The Dog Stars

As far as post apocalyptic books go this one caught me by surprise. This story had an explanation on how the world fell apart, what people did to survive, the characters had direction and there were some uplifting moments along the way. Like any post apocalyptic story, this isn't without some serious punches in the gut, but this bleak tale doesn't come at you with round after round of sadness.

The quick and incomplete sentences took a few pages to get in to but soon enough I liked the never ending stream of conscience thought as narration. I found it very easy to get in to the book and pick it up after I was done reading for the day. The relationships between the characters was basic but evolved as Hig did, and seeing that growth was pleasing.

I would definitely recommend this book for any fans of McCarthy's "The Road", or fans of this genre in general.

Hig’s world is a lonely one. After the flu that killed his wife went on to take the lives of 99.9% of America, he lives with his dog in an abandoned airport. His only neighbour is Bangley, a man with a passion for firearms and no qualm about killing. They form an unlikely alliance; Hig with his plane for surveillance and Bangley with his guns.

If I had read any reviews of The Dog Stars in advance, I probably would have run away from this book. The speech is without speech marks and mostly unattributed. The prose borders on poetry in places, with short, incomplete sentences. Written by a specialist adventure writer, one character loves his fishing and his plane; the other is a gun-toting, all American male. Their world is pretty bleak and their existence consists of killing people that come too close and making sure they have food to eat.

Yet beyond all that appeared a book I fell in love with. The fractured prose suits their world. When living is isolation, is there need for formal grammar? It also mimics the train of thought of someone by themselves, every so often blurring into speech, when Hig isn’t even aware that he is talking out loud. So even the lack of speech marks work for me (and usually I find this difficult).

The characters of Hig and Bangley are also joined by Jasper the dog, and it is the relationship between man and dog that starts pulling at the heart-strings. Jasper is truly man’s best friend in this case. The fact that Bangley is such an inaccessible character to start with, makes it all the more touching when the emotion slips through. That in extreme situations, little things like compatibility don’t matter and new family bonds are forged. A need for human connections overrides everything else. I found it touching and moving throughout, you just have to give the style a little time to settle in.

I even started to get interested in the plane and the crucial part it plays in the story. Without it, they would have been truly isolated. Instead it gives them freedom to forage further and to keep their land safe. The violence in the world may be a pessimistic outlook but it is also probably a realistic one. It also gives the edge of suspense and keeps the pace up where otherwise it might drag. After all, the moment when I thought the book may be starting to flag was one of the few times that Hig wasn’t in danger of being shot at.

There are small passages about the flu and the blood disease that followed. Hig befriends a community of Mennonites with the blood disease in a nearby property (reached by plane) but never gets close. There is a not too subtle comparison between misconceptions about HIV and this new disease that was born out of the flu. But the story isn’t really about the apocalypse; it’s about day-to-day survival in the world that remains. Part of that survival is the struggle to be social when in competition. When it’s easy to become animals, it’s love that keeps humanity alive.

The Dog Stars is really a stylised book full of interesting characters and quirks. Peter Heller's novel is a story of a pilot Hig’s who has survived a pandemic flu that has killed off most of the world’s population. He’s lot his wife and is living in a hangar of an abandoned airfield with his dog and his only neighbour is a misanthrope. He is now living in a world filled with loss, what will he risk to rediscover himself and reconnect with other survivors? Will he go against all odds just to make a connection?

This book has an interesting blend of literary fiction and dystopian adventure, it reminds me a little of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in that aspect. The characters are great in the book, with their flaws and interesting personalities. I think Peter Haller did a great job with the characters. The book at times tends to be dark and gritty which works well with the sense of the end of the world and the violence that would assume such an event. But then at times the book seems over descriptive and sometimes feels too flowery and nice which never really seemed to match this dystopian novel.

There are so many great elements in this book but there are other aspects of the book that didn’t work for me. My main problem with the narrative; it felt almost experimental, trying to do something that didn’t quite work for this style of book. It is written in a first person perspective but also written in a past tense, so you have a feeling that everything will be ok and no sense of tension throughout the novel. At times the sentence feels broken and disjointed, I’m not sure if this is an attempt to show that the narrator is unreliable but I don’t think it worked too well in this kind of novel.

The Dog Stars is a remarkably unique novel and there are some great aspects of this novel to sink your teeth into. It was a captivating and enjoyable ride; even if I had issues with the narrative and at times felt bored with the story. The characters in the novel were definitely the highlight of this book but the adventure was helped move the plot along. Personally if I compare this book with Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road, I would recommend it over The Dog Stars, but this doesn’t mean you should overlook this novel.