[sans titre]

Fiction André Alexis. Fifteen Dogs. Toronto. Coach House Books. 2015. isbn 9781552453056 Canadian writer André Alexis invents a modern Greek mythology in his 2015 novel Fifteen Dogs, bringing together prose and poetry, consciousness and animal instinct, humans and dogs. In a narrative that questions the righteousness of humanity , Alexis frames his novel around a disagreement between Zeus’s two sons, Apollo and Hermes, who argue about whether or not animals would be happier with the intellectual capacity of humans. Arguing over what sets humans apart from other animals, the gods settle by granting fifteen dogs the presumed gift of human intelligence . In posing the question of whether animals would die happier with the capacity of human consciousness, Alexis provides a bleak yet revitalizing tale of human mortality and the gift, or curse, of superior intelligence. As fifteen dogs in a kennel in Toronto suddenly awaken to a world full of color and an unfamiliar sense of awareness, readers are taken through the journey of what it might be like to live as an animal with a human intellect. Being suddenly much more aware of their environment, social stratification, and effect on others, it becomes clear early on that the capacity for human intelligence entails much more than the ability to think logically. Although the superiority of their newfound intellect proves beneficial for the dogs in many cases, the burden of human consciousness arises as an ever-present and oftentimes destructive factor in the novel. World Literature in Review Ko Un’s Korea Verse, page 73 Remembering Nagasaki Fiction, page 67 Vénus Khoury-Ghata’s elegy of survival Miscellaneous, page 77 56 WLT SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015 While Apollo and Hermes constantly argue over the relationship between intelligence and happiness, the dogs face betrayal and loss of loved ones, continually fight over power and positions in the pack, and experience a new type of fear: of the world and humanity. Despite the burden of consciousness and social awareness that the dogs’ human intelligence brings them, there is a welcome reassurance as Alexis’s fifteen dogs discover the beauty of language, love, and human generosity along the way. Fifteen Dogs proves its brilliance as the dogs encounter much more than conflicts imposed by conscious awareness but individual , emotional, and uniquely human experiences. Despite the self-serving, pretentious, and unfavorable aspects of humanity that this text uncovers, Alexis leaves readers with a glimpse of our better nature, as the dogs experience some of our species’ most exceptional qualities: the ability to communicate, connect, and learn from one another. André Alexis’s fifteen dogs discover much more than human intellect in this novel: a consciousness deeper than intelligence, love different than loyalty, compassion unique to humanity,andanewperspectiveontheworld. Ryann Gordon University of Oklahoma Peter Buwalda. Bonita Avenue. Jonathan Reeder, tr. New York. Hogarth. 2014. isbn 9780553417852 Do we control our fate or do the fates control us? That is the question that Dutch author Peter Buwalda examines in his entertaining novel, Bonita Avenue. The plot involves an unconventional love triangle: Joni, young, beautiful, and ambitious; Siem, her stepfather , a famous mathematician; and Aaron, Joni’s loyal but insecure boyfriend. By all appearances Joni and Aaron are a wholesome young couple, but in fact they clandestinely operate a lucrative website that features pornographic photographs of Joni. When Siem coincidentally discovers Joni’s photos, it triggers a cascade of events, each more horrible than the last, which jeopardizes the threesome ’s close relationship. The novel skips back and forth through time, allowing the plot to be unveiled at a deliberate, suspense-building pace. One of the most satisfying aspects of the novel is that Buwalda gives us sufficient material to sink deeply into the psyche of the three primary characters, with one exception— we are offered almost no insight as to Joni’s motivation for becoming involved in pornography , a perspective that would allow a fuller appreciation of both her personality and the unfolding story. While the secret of the website solidifies the bond between Joni and Aaron, another secret collaboration strengthens Joni’s and Siem’s already close ties: Joni’s acquiescence to Siem’s plea that she provide false testimony against his son, Wilburt, which...

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.