I just finished reading The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst. Usually, I wouldn't read a book like this at all--I have a bunch of books on my shelf I want to read, and a bunch more I'm planning on getting from the library. And beyond that, it's not the right kind of book. I usually read science fiction, classics, books for classes, and specific authors that I love. So why did I read this one? Simple: I got it from a Little Free Library.Since I've been at college, I've noticed, every once in a while, that there are these little boxes by some people's houses that contain books. I had no idea what this was about until my fiancee's mom looked into it. They are part of the Little Free Libraries movement. Basically, it's a system by which people can put books inside these boxes for others to enjoy. You can take a book, you can leave a book. There are no real set rules to it, but the suggested method is to trade a book of your own for one in the box, read it, and repeat.
I've been intrigued by this idea for a while, but I always had something to read already, so I never took advantage of it, even though they're so close to my dorm. But one day, on a whim, I decided to take my copy of Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, by Louis Fischer (book for History class, which I really liked since I hadn't learned much about him before then), and trade it in. That first day, I couldn't find anything that I liked. The selection in Little Free Libraries is rather inconsistent. One time I saw Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown in there, and I was kind of expecting to still see it there by this time, but I was disappointed. One of them even had children's DVDs in it once!
But the second time I went out with my Gandhi book, I came across The Dogs of Babel. I doubted that it would be a great book, but I'd begun to love dogs thanks to my fiancee's enthusiasm about them, and the way I used to like them when I was younger. Plus, the dedication in the book is, "For Evan, with all my love." So I felt a connection here, and decided to take it.Well, it's an interesting novel; I'll give it that. The main character, Paul Iverson, finds out that this wife has died, and the only witness was their dog, Lorelei. Being a professor of linguistics, he attempts to teach Lorelei to speak, so she can reveal why Lexy died. When I first read the description, I thought it was more of a mystery novel, with a culprit and everything. I didn't know about the talking dog stuff until I started reading. So that was a bit disappointing already.
Quite a bit of the dialogue annoyed me, since it was kinda cheesy at times, and some people didn't feel very realistic. But my main problem with the book was that it made me believe that Paul would figure this out through Lorelei, and in the end she hardly even plays a part in it at all. His final revelation is one we could've easily figured out if he'd given us one big piece of the puzzle earlier...one which he knew all along, no less! Whilst at first it felt like the story of a man who would eventually accomplish something, I ended up realizing that, no, he was just a grieving widower who'd been driven slightly crazy by his wife's death. The ending, while it does fit the themes in the novel pretty well, wasn't the best one it could've been.
That being said, I did enjoy reading it. There were some pretty good ideas in there, some very poignant phrases, and really, really good use of dreams (I mean that Parkhurst actually described dreams as they are, instead of the annoying "was that a dream or not?" thing some writers do. It's a dream! When we wake up, we realize that's what it was. If you've had dreams before, you should understand that). There are some fun things in this book, and so I won't tell anyone to steer away from it if they're thinking about it.
Rating: 4.5/10
And for those who are interested in finding Little Free Libraries, here's the website: http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/
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