The Dog by Joseph O'Neill audiobook

The Dog: A Novel

By Joseph O'Neill
Read by Erik Davies

Random House Audio
10.13 Hours • Unabridged
Format : Digital Download (In Stock)
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    ISBN: 9780553545753

***A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK*** ***LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014*** ***PWs Best of the Year 2014*** The author of the best-selling and award-winning Netherland now gives us his eagerly awaited, stunningly different new novel: a tale of alienation and heartbreak in Dubai.   Distraught by a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, our unnamed hero leaves New York to take an unusual job in a strange desert metropolis. In Dubai at the height of its self-invention as a futuristic Shangri-la, he struggles with his new position as the “family officer” of the capricious and very rich Batros family. And he struggles, even more helplessly, with the “doghouse,” a seemingly inescapable condition of culpability in which he feels himself constantly trapped—even if he’s just going to the bathroom, or reading e-mail, or scuba diving. A comic and philosophically profound exploration of what has become of humankind’s moral progress, The Dog is told with Joseph O’Neill’s hallmark eloquence, empathy, and storytelling mastery. It is a brilliantly original, achingly funny fable for our globalized times.

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Summary

Summary

Longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize

A New York Times Editor’s Choice

A 2014 New York Times Notable Book

A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of 2014

***A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK***
***LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014***
***PWs Best of the Year 2014***

The author of the best-selling and award-winning Netherland now gives us his eagerly awaited, stunningly different new novel: a tale of alienation and heartbreak in Dubai.
 
Distraught by a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, our unnamed hero leaves New York to take an unusual job in a strange desert metropolis. In Dubai at the height of its self-invention as a futuristic Shangri-la, he struggles with his new position as the “family officer” of the capricious and very rich Batros family. And he struggles, even more helplessly, with the “doghouse,” a seemingly inescapable condition of culpability in which he feels himself constantly trapped—even if he’s just going to the bathroom, or reading e-mail, or scuba diving. A comic and philosophically profound exploration of what has become of humankind’s moral progress, The Dog is told with Joseph O’Neill’s hallmark eloquence, empathy, and storytelling mastery. It is a brilliantly original, achingly funny fable for our globalized times.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

“A fine, complex portrait of a modern-day soul in despair.” —Oprah.com
“This novel is often wonderfully droll, especially in its portrayal of the oddities of a city whose ‘mission is to make itself indistinguishable from its airport.’ Also, always amusing are the protagonist’s mentally composed emails, never-to-be-sent missives in which he lists all of his grievances like an office-computer version of Saul Bellow’s Herzog." —Entertainment Weekly
“O’Neill’s novel is a seriously philosophical and absurdly funny work. It’s heavily laden with its protagonist’s monologue, which Erik Davies delivers in a monotone in an obvious effort to portray the narrator’s feelings of isolation and resignation. While Davies’s approach works well for those emotions, it downplays the character’s humor, at times giving what should be funny a sense of tediousness. However, during the less frequent dialogue exchanges, Davies shines as he gracefully delivers a wide array of accents and intonations. The humor in these conversations carries a stronger impact and is more engaging.” —AudioFile
“With consummate elegance, The Dog turns in on itself in imitation of the dreadful circling and futility of consciousness itself. Its subplots go nowhere, as in life. But, unlike life, its wit and brio keep us temporarily more alive than we usually allow ourselves to be.” —New York Times Book Review
“Every page of The Dog is a little masterpiece of comedy, erudition, and linguistic acrobatics.” —Washington Post
“More than a comic novel. The writing is brisk and funny, but O’Neill is also exploring deep questions about ethics and happiness in a globalized age of instant information and economic inequality. His narrator is a fascinating creation: charming and repugnant, selfless and self-absorbed, erudite and steeped in popular culture.” —Chicago Tribune
"The Dog is a brilliant satir…[O’Neill] has a fabulous ear for language, as good as nearly anyone in American literature.” —Boston Globe
“As he did brilliantly in Netherland, O’Neill, in his latest, creates a character who is alienated from his home and social class, and who feels dangerously vulnerable in a country in which he lives a luxurious but precarious existence…Clever, witty, and profoundly insightful, this is a beautifully crafted narrative about a man undone by a soulless society.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A humorous meditation on the dialectics of attention and distraction in the modern world, O’Neill’s work playfully skewers the global economy of consumption and our abstract notions of responsibility in its perpetuation.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Lost love impels a New York lawyer to try to change his life with a job overseas…Shades of Kafka and Conrad permeate O’Neill’s thoughtful modern fable of exile.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A manically ruminative tale narrated by an anxious, lonely, and mordantly funny attorney who leaves New York in 2007 to work for his college roommate Eddie Batros’ Lebanese family as trustee of their immense fortune…O’Neill has created a bravura and astringent tale about conscience, entrapment, and the power and limits of language as the vehicle for morality.” —Booklist
One of Publishers Weekly Top Ten Books of 2014 —
The Dog is a brilliant satire . . . [O'Neill] has a fabulous ear for language, as good as nearly anyone in American Literature. —John Freeman, The Bostion Globe
Every page of The Dog is a little masterpiece of comedy, erudition and linguistic acrobatics. —The Washington Post
A fine, complex portrait of a modern-day soul in despair. —Oprah.com
The Dog is an amusing, wry, pleasingly odd work of burnished prose and careful emotional spelunking driven by first-person voice and character and setting, which is Dubai. O'Neill gives [protagonist] X the verbal facility of a really smart lawyer and the self-awareness of a David Foster Wallace character. . . this verbosity is wonderfully light-footed and funny, and frequently poignant. —Ed Taylor, Buffalo News
This novel is often wonderfully droll, especially in its portrayal of the oddities of a city whose 'mission is to make itself indistinguishable from its airport.' Also, always amusing are the protagonist's mentally composed emails, never-to-be-sent missives in which he lists all of his grievances like an office-computer version of Saul Bellow's Herzog. —Keither Stasklewicz, Entertainment Weekly
With consummate elegance, The Dog turns in on itself in imitation of the dreadful circling and futility of consciousness itself. Its subplots go nowhere, as in life. But, unlike life, its wit and brio keep us temporarily more alive than we usually allow ourselves to be. —Lawrence Osborne, The New York Times Book Review
An interesting moral complexity. . . makes [The Dog] more than a comic novel. The writing is brisk and funny, but O'Neill is also exploring deep questions about ethics and happiness in a globalized age of instant information and economic inequality. His narrator is a fascinating creation: charming and repugnant, selfless and self-absorbed, erudite and steeped in popular culture. —Nick Romeo, The Chicago Tribune 
We’ve been waiting six years for a new book by Joseph O’Neill, after the spectacular Netherland, and it’s finally here. The Dog takes readers on a comical and philosophical journey to Dubai. —Time Out New York  
A humorous meditation on the dialects of attention and distraction in the modern world, O’Neill’s work playfully skewers the global economy of consumption and our abstract notions of responsibility in its perpetuation.—Joshua Finnell, Library Journal (starred review) —
Shades of Kafka and Conrad permeate O’Neill’s thoughtful modern fable of exile, a sad story that comments darkly on the human condition and refuses bravely to trade on the success of Netherland. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Pitch-perfect prose . . . Clever, witty, and profoundly insightful, this is a beautifully crafted narrative about a man undone by a soulless society. —Publishers Weekly (starred)
Stunning . . . with echoes of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s masterpiece . . . A resonant meditation on the American Dream. —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Exquisitely written . . . A large fictional achievement, and one of the most remarkable post-colonial books I have ever read . . . Netherland has a deep human wisdom. —James Wood, The New Yorker
I devoured it in three thirsty gulps, gulps that satisfied a craving I didn’t know I had . . . It has more life inside it than ten very good novels. —Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review
Elegant . . . Always sensitive and intelligent, Netherland tells the fragmented story of a man in exile—from home, family, and, most poignantly, from himself. —The Washington Post Book World 

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Author

Author Bio: Joseph O'Neill

Author Bio: Joseph O'Neill

Joseph O’Neill, a novelist and non-fiction writer, was born in Ireland. His novel Netherland was awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and he has garnered numerous other nominations and accolades for his work. Additionally, O’Neill writes literary and cultural criticism, most regularly for the Atlantic Monthly. He practiced law for ten years in Ireland before moving to New York City, where he currently teaches at Bard College. 

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Digital Download
Category: Fiction/Literary
Runtime: 10.13
Audience: Adult
Language: English

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