Men & Dogs: a Review

Men and Dogs.What a great title for an interesting, sometimes hilarious, and always thought-provoking novel. Often I am given books to review where the title or the cover art don't make sense to me after reading the book, but Katie Crouch and the folks at Little Brown have hit the nail on the head with both on this one. The men in the heroine's life and her disparate relationships with each are the forefront of the story, and the beautiful photo of a young woman in a fishing boat with her back to us is representative of the central mystery which she is trying to answer.

Like many people, Hannah Legare's life has been formed completely around an event from her childhood, the disappearance or death of her father while he was out in his fishing boat. I say death or disappearance because although the incident is investigated and declared a death, without a body Hannah has always refused to believe that her childhood hero is gone. Her brother and mother move on, but Hannah's insistence on bringing up the topic, planning her life around his possible return, and resistance to her mother's new husband crack their relationship almost to the breaking point. Now it's twenty years later and Hannah lives in San Francisco,on the opposite coast from her family, and rarely visits. Her once thriving business built with her husband, Jon, is bankrupt, and Hannah's out of control behavior with men has pushed her saddened and defeated husband to leave her. After a horrible accident while Hannah is trying to win back Jon, she is "sent" to her mother's in North Carolina to recuperate physically and hopefully mentally. Being back in Charleston brings out even more wackiness in Hannah, and she begins an investigation into her father's disappearance, looking through old photos, questioning her family and long-time family friends. Instead of answers she gets more confused, and the and the small webs that had begun to repair the cracks start falling apart as she alienates and frustrates those around her.
Many interesting, well-thought-out characters live in Hannah's world of Charleston, NC. I especially enjoyed her stepfather, DeWitt, a boisterous good ol' boy who wants everyone to have fun and enjoys writing checks for Hannah and her mother Daisy. Daisy, wife to one of Charleston's wealthiest men and organizer of numerous charity events is hysterical in her thrift-store clothing and frequent Goodwill shopping, especially seen through Hannah's eyes.  I enjoyed the relationship Hannah has with her former teacher, Virginia, who is also the mother of Hannah's high school boyfriend. Virginia is an artsy, earthy woman, who takes time to listen to Hannah both as a teen and an adult, and tries to guide her in her decisions, to little avail.

The side story of Hannah's brother Palmer, with his separate remembrances of their father's death and his own childhood show that she is not the only one who has held on to childhood events, but instead of yelling his issues from the rooftops Palmer holds everything in and, like Hannah, is destroying his relationship with his partner, Tom. This makes Hannah, who might have been a somewhat unsympathetic heroine, less raw, as I was able to understand that she was not the only one hanging on to the event, she was just the loudest about it. Hannah is bright, creative, and funny, sometimes an ostrich with her head in the sand and others an owl hooting questions into the night. While she is spouting questions and theories all over town, she is ignoring the fact that her husband has filed for divorce, she hasn't done any work for their business in several months, and when informed of their bankrupt status she just ignores that too. As a professional procrastinator I can definitely relate to that (!) as well as wanting to ask questions about family events that happened before I was born or before I was old enough to remember, albeit nothing as huge as a disappearing father. Hannah ends up with some answers to her questions, and some insight into the behaviors of others, and eventually gets her act together so she can begin building a new life as a single woman in a new career.
Katie Crouch's Men and Dogsis thoughtful and quirky, with quick-witted descriptions and interesting characters, making it a story that will appeal to many.
Official FTC Disclosure: I received no compensation for this review, other than an advance copy of the book from Hachette Publishing Group.