|
The Author on Her Work
Before Sight Hound was published, a reporter from a major newspaper asked me what it was about. "It's about faith," I said, surprising myself completely. "Wow," I added, "I'm glad I didn't know that until right now." This is the kind of question that writers tend to keep from themselves, the kind that would scare us into paralysis.
For the four years that Sight Hound was in process, I said, "It's about a dog and a girl," a much safer answer. Only when I was finished was I willing to admit that each of the major narrators in Sight Hound is, consciously or not, searching for what the character Jonathan would call a "reliable system of belief." Rae tries to believe that painting her toenails green will keep the Colorado wildfires from destroying her ranch. Jonathan, who writes letters to rock stars, both hopes for and fears their replies. Brooklyn Underhill believes in salvation through service to God and country. Eddie Kominsky believes that God talks to him, that God gave him a hockey championship, that God tells him who is ready to be saved. Dante is a Buddhist, Rose, a hedonist, Mona believes in reincarnation, and Dr. Evans believes that the Detroit Red Wings are his friends.
I was also interested in writing about what happens when faith fails us, when no matter how hard we hope or pray or cross our fingers and toes, the thing we most fear happens anyway. Also what happens when we lose faith; when we fail to stand strong in the face of fear, or when we use our belief systems to manipulate the people we love. Now, months after publication, I can see that I was trying to wrestle with some pretty basic questions. Are we capable of loving completely when loss is inevitable? How can we maintain equanimity when we know that the only constant in our lives is change? How can we relinquish our attachments to the pain and fear that "keep us safe from joy?" How can we learn to savor—on a minute by minute basis—how much we love the world?
Maybe dogs are savvier about the answers to these questions than we are. Or maybe dogs just know how to accept these questions with grace.
A few months ago, another reporter commented, "It seems that in this novel, the dogs are nearly always the teachers."
"Pretty much," I said.
"And the humans are nearly always the recipients of the lessons."
"More or less," I said.
He asked, "Wasn't it kind of human-centric to have it come out that way?"
I thought about this for a moment. "Well," I said, "I guess if Dante had written the book for a canine audience, most of the lessons would be directed towards the dogs. But as I wrote it primarily for a human audience, I hope its human-centric slant might be excused."
Discussion
Questions
1. This novel is told in the first person by twelve different narrators, nine of them human, two of them canine, and one of them feline. What do you think the author was trying to accomplish by changing point of view so many times? What does she risk?
2. In Dante's first monologue he says, "It is funnier how love is both harder, and easier, without language." What does he mean by this? In what way does the novel explore the difference between spoken love and love as represented in action?
3. Much of Rae's personal history is narrated in the voices of Jonathan and Darlene, rather than in Rae's own voice. Why do you think the author made that decision?
4. If Dante is the primary teacher in the book, what is Rose's role?
5. Howard spends a lot of time making up stories, most significantly Oprah Fantasies #1 and #2. Does this bode well or poorly for Rae and Howard's marriage? What are the chances that Jonathan and Eddie's grim predictions for the marriage might come true?
6. Jodi arrives in the novel quite late, but Dante calls her the missing piece of the puzzle. What does Dante mean when he says this? Do you think he's right?
7. There are three things that Rae is afraid of in this novel: That Dante will die, that the wildfires will destroy her home, and that Eddie Kominsky will destroy her marriage. In what ways are these threats different from one another? In what ways are they all the same?
8. The author makes the decision to let the usually laconic Dr. Evans narrate the scene of Dante's death. Why do you think she chose him over narration by Howard or Rae?
9. Darlene decides, near the end of the novel, to leave the ranch. What motivates her? In what way will Rae's life be different after she is gone?
10. In the final pages of Sight Hound, Rae recounts a dream of paper tigers. What is the metaphorical function of these paper tigers? To what moments in the novel do they ask you to return?
|