APOLOGIZING TO DOGS

An ingrown neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas, full of personal histories and human flaws reaches a series of climaxes (no pun intended) during a period of a few hours and in the end the reader is left with a handful of seeds for his own imagination to sprout and blossom. Readers familiar with Guy Clark might hear the lyrics of Boats to Build repeating themselves through some of the episodes. The coincidence of similarity might suggest Coomer is a Guy Clark aficionado, or that Guy found the story an inspiration for his song. Either way, the two make a matched set.

Coomer owes no apologies to dogs or readers for this one.

Apologizing to Dogs does, finally, take off. If youre fifty pages into it and ready to throw it into the fire, take heed; it does eventually start going somewhere. The problem is, it takes so long to get there.

Apologizing to Dogs is, ultimately, the story of Worth Row, a series of antique shops in Fort Worth, Texas, and its inhabitants (including the stray dog to whom one character apologizes). Worth Row has stood for years, with inhabitants coming and going, all along the way building up secrets, lies, blackmail, and other various oddities. But then a stray dog digs for a bone, and the radio reports a tornado warning, and it all starts to unravel like one big sweater. Its a small premise for a book, but a good one, and its been done many times in the past. The problem with Apologizing to Dogs is that Coomer tries to pack just too much into the book without it really needing to be there; its almost as if he thought that if he focused on a few main plotlines, the book would be too short, so he added a few more for filler. The end result is that a good portion of the book, especially during the first three quarters, feels like filler. Some sections drag on forever, while others flit by like nobodys business. Once it all comes together eighty or ninety pages form the end, everything falls into place and this becomes a fine comedic (in a deadpan way) novel. Its just getting through the first bit thats likely to alienate some readers. ** 1/2

Apologizing to dogs is not Shakespeare, but it is the makings of a tragic/comedy. You have divorce, resentment, blackmail. lost dreams, and forlorn hopes all in a single contemporary Southern Setting in this book. Will you be elevated to a new level? No. Will you be brought to a mad-cap place with unbelievable characters that somehow, are resonant? Yes.

Please read this book. If not only to be amused (it would make a wonderful film) but also to be taken away from the doldrums of "real" life. This is a fun novel.