BY MOLLY TEMPLETON
Dog’s Best Friend
Learning on four legs (or three)
SIGHT HOUND, fiction by Pam Houston.
W.W. Norton, 2005. Hardcover, $23.95.
I
n the handful of glowing blurbs on the
back cover of Pam Houston’s first
novel, Maxine Kumin says, “This is a
dangerous book. Don’t read it unless you
have ever loved a dog up close or admired
one from afar.”
Kumin’s not kidding. I’m a cat person
probably 75 percent of the time, but that other
25 percent has made room for a host of
canines, from my family’s first
dog, a squat dachshund-spaniel
mix cheerily named Killer, to
my mother’s new companion,
an overgrown toddler of a mutt
named Cyrus. Before Cyrus,
not long ago, was Buster, a
German shepherd who
turned up one day and
adopted my stepfather.
There was no questioning
it; Buster had come home.
He belonged there.
The certainty of
dogs, the way they
know their humans
and their homes, is
just one of the things
Houston captures
beautifully in Sight
Hound. But her titu-
lar dog, Dante, is no ordinary
canine. He is, as the story’s younger dog,
Rose, refers to him, “the evolved one.”
Dante, when the narrative is in his voice,
quotes Buddha and Lao-tzu and expresses an
endless patience for the humans with whom
he spends his time. He belongs to Rae
Rutherford, a successful playwright living in
the country outside Denver. While Dante is
Rae’s constant companion, the rest of her life
is hardly empty: She has a testy, pragmatic
house-sitter, Darlene; a therapist, Theo; a fel-
low writer/friend, Jonathan; a new love inter-
est, the appropriately dramatic but also big-
hearted actor, Howard; and two veterinarians,
Eugene Concert Choir
Diane Retallack, Artistic Director & Conductor
Dr. Evans and Brooklyn Underhill, who treat
Dante for the osteosarcoma that’s eating
away at his bones.
Each of these characters — and several
others, including a cat and a young girl who
corresponds with Dante — has a say, literal-
ly, in Rae’s story. From chapter to chapter, the
voices alternate, each lighting up a different
side of Rae and her relationships. Some of the
voices give background: Theo, with his gen-
tle therapist’s acceptance, is a means to
explore Rae’s previous failed relationships,
while Jonathan, Rae’s writing partner,
has the voice of an ide-
alist turned
jaded, a dry
Pam Houston reads at the UO Knight Library at 7 pm,
Monday, April 25.
BOOK NOTES for April 21 through May 5: Portland’s Wordstock Festival continues through 4/24 with panels, speak-
ers, reading rooms, music and more. For information go to www.wordstockfestival.com … Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction
Edward P. Jones (The Known World) speaks at 7:30 pm 4/21 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. For ticket
information call 503-227-2583 … Author, newspaper writer and magazine journalist Erik Larson presents the 2005
Johnston Lecture, “Breathing Life into the Dead: Making History Come Alive” at 4 pm 4/21 in Alumni Lounge, Gerlinger
Hall, UO … Jean Hegland reads from Windfalls at 7 pm 4/21 at Mother Kali’s … SASS’s 7th Annual Poetry of Survival Reading
is at 7 pm 4/21 at Tsunami Books … Ron Takaki, author of A Larger Memory: A History of Our Diversity, With Voices, speaks
on “America in a Different Mirror: Re-visioning Our Nation’s Past” at 10 am 4/21 at LCC’s Performance Hall, Building 6 ...
Laurie Notaro reads from We Thought You Would Be Prettier at 7:30 pm 4/21 at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, Portland …
Madly funny author David Sedaris speaks at 8 pm 4/22 at the Hult Center ($18.50-$28.50) … Andrea Barrett (Voyage of
the Narwhal) speaks at 7:30 pm 4/22 at LaSells Stewart Center, OSU, Corvallis ... Eugene Poetry Slam Playoffs take place at 7
pm 4/23 at Territorial Winery ($5) … Poet John Witte reads from The Hurtling at 5 pm 4/23 at Tsunami Books … Wordstock
presents an evening with Norman Mailer at 7 pm 4/23 in Portland’s Keller Auditorium … Kent Haruf and legendary editor Gary
Fisketjon speak at 11 am and Phil Lesh (Searching for the Sound: My Life in the Grateful Dead) follows at 1 pm 4/23 at
Wordstock’s Powell’s Stage at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland … Wordstock presents an afternoon with Susan Orlean
and Alice Sebold at 3 pm and an evening with Russell Banks at 5 pm 4/24 at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland ... A read-
ing from “This American Life” commentator and author Sarah Vowell is at noon 4/24 on the Wordstock Powell’s Stage, Portland
… Pam Houston (Sight Hound) discusses “Writing, Relationships, Wanderlust” at 7 pm 4/25 in the Knight Library Browsing Room,
UO … The Write Off Tour with local headliners Marietta Bonaventure & Kitt Jennings and Write Off performers Tara Hardy, Lane
Stroud, Katinka Kraft, Amy Mahoney & SoulChilde arrives in town at 8 pm 4/25 at Sam Bond’s. ($4-$8) ... Stephanie Kane (Seeds
of Doubt) and Portland author David Farris (Lie Still) read and speak at 7 pm 4/26 at Barnes & Noble … Poet August Kleinzahler speaks at 7:30 pm
4/26 at Portland’s Wieden+Kennedy Building Atrium ($18, $12 stu., sr.) … Victor Navasky, renowned editor of The Nation for more than 30 years,
speaks on his new book, A Matter of Opinion, at 7:30 pm 4/26 at Powell’s Books on Burnside, Portland … William Sullivan gives a slide presentation
on New Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades at 7 pm 4/27 in 177 Lawrence, UO … Charles Wilkinson reads from Blood Struggle at 7 pm 4/27 in the
UO Longhouse … The Oregon Book Award Author Tour with Ellen Morris Bishop, David Farris, Henry Hughes and Elinor Langer stops at 7 pm
4/28 at the Douglas County Library, Roseburg … George Estreich & Keith Scribner read at 7 pm 4/29 at the Mountain Writers Center, Portland ($3)
... Jarold Ramsey & George Venn read at 7 pm 4/29 at the Oddfellows Hall in Fossil … A book release for Jane Kirkpatrick’s A Land of Sheltered
Promise is at 1 pm 4/30 at the Mission Mill Museum in Salem … A book release for Judith K. Berg’s The Otter Spirit: A Natural History Story is at 4
pm 4/30 at Tsunami Books … The Young Writers’ Association’s 4th Annual Glitterary Festival is 10 am-12:30 pm 4/30 at the Science Factory … Dorianne
Laux & George Hitchcock read poetry in support of the Oregon State Poetry Association and in celebration of May Day and National Poetry Month
at 3 pm 5/1 at Tsunami Books (Donations) … Deborah Digges reads from Poetry at 7:30 pm 5/5 in 183 Lillis, UO … Clemens Stark discusses “Poetry
as Spoken Art” at 6:30 pm 5/5 at the Baker Downtown Center ($5-$10 donation) … Ted Cox reads from The Toledo Incident of 1925 at 7 pm 5/5 at
Tsunami Books.
Beethoven
An epic choral
masterpiece
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Sunday, , May 7, 2005, at 8:00 pm
Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center
Tickets $9-26. Call 682-5000 or visit www.eugeneconcertchoir.org
Eugene Concert Choir
Kelley Nassief, soprano
Victoria Avetisyan, mezzo-soprano
Yeghishe Manucharyan, tenor
Clayton Brainerd, bass-baritone
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for the story to turn too sentimental, or too
lesson-y, especially when Dante (and, later,
Rose) are so forthright about their purpose
in Rae’s life — each is there to teach her
something. But, unexpectedly, it works,
even through death, marriage and drought.
And it doesn’t just work for me because I
lost a dog to the same disease. It works
because Houston draws a careful line
between the viewpoints of animals and
humans, and while Dante is wiser and
calmer than any of the human characters, his
Zen is tempered by boisterous Rose, who
tells us repeatedly, “I don’t always listen.”
And who does, really? What Houston gives
to her readers is a gentle parallel to what
Dante gives to Rae: a reminder to listen, to
let go when you have to, and to have a cer-
tain kind of faith in what might be next. ew
observer who’s highly skeptical of Rae’s
blooming romance with Howard.
Howard, on the other hand, takes a
brighter road, choosing to believe in Rae
more than she believes in herself — but not
until he’s tested her patience backwards and
forwards, making overblown pronounce-
ments and throwing dramatic snits in a mis-
guided attempt to express himself.
And then there is Dante, his damp nose
nudging all the humans (but especially Rae)
into better places. When the book opens,
Dante is three-legged but determined,
unwilling to let his illness slow down his
work with Rae. His own story of diagnosis
and treatment comes out slowly, often nar-
rated by his vet, Dr. Evans, whose slow,
sympathetic understanding of Dante is key
to the story’s success.
As Sight Hound draws to its heartbreak-
ing, hopeful close, it would have been easy
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34 APRIL 21, 2005