The Dogs of Babel (Hardcover)

Paul is a linguist by profession, and he gets the idea of trying to teach his dog how to talk; he even manages to make his mad idea into a bonafide project of his academic pursuits - even though his colleagues come to think that his wife's death has thrown him off his rocker. As the story progresses, we get to know Lexy through Paul's vivid memories of his time with her. She was what you might call a free spirit, the kind of woman who talks Paul into driving to Disneyland on their first date (which ends up lasting a full week). An artist by nature and profession, Lexy clearly saw the world in a unique way, and we can see why Paul fell in love with her so deeply. It becomes ever more apparent, though, that Lexy's oversensitive nature was quite fragile and that she harbored some pretty dark and possibly debilitating inner demons. It makes for a most tragic examination of the life of Paul and Lexy and casts an ever darker pall on the tragedy of her death.

Paul's attempts to enable Lorelai to tell him what happened are also increasingly strange and disturbing. The flash cards, the attempts to associate words for things Lorelai can understand, even a special keyboard for hoped-for canine communication are understandable, but the documented case of a talking dog named Dog J and Paul's encounter with a group of people using radical surgery to enable dogs to make human sounds is pretty weird. As matters play out, it also adds an even greater weight of sorrow and remorse to the whole story.

This novel will have an emotional effect on most readers. You can't just put The Dogs of Babel away and never think about it again, as it will remain in your thoughts for some time. This voyeuristic look into Paul's emotional struggles with grief and the extraordinary way in which he seeks solace is quite touching and, at times, heart-wrenching. And there's not any real nugget of meaning to take away from the encounter. Knowing what happened doesn't necessarily explain what happened, nor does it necessarily bring peace or even cloture to the reader. It's really impossible to describe the emotional plateau this story plays out on; it's sad, wondrous, and quite unforgettable. Carolyn Parkhurst is a virtual literary poet who just so happens to write in a narrative framework - but I would argue that The Dogs of Babel is in fact a sort of poetry, for only poetry in its purest form can touch your heart and mind this deeply. This is a brilliant novel.

I expected the story would be more of a forensic mystery with some actual scientific proof of a dog providing the solution. Instead, it is largely Paul's memoir of his marriage to Lexy, the love of his life despite her emotional highs and lows. As I progressed through the book I couldn't help thinking that if Lexy had received some treatment for depression or bi-polar disorder, there would have been no story to tell. However, this is not a pragmatic read but more of a fairy tale. The story is dense with symbolism involving masks, dreams, death, fables, mythology, and exquisite visual descriptions. All are testaments to the author's creativity and imagination.

As a memoir, it is by necessity written in first person past tense which lends the story a slightly stagnant quality. However, the story is stimulated by an unusual twist when Paul, desperate with grief and willing to try anything, attends a meeting of the Cerberus Society. It turns out to be a group of malevolent men who perform unspeakable scientific experiments on dogs to get them to speak garbled sounds - hence the title, "The Dogs of Babel". This portion of the story, although implausible, has dramatic tension and really creates a sense of apprehension about the outcome.

The story ultimately leads to the resolution of Paul's grief, as he progresses through the stages of mourning: shock, disbelief, grief, anger, and acceptance. Through it all Lorelei, a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback, demonstrates that love can be expressed in many ways.