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Set in the shifting landscape of contemporary China, Jack Livings's The Dog explodes the country's cultural and social fault lines, revealing a nation accustomed to rations, bitter struggle, and the stranglehold of communism as it confronts a generation rife with the promise of unforeseen prosperity.
In this riveting, richly imagined collection, a wealthy factory owner-once a rural peasant-refuses to help the victims of an earthquake until his daughter starts a relief effort of her own; a marginalized but powerful Uyghur gangster clashes with his homosexual grandson; and a dogged journalist is forced to resign as young writers in "pink Izod golf shirts and knockoff Italian loafers" write his stories out from under him. With spare, penetrating prose, Livings gives shape to the anonymous faces in the crowd and illuminates the tensions, ironies, and possibilities of life in modern China. As heartbreaking as it is hopeful, The Dog marks the debut of a startling and wildly imaginative new voice in fiction.
In this riveting, richly imagined collection, a wealthy factory owner-once a rural peasant-refuses to help the victims of an earthquake until his daughter starts a relief effort of her own; a marginalized but powerful Uyghur gangster clashes with his homosexual grandson; and a dogged journalist is forced to resign as young writers in "pink Izod golf shirts and knockoff Italian loafers" write his stories out from under him. With spare, penetrating prose, Livings gives shape to the anonymous faces in the crowd and illuminates the tensions, ironies, and possibilities of life in modern China. As heartbreaking as it is hopeful, The Dog marks the debut of a startling and wildly imaginative new voice in fiction.
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Reviews
"Stunning . . . In The Dog, Mr. Livings demonstrates his virtuosity as a storyteller, his ability to immerse us instantly in the lives of his characters, to conjure the daily reality of the very different worlds they inhabit . . . [Livings] writes less as an outsider, observing the exotic customs and traditions of a foreign land, than as a sort of Chekhovian observer, attuned to the absurdities an
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Jack Livings' ability to create completely relatable characters in what, for many of his readers, may be unrelatable daily circumstances, is an impressive literary accomplishment. That he appears to do this so easily is another testament to his mastery of the craft . . . [The Dog] is a solid debut from a writer to watch."
City Weekend Beijing
"[An] impressive collection . . . The prose in The Dog is crisp and forceful, honed by a journalist's eye for sharp detail."
Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal