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| A Three Dog Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Abigail Thomas
Publisher: Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $4.97
You Save: $17.03 (77%)
New (5) Used (8) from $4.22
Avg. Customer Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 401089
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.1 x 1.1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B00155GE4K
Publication Date: September 5, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new! Beautiful! May have a small remainder mark (ink mark) along the edge. gift quality, crisp, clean, multiple copies available, prompt shipping, excellent service.
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| Customer Reviews:
 perfect condition just in time September 23, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
as a person who has worked w/ people with brain injuries, i felt this book needed to be written by the ones that stay. alot of people leave when the going gets rough and the strong stay and live to tell a tale of anguished pride, devoted anger and compicated understanding
Like making a new friend. September 23, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Memoirs seem to be a dime a dozen in our "all about me" world, but the truth is that writing a good one is a tricky business. Too often, after reading contemporary me-books, I just want to tell the writer to get over himself. But Thomas got it right with this wonderful book. Reading it was like getting to know a new friend. The writing is conversational, rather than linear -- you learn about her, her beloved but brain damaged husband, and her treasured dogs, in almost equal measure. By the end, the reader feels that she knows this very likable woman, and understands why she is who she is. And isn't that the point of a memoir?
I would especially recommend this book for anyone who is losing or has lost a spouse or partner. Thomas writes about the guilt that a surviving spouse feels when she finds herself growing, and even thriving, after her husband is incapacitated. She writes about the importance of friendship -- human and canine -- and the necessity of living up to your own values. Because in the end we wake up every day with ourselves.
Read this book!
Well-written, Powerful and Unforgettable! September 21, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This small book evokes so many different emotions for me. At first, I thought it would be too painful to read, too raw. However, it captured my heart and I wanted to read it. It is lyrical in its prose and I so very much enjoyed the phrases and words that this author chose to describe her life. It is utterly heartbreaking at times and yet so life-affirming, powerful and so true. I loved this book. I am so sorry the author had to experience this painful, horrifying, life-changing event but it has most certainly brought forth a beautiful book. I cannot recommend this book enough. It may be small but it is gloriously mighty in emotion and thought.
 A heart-rending trauma anyone can relate to September 19, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What would you do if the one person you loved most in this world were in an accident? What if it were a terrible accident, one from which your beloved would never fully rise? Most of us have no idea of how to even begin thinking about such an experience.
In A Three Dog Life, Abigail Thomas lifts the veil on this heart-rending trauma. The book opens as her husband Rich, while out walking the dog, is hit by a car. He sustains a permanent brain injury that leaves him with little short-term memory and in need of twenty-four hour care.
Never sentimental, yet so transparent, Thomas allows the whisperings of her heart to tumble onto the pages of this captivating memoir. Remarkably, she permits her inmost thoughts to find their way into words without censorship. Raw, powerful emotions course through a memoir that is at once about a lost love and at the same time about a newfound love. Thomas' writing is so provocatively honest that it resonates deep within every reader who has survived love and loss.
Through her writing, Thomas lets the reader experience the loneliness and uncertainty of waking to a life that is totally unfamiliar. Her memoir deals with questions of control, memory, meaning and language. With regard to language, you are sure to be delighted by Thomas' vivid imagination and beautiful use of language. When, on the sixth page, Thomas writes, "I watch the dogs, one tiny dachshund so skinny he looks like a single stroke of calligraphy," the reader realizes that this will be an engaging book.
Who will be interested in this memoir? Certainly any of us grieving a loss, but also any of us longing for more meaningful living. It is a wisdom born of suffering that allows Thomas to teach us: "still, how great to be enjoying the ride, however uncertain the outcome...It's what we're all doing anyway, we just don't know it."
Armchair Interviews says: Emotional messages about loss.
 It's not about dogs. The title is deceptive. September 10, 2007
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
I felt cheated because I thought there would be some material about dogs, because dogs are in the title, and it is sold as a pet book. But in fact the author has no insight into the life of her dogs. She does not explore anything about them and doesn't mention that she must have a bond with them. Many people learn through tragedy how comforting dogs can be, how life affirming and how to live in the present, but this author never mentions anything like that. It is really a memoir about living with a husband with a brain injury. It is a sweet memoir. But don't look here for anything interesting about dogs. Every time she had a sentence about dogs, I got excited thinking it was going to go somewhere, to a speculation or philosophy, but it never does. Dogs are really just objects to her.
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