adventures together, ultimately I became impatient with this character. There seemed to be no proper explanation of the way she was, no childhood background that I can remember reading about to explain it. All that said, this book is worth reading if only for the lovely way the author writes.

A page turner, and dog lover's book

This book was very interesting and different. The structure is kind of piecy as the chapters go back and forth, but it keeps your interest because it doesn't talk about the same thing for pages on end. I found myself reading it any chance I got. It was very strange because of the whole getting your dog to realistically talk part, but very interesting because it was so different. Parkhurst writes some things about dogs that a sure to grip every dog lover's heart. Beautiful writing. I loved this book.

This is literary fiction

I am an English professor and use this novel in my class. It does not have a nice linear progression and happy resolution like popular fiction. It is literary fiction. It treats themes that go beyond simple protagonist/antagonist plots. There's nothing wrong with popular fiction. I enjoy my share of it. But those who read that exclusively will have trouble getting their minds around this novel. It treats timeless themes found in literature, among them: obsession and its consequences (can you draw parallels between Paul and Captain Ahab?) science versus pseudoscience, our reliance on science for answers, and plenty more. Like all good literary fiction, this novel makes one think, question, and explore what it is to be human. After all, the unexamined life is . . . well, as I tell my students, look up the rest.