Rating: 
Summary: cruel, sad little book to be avoided at all costs
Review: As I was reading "Timeleon Vita Come Home", I felt myself becoming very sad and depressed, but was hopeful that the story would be redeeming in some way and decided to keep with it mainly because the author seems to be a talented writer. Nothing could prepare me for how cruel this book ended up being, and like other reviewers, I promptly threw the book across the room, and then sat down to cry. I would recommend this book to absolutely no one and I highly doubt I'd ever pick up another book by this author.
Rating:
Summary: A small slice of evil
Review: By having the dog Timoleon Vieta brutally and senselessly killed, the author of this book has added to the world's supply of evil in a small but palpable way. I have never been so bitterly disappointed and angered by the ending of a book. I immediately threw the loathsome item into the garbage, an act that somehow seems too good for it. Perhaps I'll dig it out and, when I take my own dog for a walk tonight, I'll get him to do his business on it. Now THAT seems more fitting.
Rating:
Summary: Dog Lovers Beware!
Review: Dan Rhodes is a complete jerk for writing this book and luring dog lovers with its cute cover and tempting title! The book's ending is disturbing and deplorable
It ruined my weekend!
Rating: 
Summary: AMAZING
Review: Few times have any book brought such a strong reaction. The ending is like having your best friend pull out a gun and shoot you in the face. As one other reviewer said, life can be brutal but to spend money and be fooled into thinking this is "dog" book is downright dishonest. I also failed to see any humor in this book--only cruelty and dispair.
Please do NOT read this book if you love dogs--you'll be bereft as I -- it will be a long time before I forget the images in the last chapter.
Rating: 
Summary: A Modern Tragedy
Review: First things first: Simply because this book has a dog on the cover, does not mean it is going to have a happy ending. Don't get me wrong, I am a passionate animal lover, but this is a novel, not Dan Rhodes encouraging animal cruelty. Now that we have that out of the way, it should be noted that this is an emotionally taxing novel. It should also be noted that this catharsis is not such a bad thing, or something to avoid.
Literature can put us in touch with our deeper emotions, and show us the different situations that arouse them - both of which this book does very effectively. Life is not a picnic, and the pieces don't always add up - Rhodes' writing makes that much clear.
My only quip with Rhodes' book is the way in which he delivered the ending. It seemed rather blunt and hasty. Otherwise, it was a well written novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: First, I should say that I love Rhodes' first book, Anthropology. (I haven't read Don't Tell Me the Truth about Love yet.) I picked up Timoleon Vieta the other day at a second-hand shop and was very excited to read it, but I'm afraid I was disappointed by it. Far too often, and especially in the second half, I found myself saying, "This is nice. So what?" I kept wanting the stories of the various people Timoleon Vieta met to add up, but they didn't. They overlap, certainly; as another reviewer observed they all share the thread of thwarted hope. But it all seems weirdly flat. Anthropology was more obviously about one thing (romantic relationships) yet Rhodes' treatment of it was much more nuanced and complicated than his treatment of hope is here. Part of the problem, I think, is an apparent lack of clarity about what the novel wants to be. If it had been character sketches all the way through, not just the second half, I might be more inclined to see them as building toward something. The first half ends just as the relationship between Cockroft and the Bosnian is getting interesting, too. I kept waiting for Rhodes to get back to them, but he only glanced back at them during the second half. This was particularly frustrating coming from Anthropology, which is so tightly constructed and fatlessly written. Timoleon Vieta feels uncertain of its form and consequently, I think, whatever thematic overtones it tries to generate are muffled.
I like Rhodes, but I feel like he got off track here. I hope this doesn't end up being his last book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I bought this book for a friend, based on the cover blurb. She was really upset by the abusive cruelty both to humans and the dog and I was upset that I had given her the book.
Rating:
Summary: Bitter disappointment
Review: I love books and am guilty of reading many of them because they were recommended by friends or by book reviewers. This one was recommended in a book review, and I wish I'd skipped both. The stories of the individuals with whom Timoleon, the titular subject, crosses paths, are sympathetically described, but there is not enough about them or their futures to be satisfying. And Timoleon's fate is just too heartbreaking for an animal lover. Skip this book if you are at all tender-hearted.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly, a sentimental journey
Review: If you do not find works from Quentin Tarantino and Chuck Palahniuk likeable then I suggest you withstand from marking this book on your wish list.
It is absurd for other reviewers to dislike this book because of the ending. Although shocking, the last actions of the book fully compose the harsh nature of the character. To find the book unlikable because of the ending is like hating a movie because the villan is a murderer; it is character development! How wonderful must this book be if so many people were disgusted with it!
Dan Rhodes' writing captures you from the very beginning. He takes you on a journey with an unforeseen end. Threads of tales and characters are interwoven to create one humorous yet clever, dark story about love and life in the real world, themes that should touch any human. This type of story stays with you for weeks after you have completed it, conjuring up connections and revelations that were overlooked whilst reading.
Rating:
Summary: We need saving from this book.
Review: It takes something special for me to write a review of something. Something like a magnificent game or a gripping, yet funny, book. Maybe an excellent album could do it, too. Or, something has to be bad. Not just put-back-on-the-shelf bad, but makes-you-want-to-do-something bad. This book is that bad. This book should be avoided at all costs. Hell, avoid it if it's free; your spare time would be best spent watching pigeons pick the lumpy bits out of steaming dog turds as the flies flit above in a dance that can only end with their face in faeces.We need saving from this book. It starts off rather boringly and gets worse. The lead character (lead human, I should say. There's a dog you're supposed to like too. You'd better like this dog because he takes over later) is an aging Englishman who lives in rural italy with his dog, the titular Timoleon Wossname, in the hope that young boys come to visit, paying the rent by fellating him. Charming. Then the bullet-scarred Bosnian comes into his life and soon enough, he comes into the Bosnian's mouth in return for board. Said "I like girls but there's rent to be paid" Bosnian dislikes aforementioned mongrel and makes old man choose between DIY, fellatio at 7pm every wednesday and human company, and The Mutt. If I were in that position, I'd choose the dog as at least you retain a shred of dignity that way. Obviously, that would not allow us to segway (sic) into charming tales remotely related to the fugly dog. Yes, that's right, the author, and I use that term loosely, can't stick the pace and drops out of the story and decides to write vignettes on Italian life, as seen by people the dog stumbles near. What happens next? I have no idea as I couldn't stomach this book any more. I hear from other reviewers that the dog dies quite horribly at the end, but I wouldn't know as I have better things to do with my life. Forgive me for not caring. So, instead of discussing the book any more, I will deal with the comments on the back that made me take this book off the bookshelf and pack in my bag for my Metro ride to work. I shall be heaping scorn on the perpetrators of these outright lies in my own time later. 1: "Is there a more innovative blah blah Britain today?" I hope to $DEITY that there is. 2: "The Best New Writer In Britain." Look, I capitalised every word in hope to emphasise that phrase. Does that make it correct? No, Mr. Guardian Newspaper, it doesn't. You are wrong, he is ... not good. 3: "The Beauty of his writing is persuasive and his themes are universal." Thank you, Mr. Times. Persuasive? Maybe to a suicide needing pushed over the edge to thrust his body that extra inch so the weight shifts to the point he cannot stop his fall and eventual death off the window ledge. Universal? No. I could go on saying how I bear no resemblance to the lead character, but seeing as he's a dog, I'd hope that were true. I like cats, see. Next time I see a book about a dog, I will trust my gut and not pick it up.
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