A big little life : a memoir of a joyful dog / Dean Koontz.

I had planned to feature this book in two or three weeks, but changed my mind after I re-read it. The book I planned to review this week, about Sandra Bullock's sister's bakery, is up for next week. Even though I don't own a dog, I enjoyed the Koontz book so much that I found it hard to put down and read it in about one day. It is an absolutely lovely and heartfelt tribute to a dog who was far more to Koontz and his wife than simply a pet. This is only the second book I have read by this author - I have heard that most of his writing is pretty scary!

In the book, Koontz describes how he grew up in poverty with a dysfunctional family. During his earlier life, he was told by some family members and acquaintances that he was as worthless an individual as his disreputable father. Many years later, after he was a successful author (far from worthless now!), he and his wife adopted their first dog, golden retriever Trixie. He was profoundly changed when Trixie became a part of his life. He just delighted in playing and communicating with her, and observing her personality. From the book jacket, "Not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. She taught Dean to trust his instincts, persuaded him to cut down to a fifty-hour work week, and, perhaps most important, renewed in him a sense of wonder that will remain with him for the rest of his life. She inspired him in many ways."

Trixie also gave Koontz a renewed spirituality: "I believe that Trixie, in addition to being a dog and a child and an inspiration and a revelation, was also a quiet theophany, a subtle manifestation of God, for by her innocent joy and by her actions in my life, she lifted from me all doubts of the sacred nature of our existence."