(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Contemporary Fiction Views: Just what is a sensible life? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-14 An orange Pomeranian is part of our shaggy dog story "It's just that somehow over the past few years I developed an aversion to people with sensible lives." Nothing about Penny Rush's life has been sensible of late in Elizabeth McKenzie’s The Dog of the North. Or for some time, come to think of it. Currently, she has left her nondescript job as a dental office receptionist, left her cheating husband, and left her home. She's headed to her grandmother's Santa Barbara house because, well, Pincer is a handful. The elderly physician turns on people faster than the speed of light, going from friendly to threatening. The last time, she pointed what looked like a bazooka at someone. Pincer’s longtime accountant, Burt, has hatched a plan with Penny that he will take Pincer out for the day while Penny and a team of professional cleaners go into the house, tackle the accumulated hoard and confiscate the weapon. Everything goes wrong. Burt, a woebegone man who is extremely likeable, is severely ill and collapses when he goes to pick up their target. She springs into physician mode. Penny calls for an ambulance and Pincer goes with them. The cleaning ladies find filth, rats and a long-dead body. Burt has let Penny sleep in his van, which an ex named The Dog of the North. Strapped for cash, she's taken him up on it. Burt's brother, Dale, comes into town because his older brother needs him. He rescues Burt's dog, Kweecoat (a mispronunciation of Quixote) from an inept dogsitter who has two other dogs that picked on the orange Pomeranian. (As those who know the Chekov quote know, because the van has "dog" in its name there will be a real dog involved, too.) Meanwhile, Penny's sister, who lives in Australia, has a rude real estate agent call her because it's about time they did something about their parents' house. They disappeared without a trace several years ago while on a trek in a rather inhospitable part of Australia. Penny cannot even. She misses her mother and stepfather (her sister's biological father) more than anything. Dealing with their house would mean they really are never coming back. Penny's grandfather and Pincer's ex-husband, Arlo, also has plans for her. His current wife is calling, demanding Penny get Arlo settled in a home. Arlo, who is more than competent in his 90s, agrees with Penny that he might as well, because they've found an apartment in a retirement community that he finds agreeable. When he moves, his wife is angry even though she had been nagging for it. Arlo is more interested in going to Australia to trace the last known movements of his daughter and her husband. He wants Penny to go with him. While all this sounds busy, Elizabeth McKenzie's novel keeps everything on track. Penny's life is chaotic, but her making sense of what's going on and dealing with things and people as they come up is a journey that helps her put everything into focus. With overtones of McKenzie's earlier novel, The Portable Veblen, and echoes of Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, The Dog of the North is a compelling chronicle of how patterns can be found in chaos, how the past can inform the present, how the future can be something to look forward to when the past is acknowledged. There are outrageously nasty characters in the novel, but also some very, very lovely ones. And the latter are far more important to the story than the former. As for living a sensible life? Penny sees many kinds of lives. She and the reader realize that what may be sensible for one is not for another, and that there is more than one way to do more than exist. The Dog of the North is a quirky, wistful novel about quirky, wistful characters. What a ride. READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/14/2157630/-Contemporary-Fiction-Views-Just-what-is-a-sensible-life Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/