Even the Dogs

I normally love experimental literature, but the extreme form of the narrative make Even the Dogs too hard for me to follow. I may try again later.

When I began reading this book the characters disgusted me. The world McGregor portrays is so foreign and sinister to what I am used to (thank goodness I suppose) that I found it quite unsettling reading. It is a world of drug users, alcoholics and delinquents; where the most urgent and important need is to make enough money for the next score. By the end of the novel, i can't say i liked any of the characters, but they became more human. I pitied them. I hoped for something positive amongst the ashes and squalor.

I found it to be a rather cautionary tale; nothing good comes from this lifestyle, and most of the characters come to a rather gristly end. Yet it gives the addicts; the homeless; the forgotten people in society a face and a voice - even if what that voice says is something that makes us uncomfortable, and we would rather be deaf to it.

Well written and thought provoking.