Explaining Death to the Dog by Susan Perabo. 1999. 1st Edition. (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)

Perabo, Susan

ISBN 10: 0747544379 / ISBN 13: 9780747544371

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1999

About this Item

VINTAGESTAN BOOKS Title: Explaining Death to the Dog by Susan Perabo. 1999. 1st Edition. Author: Susan Perabo Publisher: Bloomsbury Year Published: 1999 Edition: 1st Edition Dimensions: 20.5cm x 14.5cm Binding type: Softcover ISBN: 9780747544371 Notes: SKU: VSS / 171 / G / 2843 / 1910 / 4HB Condition Dust Jacket Condition: Not applicable Book condition: Good. Rubbing, bumps, handling marks, marks Binding: Intact Pages: 191 pages.

Seller Inventory # 001910

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Explaining Death to the Dog by Susan Perabo. 1999. 1st Edition. (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747544379
• ISBN 13: 9780747544371
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Not applicable
• Seller catalogs:
  • Humour
  • True Stories and Events

About this title

Synopsis

Celebrating the everyday deviance of ordinary men and women, these stories draw on the bizarre and the hilarious. Two straight A students murder the school bully, a man feigns amnesia after a mugging and attempts to win back his ex-wife, and a bored wife spends all her inheritance at an auction.

Review

Susan Perabo scored a goal that eludes most authors--she succeeded in getting a collection of short stories published in both the US and the UK without first having written and published a novel. This is a rare feat and a testimony to the sheer brilliance of the stories found in Explaining Death to the Dog. Perabo gives glimpses into the secret and bizarre worlds of apparently ordinary individuals and shows how a person's fate can be dictated by the odd kinks in their emotional make-up: "My mother, beside herself with loss, spent thirty-five thousand dollars on lottery tickets in nine months."

She gives us the two kids who know something awful about the death of one of their classmates, the woman who spends all of her mother's legacy on a dress that belonged to Princess Diana, the man who pretends to have amnesia to try to trick his ex-wife back into their failed marriage and the woman who has recently lost a baby and is trying to make her dog understand what has taken place--"After the baby died, I found it imperative that my German Shepherd, Stu, understand and accept the concept of death."

Susan Perabo teaches creative writing at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. Explaining Death to the Dog is one of those books that makes one look at people on the bus in a different way. --Anna Davis