FICTION

LAST DAYS OF THE DOG-MEN Stories by Brad Watson (W.W. Norton: $19, 146 pp.). Although all the stories in Watson’s debut collection feature dogs, they can be broken down into two distinct categories: stories where the dog(s) exists outside the action and stories where the dog is the action. Generally, the former type works more effectively, perhaps because people are more interesting than dogs.

The title story, arguably the strongest, is a sad, beautiful meditation on love, loss and dogs. “The Wake” is about what happens when an estranged wife sends herself (in a box via UPS) back to her husband. As they discuss their failing marriage, a dog is dying under their house. In “A Blessing,” a man and wife drive to the country to buy a dog, and witness an act of brutality that is somehow emblematic of all the beauty and suffering contained in the world around us.

Watson’s best writing is full of an unusual sort of lugubrious humor and depth. A character’s explanation of why one of his dogs sleeps in the house while the other stays outside is actually a tricky little parable about ego. “Last Days of the Dog-Men” has some terrific stories as well as a few clunkers. Unfortunately, the whole collection is less than 150 pages, so the clunkers represent a relatively high percentage of Watson’s work. This is truly frustrating since, unless they are anthologized, it is unlikely that these wonderful stories will be widely read.