Dog People

Fanny, the main character in Mazza's (Your Name Here______:) latest novel, exists in a funk, harboring unrealized dreams and Morgan, her middle-aging, largely untalented husband, a professional dancer. But then life gets complicated. Fanny is approached by a dog trainer with canine eugenicist dreams who wants to mate her wolf with Fanny's husky. Next, an ambitious prima ballerina joins Morgan's dance company and proceeds to flirt with both Morgan and Fanny in her quest for a career at the top of her field. Meanwhile, a somewhat weak-willed caterer for whom Fanny waitresses begins to see the emptiness in his marriage and the allure of Fanny. Mazza has created an environment with any number of doublings and triplings through which Fanny must navigate. This is an episodic novel with several story lines, but, through it all, Fanny's struggle to know herself remains central. The episodes often overlap, giving us different perspectives on the same event, lending the novel an often mocking tone as it observes these slightly ludicrous humans avoid their true wants and loves. Although there are many apparent parallels between the dog and human worlds, they are not simple one-to-one correspondences. Rather, the similarities suggest and amplify that following the pack can rob us of the knowledge of who we are as individuals. Mazza skillfully demonstrates that love is more than an instinctual drive. (May)