Apologizing To Dogs - Hardcover

Coomer, Joe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684859467 ISBN 13: 9780684859460

Publisher: Scribner, 1999

Synopsis

Times are tough on Worth Row. This is not to say, however, that it is by any means quiet on the Row, a place where bathtubs double as lawn furniture, and adultery, bribery and larceny are as commonplace as the glass eyeballs that pop up in every yard -- all that remains from the prosthetics mill that once sat on this land. For more than thirty years, the Row's antiques dealers have run their businesses from the front rooms of their aging shotgun-style houses. After all this time, their lives have become inextricably linked -- and undeniably complicated. It is suddenly clear that there's more to be exposed on the Row than buried body parts: it seems everyone has something to hide -- from their customers, their spouses, even themselves. And they feel they're being watched....They are. The seventy-two-year-old widow Effie keeps a minute-by-minute journal of her neighbors' activities, following even stray dogs from house to house, peeking, staring and spying, sure they are all out to steal her past, ruin her future, and plunder her "better things." The fact is, Row residents have far more to concern them than old Effie. Carl, behind curtains he never opens, is using his considerable woodworking talents to turn his life -- and his house -- inside out to prove his devotion to the vintage-clothing dealer Nadine. Howard Dog-in-His-Path, a grave-robbing Indian, keeps count of every pet buried in his neighbors' backyards. The Postlethwaites, running from a tragic past, have retired to long days at the mall photo shop, where they watch pictures of other people's lives roll off the developing machines. Mose, an aged inventor, is trying his hand at the ultimate invention: true love. Mazelle, a used-book dealer, has given up reading because the secret life she lives in the cistern beneath her husband's garden is far more interesting than any fiction. The dog Himself has no greater secret than the location of his next meal, but what he digs up may reveal more than his fellow Row residents would like. From the quirky to the certifiable, folks on the Row have definitely gotten their lines crossed. When a violent storm strikes, causing fire, a heart attack and grand theft, it stirs up more than just the earth it hits. Suddenly, long-buried truths are flowing faster than the flooding rains. When the dust and smoke finally clear, the Row has been turned upside down and nobody -- human or dog -- will ever be the same again. With a strong, rich and uproariously funny voice, Joe Coomer resurrects the magic of his previous novels, Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God and The Loop, and turns the utterly ordinary into the stunningly extraordinary. With a splendid cast of characters and the cleverest canine in comedy, Apologizing to Dogs is a hilarious, heartwarming and wonderfully human tale and proves that no matter how old you get, there's always something worth holding on to, fighting for and loving with all your might.

About this title

About the Author

Joe Coomer is the author of Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, The Loop, Sailing in a Spoonful of Water and an award-winning book of nonfiction, Dream House. He lives in Azle, Texas, and Eliot, Maine.

Reviews

On a dead-end street of failing antique shops in Fort Worth, 35 years of secrets are about to explode into the open in this boisterous and buoyant novel from Coomer (The Loop, Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, etc.). The plot features an ensemble cast of oddball neighbors: rotund Aura, so fat that neither she nor her Jack Sprat husband realize she's nine months pregnant; Carl, who's secretly dismantling his house from the inside in order to build a boat and prove his love for Nadine, the aging belle of the block; and winsome, paranoid Effie, who records everything in her diary, and comprehends nothing. There are 17 neighbors in all (including Himself, the delightful stray dog who sets things in motion), and Coomer balances their stories with all the skill and exuberance of a master juggler building to his fiery climax. The action unfolds on an October day in 1986, with a violent thunderstorm approaching. Before the day is out, shabby Worth Row will see a fire and a flood, a birth and at least one death, and the painful stripping away of secret after secret. "We are doomed to mystery and knowledge," Coomer writes. "We will forever not know then know. We are doomed to understanding." In this antique-filled milieu, the theme assumes a particular resonance, linked as it is to a broader tension between past and future. What Coomer gives up in depth he more than makes up for in breadth and comic verve. Refreshingly, the novel doesn't pretend to have all the answers. In a fast-paced and deeply plotted narrative where dogs hold all the secrets, Coomer neatly avoids dogma. 4-city author tour. (Oct.) FYI: The rights to Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God have been optioned by Jodie Foster; Bill Murray optioned the rights to A Flatland Fable. The Loop will be published simultaneously in paper.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thirty years worth of secrets, most having to do with sex and love, are exposed in the course of one frantic day in this deftly plotted mix of comedy and romance. The amorous revelations at the heart here have to do with the denizens of Worth Row, a frayed street of antique shops in Fort Worth. The defacto leader of the community is middle-aged Nadine, who sells vintage clothes and labors under the shadow of her formidable mother, now dead, the community's driving force for decades. Carl, a cabinet maker, pines for the distracted Nadine. Hes been secretly dismantling his house, from the inside out, using the beautifully aged cedar of its floors and walls to build a sailboat on which to carry Nadine away. The keeper of the street's many secrets is Howard, a dealer in scavenged architectural oddments. Ancient, duplicitous Howard, fearing death, begins to pour out to good-natured Mose a litany of his sins, many having to do with the street. He has, for instance, been blackmailing the frosty Mr. Haygood, who peddles antique toys, and Mazelle, who sells used books, to keep their three-decade affair a secret (they meet in a secret chamber under their adjoining houses). More painfully for Mose, a vintage-radio and TV salesman, he claims to have had an affair with Nadine's mother, for whom Mose nursed an unrequited love. Other residents drawn into the revelations include Mazelle's long-suffering husband, Mr Haygood's abused wife, a devoted gay couple, and Effie, who has some nasty secrets of her own. Howard's revelations become general knowledge when a storm drives them all together in Haygood's hidden chamber. The neighbors are all, in varying ways, forced to come to grips with their secrets and desires. Coomer (Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, 1995, etc.) manages it all with a surprisingly light, often witty, touch, making even the hectic climax, in which rewards and punishments are meted out, seem more droll than dolorous. A sharply observant and engaging entertainment. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

It's one hectic day in the lives of 12 antique dealers on sleepy Worth Row. Verda has collapsed in her store and no one knows. Aura is nine months pregnant and doesn't realize she's about to give birth. Mr. Haygood and Mazelle are having an affair and have been for more than 30 years underneath the garden tended daily by their spouses. Carl, in an act of love, is taking apart his house from the inside out and building a boat for Nadine, who is unaware of his affection. Effie, whose journal entries are dotted throughout the novel, is paranoid and obsessive and keeping detailed tabs on everyone and everything. And these are only half the characters! When a severe storm blows in, everyone on the row comes face-to-face with life-altering revelations and decisions. Coomer packs this fast-paced novel with a variety of quirky characters, but no one takes center stage. Still, the small glimpses into each of their lives are enough to make each one stand out. Carolyn Kubisz

The owners of the antiques store on Worth Avenue in Fort Worth, TX, face few customers these days, but their personal lives are hoppin', and the incurable snoop Effie is recording all the details in her journal. Mazelle (Mazelle's Rare and Medium Rare Books) and Mr. Haygood (Toys for Big Boys) have been conducting an affair for 30 years in a cistern under Mr. Haygood's garden while their spouses putter together happily above them. Aura (Aura's Silver Matching Service) is nine months pregnant but doesn't realize it. Carl (Carl's Cabinets & Furniture Refinishing) is cannibalizing his house's foundations to build a ship in order to convince Nadine (Nadine's Closet) to run away with him. And so on. During a violent thunderstorm, secrets are revealed, destinies are charted, and it's clear that nothing on Worth Avenue will ever be the same. Coomer (The Loop) tells his story smoothly and with great affection for his characters. A good choice for public library fiction collections.ANancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0684859467
• ISBN 13: 9780684859460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288