- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (1 Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316610895
- ISBN-13: 978-0316610896
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 2.2 x 21.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 504,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
PHIL always did the castrating; first he sliced off the cup of the scrotum and tossed it aside; next he forced down first one and then the other testicle, slit the rainbow membrane that enclosed it, tore it out, and tossed it into the fire where the branding irons glowed. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
PHIL always did the castrating; first he sliced off the cup of the scrotum and tossed it aside; next he forced down first one and then the other testicle, slit the rainbow membrane that enclosed it, tore it out, and tossed it into the fire where the branding irons glowed. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The story of two bachelor brothers who own a ranch in the wild west. Eventually the one brother meets and marries a woman and brings her and her prissy son to live on the ranch. The other brother is the "hard man action hero cowboy" always out roping steers and the like and hates the new wife who is a widow. Her former husband hanged himself due to something the hard nut brother did to him in a bar some years previously. The story has a fantastic twist at the end.
The sheer beauty of the prose is particularly notable for it's sparseness, being almost poetic in it's layered meaning. This is quite simply one of the very best books I have ever read and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Thank you Annie Proloux for writing the afterward as it was a search on her name that drew this to my attention. If you like her work you'll love this.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a masterpiece. The strained co-existence of two batchelor brothers, until the marriage of one to a local widow, is a striking story set in Montana in 1925. Description is sparing yet the characters come through clearly. The main character Phil is cruel, vicious as well as intelligent and capable, yet even he draws empathy. The style is lean; I cannot remember another book where the domestic tension builds up so monumentally, you can feel it. An unfortgettable read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
22 reviews
51 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Gripping psychological study of Western machismo
5 Jan 2004
Format:Paperback
This is one heck of a novel. Set on a Montana ranch in 1924-25, it tells of a domestic drama involving two brothers and the tensions that quickly develop when one of them marries a widow with a teenage son. The driving emotional force in the novel (and the "dog" of the title) is the older, unmarried brother, a fascinating study in western machismo, who is both sharply intelligent and capable of merciless cruelty, all apparently masking a fiercely denied homosexuality. The opening scene of the novel, with a vivid description of castrating calves graphically characterizes him as cutting and brutal, while wounded both emotionally and sexually. Savage is breathtakingly insightful in his portrayal of this man, exploring his darkest thoughts and carefully observing his behavior. He gets so far beneath the skin of the character, exposing the ugliness beneath his roughly handsome exterior, it makes you uncomfortable.
The novel is wonderfully crafted. Savage shifts easily from the point of view of one character to another, maybe 10-12 of them altogether. And even the most minor characters -- the cook, a maid, an Indian, the brothers' parents -- come to life vividly. The story is told economically, and narrative threads are dovetailed neatly together. Suspense builds steadily, and key details are placed strategically, so that when the final scenes play out, the ending is both surprising and inevitable.
Meanwhile the story takes place in a richly detailed context of everyday life of cowboys and ranch hands -- meals in the ranch house, the idle hours of Sundays around the bunkhouse, the ordering of items from the Sears Roebuck catalogue, and the work of taking cattle to market, branding, and haying. Savage is intimately aware of this world and the minds and attitudes, hopes and fears of the unschooled men who inhabit it.
Though it takes place on the other side of the continent, I was reminded of another writer, Richard Yates, whose "Revolutionary Road" (1961) has something of the same mood, and the same interest in the emotionally isolated lives of characters who are bound by the constraints of time and place. Annie Proulx writes an informative afterword to the new edition of Savage's novel. It's worth mentioning that she takes up the theme of homosexuality in a Western setting in her "Brokeback Mountain," which is included in her terrific collection of Wyoming stories "Close Range."
I recommend "The Power of the Dog" to readers interested in Western fiction, Montana ranch life in the early 20th century, psychological studies, and domestic drama that focuses on the interplay of family members' strengths and weaknesses. As a companion, I recommend Ralph Beer's Montana ranch novel "The Blind Corral."
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Tense, harsh, twisted, powerful
8 Jan 2003
Format:Paperback
This is an incredibly well crafted novel. A brilliant, complex tale of complicated, twisted but plausible characters, fraught with tension. Savage masterfully employs foreshadowing and understatement throughout the novel; it clearly requires a re-reading to appreciate them all, as well as its many metaphors. This tale is so powerful that in the first read you are compelled to proceed reading rather than to slowly savor it. After having finished it, I found myself repeatedly rereading the impeccable last 15 pages -- the perfection of the novel's end literally takes your breath away.
It is rare that one comes across a novel as well written as this: impressive, satisfying, masterful.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Incredible!
22 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Every once in a while you stumble across a book that stays on your mind long after you finish the last page. This is the type of book you want to recommend to everyone, but instead, you only tell your close friends. When people ask "Have you read anything good lately?" You respond without hesitating "The Power of the Dog," but don't bother to describe the book. It is just that good.
I rarely watch a movie twice, almost never read the same book over. This book is worthy of a second reading. I feel fortunate to stumble upon this incredible story by a genius author...
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