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Summary: Dog Lover Book Enjoyable For Cat Lovers Too
Review: As a cat lover I was rather surprised just how much I LOVED this book. THE DOG WHO SPOKE WITH GODS is a wonderful book with well drawn characters. I place it among the curiously interesting THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF DOG IN NIGHT-TIME, the brilliantly sorrowful MY FRACTURED LIFE, and the life afirming THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN as one of the handful of "must read" books everyone should try.
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Summary: Enjoyable read....a story of intense love
Review: As the dog mom of an APBT mix, I was attracted to this book because of its positive portrayl of the APBT, a rare find in printed media. It was an enjoyable read, and anyone who knows a Pit Bulldog can attest to the breed's high intelligence and desire to please (a trait which is sadly often exploited). I found some passages difficult and painful to read; I know such work goes on and I find it horrific that we treat our best friends as objects for research.
This is an enjoyable and compelling book, and one that will stay with you long after the final page has been turned.
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Summary: nice idea, but poorly executed
Review: At first, I thought this was a memoir. Then I realized it's fiction. I really liked getting to know more about the Pit Bull, but she lost me when the dog starts to talk. Some of the dialogue was unrealistic. The ending is also discouraging.
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Summary: A Tear-Jerking Action Packed Good Read
Review: Author Diane Jessup has done an excellent job defining the character of protagonist Damien (the dog). She knows and loves her subject, and skillfully shares both love and knowledge. Readers will hopefully come away with a more informed view of the much maligned pit bull terrier, currently the "Damien-the-Leper" of the dog world. She makes clear that that breed, so often in the news, is inherently noble, bred to serve and please humans. One can only hope the average viewer will perceive the evening news with more insight, because of this book.The many thought-provoking issues, such as scientific experimentation, and animal rights activists are as evenly handled as possible in this action-packed plot. One can't help but be horrified by Jessup's not so gentle reminders of what is wrong with *humanity*. It's a good read, with unexpected twists and turns. It would make an excellent gift, not only for an animal lover, but for any thoughtful person who enjoys a tale with some surprises. I was startled to read of a dog named "Beltane Fire", and delighted with the discussion that followed. As is usual with a "dog story", it isn't really about dogs -- it's about ourselves, and our relationship to each other, to other creatures, to the very world in which we live. Hopefully our perceptions of that world will be altered by this book; but even if not, IT'S A GOOD READ.
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Summary: An Internet Review...
Review: How would you feel having a dog whose characteristics drew a lot of attention? Would you be embarrassed that your dog was different, or would you pride yourself on its special attributes? In The Dog Who Spoke With Gods, by Dianne Jessup, a curious medical student stumbles upon a research dog in which she forms a strong bond with. After this dog, Damien, gains trust in her, he lets her in on a small secret: He can talk! Elizabeth was just a pressured medical student embarking on a journey to follow in her father and grandfather's footsteps of being doctors. To pass time, she became a dog handler, visited sick dogs and gave them attention to ease their anxiety of being in a hospital. Today would be different, because her business life would completely overlap with her personal emotions and concerns. When she was called into the room, the first thing she saw was a decrepit dog whose innocent eyes stared at her asking her "What am I doing here?" The dog lay motionless, and the shot of medicine that he was given didn't even make him flinch. You could tell that this dog had lived an unforgiving life, but there was a lot more to Damien than met the eye. Two months earlier, Dr. Viktor Hoffman was doing research on undomesticated dogs to see how they lived without human interaction. When Hoffman became lost in the woods for half a day, Damien came and led him miles back to the campsite. To Hoffman, the dog had saved him from hypothermia. When he left the dog in the woods, he placed a bulky tracking device on the dog's collar and left. When Hoffman and some of his medical students came back 6 days later, they found Damien and his tracking device wedged in between two boulders. Damien was starved and dying fast, and Hoffman owed him a favor. After Damien got better, he was admitted into a research lab, which brutally harmed the dogs. The floor was made of conductive material, which repeatedly shocked the animals, and the food dishes were electrified because they were trying to see how long they could go without needing food. It was a cruel place, and when Elizabeth discovered Damien's location, she rushed to his rescue. As the dog witnessed her true love of him, he began to speak to her. When the word got out of this dog's talent, the goal suddenly became an effort to save Damien's life. The theme in this book was very deep. When you open up yourself to other animals or people, all you do is provide them with love, attention, and help. As time goes on, the true relationships are made when you risk things to for them. When Damien saw all that Elizabeth went through to see him, he realized that she was the only one who cared for him. For all that she did for him, he decided to return a favor to her. It showed that what goes around comes around, in a good way.
This was one of the better books that I had read. My eyes were opened to the lives that many animals lived that were used strictly for laboratory purposes. Damien earned the love of one lady, which was all he had to do. The Dog Who Spoke With Gods was not a classic or an amazing work of literature, but it proved a point to me: No good deed that you do will ever be wasted.
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Summary: SO HORRENDOUSLY SAD...
Review: I have unending respect, love and compassion for all animals and the cover of this book intrigued me. However, what I read among the pages was just too sad and too horrific to say the book was enjoyable. It is the story of a young premed student and her love for a dog named, Damien. Damien is being used for scientific studies and the tortures he must endure are beyond comprehension. Elizabeth attempts to have him set free. For all the book's sorrow and sadness, I also felt angered that animals are still being used today, in this fashion, all in the name of science. That being said, I honestly did not know whether to give the book a five-star rating for the author's writing adeptness and her ability to evoke emotion in the reader, or a one star for the pure anger and disgust animal abuse conjured up within me. However, in the end, I did give the book five stars for the author's ability to bring out strong emotion (positive or negative) in the reader. After all, the book is well written, and it is hardly the author's fault that dogs and other helpless animals are still being used in these cruel and horrendous experiments. If you can read the book from cover to cover, you are more tolerate than I. After the first half of the book, I did a quick flash or the remaining pages until I reached the end. While I loved and respected the devotion of Elizabeth and Damien, the extreme cruelty one could envision was just more than I cared to read about.
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Summary: A heartfelt book with flaws
Review: In The Dog Who Spoke With Gods, the author brings the reader into the head of a pit bull named Damien. The dog's instincts, its half-wild, half-tame nature, and strong bond to humanity are developed in a credible way. The dog developes a strong sense of loyalty to Elizabeth Fletcher, a young student about to begin pre-med school, who meets the dog while working at her university. Elizabeth and Damien establish a bond which determines the storyline, in which Elizabeth tries to rescue the dog from the cruelties of animal research. Their mutual love is heartfelt and believable. The descriptions of the cruelty of animal research are heartbreaking. Elizabeth's innocence and the bureaucracies of institutions are appropriately portrayed. However, at a certain point Damien learns a rudimentary form of speech. Establishing the credibility of this, or at least allowing the reader to suspend his or her disbelief, is an essential element for the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the author expects the reader to accept it with only a paragraph breezily explaining that parrots can talk. This led me to question various other aspects of the story. While teaching the dog to speak, Elizabeth is able to visit the dog secretly every day for months without being captured. Details about main characters, including Elizabeth and a research assistant named Tom, are introduced late in the story, and seem out of place. I found grammatical errors, such as excessive commas, in various places. The writing was mostly very good, while there was an occasional clunker like a log yard being "...stacked with huge stacks of logs." All in all, this is a good book for animal and pit bull enthusiasts, and those who don't mind an occasional plot hole.
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Summary: A heartfelt book with flaws
Review: In The Dog Who Spoke With Gods, the author brings the reader into the head of a pit bull named Damien. The dog's instincts, its half-wild, half-tame nature, and strong bond to humanity are developed in a credible way. The dog developes a strong sense of loyalty to Elizabeth Fletcher, a young student about to begin pre-med school, who meets the dog while working at her university. Elizabeth and Damien establish a bond which determines the storyline, in which Elizabeth tries to rescue the dog from the cruelties of animal research. Their mutual love is heartfelt and believable. The descriptions of the cruelty of animal research are heartbreaking. Elizabeth's innocence and the bureaucracies of institutions are appropriately portrayed. However, at a certain point Damien learns a rudimentary form of speech. Establishing the credibility of this, or at least allowing the reader to suspend his or her disbelief, is an essential element for the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the author expects the reader to accept it with only a paragraph breezily explaining that parrots can talk. This led me to question various other aspects of the story. While teaching the dog to speak, Elizabeth is able to visit the dog secretly every day for months without being captured. Details about main characters, including Elizabeth and a research assistant named Tom, are introduced late in the story, and seem out of place. I found grammatical errors, such as excessive commas, in various places. The writing was mostly very good, while there was an occasional clunker like a log yard being "...stacked with huge stacks of logs." All in all, this is a good book for animal and pit bull enthusiasts, and those who don't mind an occasional plot hole.
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Summary: Devistatingly Beautiful
Review: The Dog Who Spoke With Gods moved me to tears on more than three ocassions. I recommend this book to people who also see the innate fundamental Spirit in non-human animals that proves without a doubt that we are all the same. I recommend this book with warning that it is not an easy read, but an emotional, fragile and magical story woven through evil injustices inflicted by human kind onto the patient, forgiving souls of innocent creatures. This book has humbled me.
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Summary: If you love dogs. You will never forget this book.
Review: This is a wonderful book. In many ways it is a very simple tale. In many ways it has rich intricacies that moved me like nothing else I've ever read, and thats the point. The writing is flawless. I love dogs, I like to read. I worship this book. It pulls emotions without being manipulative and has a tenderness to its voice reflective of the story's heroine. She is an unforgettable character as is Damien, the book's four legged hero. The author pulls no punches in her revelations to the reader but never mind, because Dianne Jessup's touch is that of a breath of fresh air. God Bless her. Buy the book.
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