by Happy writer

Created on: April 27, 2008

Comparing The Last Days of Dogtown to a food that sums it up

The Last Days of Dogtown by: Anita Diamant

Curiosity creates motivation. Motivation creates movement. Movement enlightens you... or at least makes you shed a few pounds and go to the bathroom regularly. Diamant's motivation for The Last Days of Dogtown came from a pamphlet about a once named community called Dogtown in Massachusetts. Although the information from the pamphlet was minimal, she got a sense that this community had a story to tell and just like her fabulous novel The Red Tent, Diamant went on to create a completely fictional story about a place, despite uninhabited, is still today called Dogtown. Diamant is very good at persuading the reader into believing that what she has created really did happen. Her imagery, tone, and characters always manage to convince you of their deserved place at that time. Her stories are consistently so damn compelling, she has definitely got a knack for the art of the written word.

However, unlike The Red Tent, which was thick with drama and suspense, Dogtown is read in the same way a dog might go about his day. You start up, read a bit. lay down again, have a snooze, wake up, read a little more, your ears perk up, you wag your tail, then maybe take a walk with it. Stop to lap up some water, scratch the back of your head, suddenly you get excited, your tongue pops out and you start panting and drooling, you pounce on it like a dog would pounce on a possum that has unexpectedly fallen from a tree, chase it a while only to get tired once more. Have a nap, eyes half open, yawn, stretch, take a moment to lick your privates, then finally snuggle up to it.

I know my above analogy must sound like I've popped a dozen pills and that the voices are speaking to me again...unfortunately, not today. But this was kind of the pace of the novel... please don't get me wrong here...this is not a criticism, on the contrary, it felt good to be part of her characters unglamorous, hard, and somewhat tiresome existence. After all, this novel is set in the 1800's, the human race had not yet created Game Boy, the Internet or cell phones...and how did we ever manage without them I ask you!

When I lived on the Island of FuvahMullah in The Maldives, I lived with barely anything. I had no TV, newspapers, refrigerator, beepers, gadgets, vibrators and most importantly I did not have my electronic nose hair trimmer ... Nothing...Okay, I lied, my vibrator came with me (I have short fingers..what

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