A Dog’s View of Love, Life and Death

Archer’s clunky debut, set in 1990s New York, is both a metaphysical brain teaser and an indictment of excess in all its forms. Multiple viewpoints allow readers to observe the human and canine characters’ interconnected lives. The main four-legged protagonists (and dispensers of fortune cookie wisdom) are Rags and Rosie, whose paths cross at an animal shelter after the deaths of their humans. Their care is provided by Milo, a recovering alcoholic whose bipolar disorder magically vanishes when he comes to terms with being gay. Rosie comes to the shelter by way of Teddy, a police officer who responded to her owner’s suicide. Rags is also brought in after the death of his human, languishing until Will, her angry, wealthy son, can come to retrieve him. The large cast of characters touch one another’s lives at odd intervals, often because of contrived randomness rather than organic happenstance. That reliance on artifice, as well as the overwhelming use of dialogue with minimal description, serves to highlight the lack of any appreciable plot. The only fantastical element in the novel appears to be the telepathic communication of the dogs. (June)