Bone Dogs

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Bone Dogs: A Novel (eBook) Pub. Date: 2/10/2010 Publisher: Counterpoint
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Bone Dogs Pub. Date: 2/16/2010 Publisher: Counterpoint

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Overview

"Tuesday Price is a Wiseass, a Boozer, and a Loser. Only his wife, Linda, recalls a smarter, better man, and she's losing faith in that recollection. When Tuesday befriends a strange, silent Vietnam vet who sits next to a cooler of beer inside a disabled pickup day after day, Linda's had enough and leaves him. On a downward slide, when he discovers the old vet dead, Tuesday seems destined for doom." Alone, Tuesday finds himself haunted by regret, his daily life deteriorating. And the ghosts won't let up, forcing him to unearth a sordid history - a tangle of murder, deceit, and abandonment for which his only punishment has been self-inflicted. In order to reclaim all that has been lost, he returns to his deserted childhood home and, with hammer and nails, rebuilds the sagging structure, reassembling a history quite different from the one he'd believed, while finding the future to be not at all what he'd expected.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

A third Appalachian tale from Maryland resident Skipper (Tear Down the Mountain, 2006, etc.) finds Tuesday Price-equal parts modern-day Huck Finn and Huck Finn's drunk dad-struggling to escape the cruel snares of alcoholism and a guilt-ridden past. Price's wife Linda was with him on that winding mountain road the night the body of his best friend Matt turned up run-over. Price, drunk, had fought with Matt earlier that night. Despite suspicious circumstances, evidence can't be found to convict Price, but the tragedy sets off a series of accusations that lead to his preacher father's being let go from the church and, as Price sees it, his death. When Linda leaves him, the loop of his self-pitying existence shrinks to include little more than Ace's Hole in the Wall Bar and his double-wide trailor. Enter Lilo, a silent old man stoically sitting out his days in a derelict pickup. When Lilo dies, Price discovers a dog chained behind the trailer, echoing the demise of Price's childhood pet after the disappearance of his depressive mother, an act of deliberate negligence and cruelty he cannot forgive. Apparitions of Lilo and the dead dog haunt Price as he tries to quit his boozing. Despite visits from old drinking buddies and the skunk-like taint of failure, Linda's pregnancy gives him the will-power to sober up and keep a job. Price is a runner, literally and figuratively, but run as he might on these coal-veined mountains, he can't outrun his mistakes. Soon enough he loses his job and goes back on the sauce, bottoming out when the facts and mysteries of his past pursue him to his abandoned childhood home where, tormented by naysaying demons, he obsessively labors to rebuild his parents' home. His only company a fallen preacher, a fire-brand old lady and a blind dog, Price hammers, saws, planes and plumbs his way toward penitence and forgiveness, discovering the truths and misinterpretations that have turned him again and again to the bottle. Will this flawed and frustrated narrator quell his pig-headed and self-destructive tendencies and win back the woman who loves him and carries his child? In pithy mountain vernacular, Price narrates a personal history written in the disappearing ink of whiskey. Vivid, caustic observations and an ear for dialogue breathe life into Skipper's characters, making them worthy of our sympathy. With wit, impressive description and resonance to the commonalities of the human condition, this chronicle of a man struggling with himself holds interest even when the action slows and closes on the repeated missteps of a self-described sinner.

Publishers Weekly

Set amid the hardscrabble hills of West Virginia, Skipper’s third novel is a tour of trailer parks, lonely roads, and lost souls centering on Tuesday Price, a nom de guerre for downward-spiraling drunk Andrew Price. A brilliant outsider, Tuesday can’t hold a job or his life together, seeming determined to drink himself into an early grave. Constantly in the bag, Tuesday learns that Linda, his wife and sometimes trailer cohabitant, is unexpectedly pregnant, leading to his attempt to dry out and finally face a troubled past that includes a manic-depressive mother and a strict Pentecostal minister father. After another round of trouble, Tuesday lands in his deserted childhood home, intent on rebuilding it and himself. Skipper (The Baptism of Billy Bean) moves easily in dark terrain, but he’s also conversant with redemption; the novel bears an odd sense of charm that has roots in authentic characters and Skipper’s ease of language. This is a flinty novel of troubled times for these troubled times. (Mar.)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781582435633
Publisher: Counterpoint
Publication date: 2/16/2010
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.80 (d)

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AndyAC

Posted May 3, 2010

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Laugh, Cry, Think.....

I was first attracted to this book by the drawing on the cover only to find that not only did Roger Alan Skipper write the book, but he drew the cover picture! It is a picture of a character, Lilo, in the book,so aptly drawn that you know immediately it is he.

The book itself is a story of a man; a man who like all of us starts off with dreams and plans and what happens to sidetrack those dreams and plans. About the woman who loves him and knows the man inside. It's a powerful book; powerful enough that I looked for an email address of the author -- I wanted to thank him for a wonderful book, both intellectually and visually.
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