Review: Even the Dogs: A Novel by Jon McGregor

On a dismal winter’s day, somewhere in the midlands, the police discover a decaying corpse in a derelict apartment. This is Robert. And so begins our journey through the underbelly of lower class England.

Robert is a raging alcoholic whose wife and daughter left him years ago. His apartment has become a sanctuary for a host of troubled characters. These include Danny, a drifter heroin addict from London who travels with his dog, Einstein. Heather has lost her children to her addiction but still can’t give it up. Ben is a violent sociopath, Mike is a paranoid schizophrenic and Steve is an ex-army veteran who still has not forgiven his country for sending him to war.

What happened to Robert? How did he die? And what will become of his group of squatters?

McGregor introduces us to a world of addiction, homelessness and delinquency. The narrative style takes a bit of getting used to. It is the first time I have encountered a ‘group narrative’; an omnipresent group of people who follow Robert’s corpse as the coroner investigates his death. Just as you become accustomed to this however, the style changes to a first person narrative and includes sentences that just end midway.

When I began reading this book the characters appalled me. The world McGregor portrays is so foreign and sinister to what I am used to (thank goodness I suppose) that I found it quite unsettling reading. It is a world of drug users,
alcoholics and delinquents; where the most urgent and important need is to make enough money for the next score. By the end of the novel, I can’t say I liked any of the characters, but they became more human. I pitied them. I hoped for something positive amongst the ashes and squalor.

I found it to be a rather cautionary tale; nothing good comes from this lifestyle, and most of the characters come to a rather gristly end. Yet it gives the addicts; the homeless; the forgotten people in society a face and a voice – even if what that voice says is something that makes us uncomfortable, and we would rather be deaf to it.

Well written, confronting and thought provoking.

Rating

Michael @ Literary Exploration says:

January 24, 2013 at 3:02 pm Reply

Welcome Natasha, this book sounds very interesting, I will have to add it to my TBR and check it out. Thanks

Natasha says:

January 25, 2013 at 1:55 pm Reply

Thanks Michael. Hope you enjoy the book. It’s quite gritty, but very well written.