Men and Dogs
Katie Crouch, 2010
Little, Brown & Co.
279 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316002134
Summary
When Hannah Legare was 11, her father went on a fishing trip in the Charleston harbor and never came back. And while most of the town and her family accepted Buzz's disappearance, Hannah remained steadfastly convinced of his imminent return.
Twenty years later Hannah's new life in San Francisco is unraveling. Her marriage is on the rocks, her business is bankrupt. After a disastrous attempt to win back her husband, she ends up back at her mother's home to "rest up," where she is once again sucked into the mystery of her missing father.
Suspecting that those closest are keeping secrets—including Palmer, her emotionally closed, well-mannered brother and Warren, the beautiful boyfriend she left behind—Hannah sets out on an uproarious, dangerous quest that will test the whole family's concepts of loyalty and faith. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Reared—Charleston, South Carolina, USA
• Education—Brown University; M.F.A., Columbia University
• Awards—Sewanee Walter Dakin and MacDowell Fellowships
• Currently—lives in San Francisco, California
Katie Crouch is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Girls in Trucks and Men and Dogs (2010)
Her writing has also appeared in the New York Observer, Tin House, Glamour, and McSweeney's. She received her M.F.A. at Columbia University, and was awarded a Sewanee Walter Dakin Fellowship and a MacDowell Fellowship. She currently lives in San Francisco. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Wonderful.... Despite her quick wit and caustic humor, Hannah is a haunted figure—she's never come to terms with the loss of her father, who disappeared without a trace on a fishing trip, presumed to have drowned, when she was 11 years old.... Crouch is too smart a writer to craft a damaged-woman-goes-home-again-and-finds-healing-and-redemption story. She knows that real life all too often disappoints.... Men and Dogs is an absorbing mystery.... Yet it's a compelling family drama, too....
Carmela Ciuraru - San Francisco Chronicle
Prepare to have your heart broken while laughing out loud at this breathtaking, scathingly sardonic novel. From her opening line—"Two days before Hannah's father disappeared, he took her out in his boat"—Crouch grabs you and never lets go.... In the hands of a less adept author, this tightly wound tale of one woman's unraveling and redemption might seem more grim than guffaw-worthy. But with Crouch in charge, the reader is assured of a reflective yet riotous ride." Four stars.
Meredith Maran - People
Crouch's accomplished sophomore novel kicks off with a flashback: 20-odd years ago, Buzz Legare vanished while on a fishing trip. The fallout of his disappearance and presumed death appears in his 30-something children: Hannah drinks too much, her business is failing, and her husband has kicked her out after her repeated adultery. Hannah's gay brother, Palmer, refuses to let anyone get too close—he's ready to end his yearlong relationship when his partner brings up the idea of adopting a baby. After Hannah injures herself trying to break into her husband's apartment, she heads home to Charleston, S.C., to get her life back on track, but instead finds herself pursuing the past. Damaged and vulnerable, she zigzags through her past—an old boyfriend, questions about her parents' fidelity, and finally facing down where her unwillingness to accept love has gotten her. There's nothing unique about the premise—woman in crisis goes home and discovers herself by exhuming the past—but Crouch (Girls in Trucks) handles it deftly; her dialogue is snappy, the situations darkly funny, Hannah and Palmer are unlikable but sympathetic, and there's just enough mystery to keep the pages turning.
Publishers Weekly
When Hannah Legare was a young girl, her father disappeared on a routine fishing trip. Years later, Hannah finally confronts her past when she is forced to recuperate at home in Charleston, SC, after a drunken accident in San Francisco. This is not Hannah's best moment. Her marriage is failing, owing to her serial adultery; her sex-toy business is tanking; she drinks too much; and she holds her mother, stepfather, and brother Palmer at a distinct distance. By digging into the past—her father's disappearance, the state of her parents' marriage, and unfinished business with her high school boyfriend—Hannah doesn't really discover the answers but learns just enough about love and herself that she can face her present reality. Verdict: Hannah is not exactly a likable character, but she reflects enough humor in her brokenness to be memorable. Crouch's second novel sounds formulaic, but as in her best-selling Girls in Trucks, she writes with a dark, twisty, but approachable Southern charm. —Andrea Griffith
Library Journal
The collapse of her marriage, not to mention a three-story fall, sends a woman back home to Charleston, S.C., to investigate her father's disappearance, in Crouch's sardonic second (Girls in Trucks, 2008). Hannah, 35, and her now-estranged husband Jon are sudden San Francisco millionaires—their online sex-toy business has taken off. Her drinking and infidelity have driven Jon away. Hannah suffered her most intractable emotional wound 24 years before, the day her father Buzz, a successful doctor, motored out alone into Charleston harbor, accompanied only by the family dog, Tucker. He never showed up for his son Palmer's soccer game that afternoon. His boat was found, containing only Tucker. Buzz's body was never recovered. His beautiful wife, Daisy, moved on and married DeWitt, Charleston's wealthiest man. Hannah has always compared her looks—she resembles her father, whose features look too big on her—unfavorably to her mother's. After drunkenly scaling Jon's apartment building to prove her love, and losing her footing thanks to a yapping terrier, she wakes up in the hospital. Jon and Daisy give her a choice: recuperation in Charleston, or rehab. Rooting among old photos in DeWitt's mansion, she discovers some unsettling clues. One snapshot shows Daisy and Buzz at a party with a group of stoned, hippie-like friends. Hovering in the background is DeWitt. But Daisy claimed not to have met DeWitt until after Buzz vanished. Palmer, a veterinarian, is quarreling with his boyfriend Tom over whether they want a child—as if gay life in Charleston wasn't challenging enough. In his mind, Palmer obsessively revisits his father's last day— was Buzz driven to suicide after accidentally spotting Palmerin flagrante with another boy? Only Hannah still thinks Buzz may be alive. But if he is, why did he abandon her? Although it's believable, one senses Hannah's quest for Buzz is merely a pretext—self-knowledge and redefinition of family are the real goals here. Sunny outlook with enough clouds to keep it interesting.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. When Hannah was a girl, she idolized her father. Which of his traits do you think had the greatest effect on her? Do you see some of Buzz Legare in Hannah as an adult?
2. What do you think really happened to Buzz? How would Hannah’s life have been different if he had been confirmed drowned soon after he went missing?
3. How does Hannah’s obsession over what might have happened to her father shape the person she becomes? Do you think the absence of her father contributed to her “fall” in some way?
4. Some of Hannah’s trouble might be said to be the result of self-sabotage. Could you relate to the way that she pushed her own marriage to the limit?
5. Palmer is ambivalent about taking his relationship to the next level with Tom. How would you compare their situation to Hannah and Jon’s relationship?
6. Do you think Tom is justified in being upset when Palmer balks at the idea of adoption?
7. When Hannah returns home after her fire-escape catastrophe, why is Palmer so reluctant to see her? What do you make of Hannah’s relationship with her mother, Daisy?
8. At first, Hannah has little patience or respect for her stepfather, DeWitt. If you were her, would you feel the same way? How does her opinion of him change?
9. Which of the book’s main characters do you most relate to?
10. Back home, Hannah seeks out her first love, Warren, and she’s surprised that he’s become a minister. What do you make of the paths that each of them has chosen? What might their lives have been like if they had stayed together?
11. Palmer had a fraught relationship with his childhood friend, Shawn. Could things have fallen out differently for them? What do you make of their reunion, decades later?
12. Warren tells Hannah that, despite the trouble in her relationships, “You’re the most faithful person I know.” What do you think of his statement?
13. At one point Palmer rises to the defense of canines when Hannah says, “Men are such...dogs.” Who do you side with? What’s your take on the book’s title?
(Questions issued by publisher.)