With Dogs at the Edge of Life

In three lively and beautifully written movements, Colin Dayan offers a memorable tour de force that threads together memoir and an analysis of the deprivations of life, human and nonhuman and human with nonhuman, that so pervasively characterize our neoliberal world-historical moment. Intelligent and moving, With Dogs at the Edge of Life is an extraordinary book, a courageous and compelling intermingling of arresting cultural critique and autobiographical reflections of a life lived in the company of canines. -- David L. Clark, McMaster University Colin Dayan has again produced a probing and brilliant examination of that long 'history of extermination masked by the veneer of enlightenment.' Always writing with justice in mind, Dayan's consideration of our relationship with dogs yields a complex meditation on humanity and life's uncertain possibilities. Beautiful, 'more than just another dog story,' as only Dayan could write it. -- Avery F. Gordon, University of California, Santa Barbara Whether openly acknowledged or not, we are all in relationships with dogs—as companions, as lovers, as protector and protected. Some relationships are marked by fear, perhaps hatred. Most are contradictory, many escape description. In her poetic, political, autobiographical homage to life and death with dogs, Dayan helps us stay with them as we traverse treacherous edges. We are fortunate to have so gifted an interpreter and loving a guide. -- Lori Gruen, author of <i>Entangled Empathy</i> and <i>Ethics and Animals</i> In an inimitable mode of testimony and confession, Colin Dayan argues that relations with dogs, from the southern United States to Turkey, structure violence, vulnerability, and antagonism. Extending her work on the physical exploration of unnameable states, Dayan shows how bonds with dogs uniquely condition the creation of social value. And I say that as a cat person. -- Rei Terada, University of California, Irvine Stimulating and lyrical... intellectually fierce reading for philosophically minded readers, especially dog lovers. * Kirkus Reviews * Erudite and imaginative as the book asks why only members of our species get to be persons... * Boston Review * Emotionally and intellectually challenging, the volume boasts a rich, resonant message: Not everyone sees the dog the same. * American Kennel Club * Dayan has thoroughly researched the events in the book. Her love of pit bulls and dogs in general shines through. She shows us what the true nature of the pitbull is and what some have become in the hands of the wrong type of people. To a dog lover, this is a very heartbreaking volume to read but it illustrates prejudice and the justification people use for their actions. -- Susan Bulanda, Westminster, Maryland * Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol 92, No 3 * With Dogs at the Edge of Life is filled with reports of this kind of senseless destruction of animal life, and for anyone who remotely cares about animals, it is a brutal, if necessary read. In each case, the question arises again and again: in what category do these animals exist? * Los Angeles Review of Books * To know life as the dogs know it, even if we can do so only incompletely, is to find, in Dayan's words, 'an anchor in the terror, a place to stand in the chaos.' * Nashville Scene * With Dogs at the Edge of Life was one of the most memorable books I've had the chance to read this year. * Inside Higher Ed * Dayan’s book traces a spiritual itinerary that actively confounds our desire for hard data and certainty...It is a book aimed to make “enlightened” people uncomfortable. * Religion Dispatches *