Look Back, Moss: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Betty Levin, who raises and trains sheepdogs, clearly had a specific agenda in mind when she wrote this book--to defend the use of sheepdogs, and smear animal rights activists. Her expertise on sheepdogs allows her to create a rich and complex character in Moss, the sheepdog of the title. However, the "animal rights" characters are poorly developed, inconsistent, and unbelieveable. Her contempt for animal rights activists is obvious: in this book, they are uniformly stupid, impulsive, hypocritical (most of them eat meat!), and unethical (compelling a child to engage in illegal activities). At one point, Levin suggests that Jody's mother was "brainwashed" by the other activists.

I have never heard of any animal rights activists being concerned about the plight of sheepdogs, but after reading this book, I wonder if maybe there is cause for concern. Why is Levin so hostile and defensive? Her unrealistic depiction of animal activists leads me to wonder if Moss's yearning to return to his work as a sheepdog is pure invention as well.