Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

“In early 1998 I went to Perth in Western Australia in order to attend the literature festival, and part of the arrangement was that I should go to Karratha to do their first ever literary dinner. Karratha is a mining town a long way further north. I went exploring and discovered the bronze statue to Red Dog outside the town of Dampier. I felt straight away that I had to find out more about this splendid dog. A few months later I returned to Western Australia and spent two glorious weeks driving around collecting Red Dog stories and visiting the places that he knew, writing up the text as I went along. I hope my cat never finds out that I have written a story to celebrate the life of a dog.”
Louis de Bernieres

The value of this story lies in its basis in fact. It is simply told – reflecting the story’s origins as word-of-mouth legend. Each chapter is short and in someway reminiscent of children’s adventure stories – what will happen to our hero in the next episode? – with obvious references to Lassie. However Red Dog himself is no saccharine puppy dog. He is a tough intelligent rambler. As much as this is a story about a dog, it is also the story of the love humans have for their canine companions with whole communities falling in love with this raggy mutt and caring for him while he extends them his friendship. One relationship in particular remains more important to Red Dog – that of John – the one human who could have made Red Dog settle down and who he constantly searches for. Along with the retelling of the canine’s adventure we also get a view into Australian life including a glossary of Australian terminology.

My edition was illustrated by Alan Baker and had a fantastic flick-book animation of Red Dog running, jumping, sniffing the earth and sitting wagging his tail in the page corner. At 119 pages including glossary and illustrations this is certainly a short book but this does not take away from its enjoyment. In fact, it rather enhances it, with each chapter as a story de Berniéres has collected and reiterated in a charmingly straightforward style.

It is not over-embroidered. Read not long after my own Red Dog died, this book touched me and reinforced my belief that there are some amazing animals out there that deserve to be heroes and legends.

An easy read for us sentimental dog lovers.