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Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst: A Review and Reading Guide

If you're looking for characters who will come to life in front of your eyes, and a story that will wrench your emotions tight, a plot-line that will remain with you for many days after you've turned the last page ... get this book.

Now let me state that I love reading, but rarely find time to do it. Between a 6-yr-old child and plenty of work, I really would rather curl up and do something absolutely brain-numbing like watch a television show than open a book. Part of this is because I'm so incredibly picky about what I read. If I am not grabbed by the story within the first couple of chapters, the book will linger on my coffee table for a few weeks before finding its way to my night-stand and eventually will retire to my shelves unread. If I'm perfectly honest, I'd say that I totally believed this would be the fate of a funny-looking green book that I'd picked up from the dollar store.

I read the whole thing, all 288 pages of it, in one day. One sitting. Seriously, once I'd made it past the first page I knew that I was hooked.

The premise of the book is that the Paul, the main character, has just lost his wife, Lexy, to an accident. She fell out of an apple tree in their backyard, from a height that no one could imagine her climbing or for what purpose, and the only witness is their Rhodesian Ridgeback, Lorelei. Being a linguistics professor, Paul decides that he will find a way to teach Lorelei, the dog, to speak ... thus putting closure on the strange and traumatic death of his wife.

You might think from reading this that the book is quirky, or even amusing. It's not. It's raw, emotional, so honest in its grief and search for answers that we really don't want to know in the end anyways. Between Paul's disjointed efforts to teach Lorelei to speak, imparting some information that will make your skin crawl in the process, the reader is bound captive to a full treatment of his relationship with his late wife. Literally, you walk with him through the steps to solving the puzzles related to Lexy's death, you're right there with him through every discovery, rocking with his own heart ache.

The chapters in this book are almost formulaic, but they're fast-paced and filled with so much life and death and, often, despair that you can't help but feel connected to Paul.

Having said all this, I would not recommend this book to anyone who has experienced a loss recently. If the subject of suicide is troubling to you, for whatever reason, you might also stay away from this book. If you're looking for characters who will come to life in front of your eyes, and a story that will wrench your emotions tight, a plot-line that will remain with you for many days after you've turned the last page ... get this book.

Reading Guide

1. The main character, Paul, is a college professor and well-known for his logical thinking. Yet he's convinced he can teach his dog to speak. Has he been driven insane by his own grief, or can you find rational explanations for his actions?

2. What clues does Paul share with us that indicates there was something more to Lexy's death than it being an accident? How do you think these clues came to be in the first place?

3. Making death masks obviously affected Lexy, but how? Do you think that Paul's fears were justified?

4. When the parents of Jennifer, the girl who committed suicide, reject the death mask, Lexy keeps it. What significance does it take on for Lexy? What symbolisms has she placed in it?

5. Throughout the book, we are given insight to Lexy's dreams. What role do Paul's dreams play in the book?