About The Book

“Dogs are not people dressed up in fur coats, and to deny them their nature is to do them great harm.” So says short-story writer Jeanne Schinto in her witty introduction to The Literary Dog, a superlative collection of contemporary stories written by some of the most important writers of our time.

A traditional dog story usually recounts some heroic and unbelievable dog deed that the teller swears is true. The stories in The Literary Dog, however, are not traditional dog stories at all. Writers of short fiction, from Kafka to Updike, have a distinguished history of using the dog as a subject for the highest and purest literary aims, stories not about dogs but rather ones in which dogs are essential and intrinsic to the effect.

Schinto has selected only contemporary pieces, most of which were first published in the 1980s. Including stories by some of the most important writers of our time, this beautiful and highly accomplished collection features good dogs and bad dogs, but only great fiction.

Includes:

B. Wongar, “Warand, the Dingo”
Mark Richard, “Strays”
Doris Lessing, “The Story of Two Dogs”
Alistair MacLeod, “Winter Dog”
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, “Sound is Second Sight”
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Heart of a Champion”
Madison Smartt Bell, “Black and Tan”
Pinckney Benedict, “Dog”
Lee K. Abbott, “Where is Garland Steeples Now?”
Mary Hood, “How Far She Went”
Stephanie Vaughn, “Dog Heaven”
Tobias Wolff, “Passengers”
Amy Hempel, “Nashville Gone to Ashes”
Bobbie Ann Mason, “Lying Dogoo”
Veronica Geng, “Canine Cháteau”
Raymond Carver, “Jerry and Molly and Sam”
Alice Adams, “Molly’s Dog”
E. S. Goldman, “Dog People”
David Updike, “Out on the Marsh”
John Updike, “Deaths of Distant Friends’
Mary la Chapelle, “The Understanding”
Barbara Nodine, “Dog Stories”
Pamela Painter, “Confusing the Dog”
Peter Cameron, “The Secret Dog”
Mark Strand, “Dog Life”
Rod Kessler, “Another Thursday with the Meyerhoffs”
Jim Shepard, “Reach for the Sky”
Wright Morris, “Victrola”
Jerry Bumpus, “The English and Their Dogs’
William Trevor, “The Penthouse Apartment”
John Edgar Wideman, “Little Brother”
Ann Beattie, “Distant Music”
Donald Barthelme, “The Falling Dog”
Michael Bishop, “Dogs’ Lives”

Praise

“A superb collection.” –The Washington Post

“Schinto’s primary interest is great, contemporary short stories. The works of Doris Lessing, Alice Adams, Tobias Wolff, John Updike, and thirty other talented authors prove the compiler to be faithful and obedient to her intentions.” –Booklist

“Most of the stories in these volumes are good enough to win a place in any anthology, but they gain an extra charm by being grouped together. It’s as if, in writing about dogs, the authors represented here have found a way to talk about their deepest longings and fears.” –Andrea Barrett, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)