Dog Love

Wise and witty, Garber (Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life), trains her formidable interpretative gifts on a vastly popular subject: dogs. Unlike such dog litterateurs as Elizabeth Marshall Thomas or Vicki Hearne, however, she observes not dogs themselves but their prominence in American culture. Examining everything from portrayals of dogs in books and films to people who report having had sex with dogs, she posits that our society relies on dogs to bring out its humanity. The argument is not especially original, but no matter: she unfolds it with such agility and imagination as to compel attention. Whether she is discussing the barking dog at the O.J. Simpson trial or offering a Lacanian analysis of Virginia Woolf's book Flush (described as ""a tongue-in-jowl reimagining of the life of Elizabeth Barret Browning's beloved spaniel""), she demonstrates a keen and playful ear. There is an occasional odor of the graduate seminar (""Is caninophilia an erotics of dominance?""), but on the whole the prose is frisky and Garber's earnestness doesn't stand in the way of a light tone. Casual readers will also be encouraged by the book's organization into chapters built of brief, discrete segments ideal for browsing. Of recent dog books, this is easily the pick of the litter. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC, QPB, Good Cook and Country Home & Garden alternates. (Oct.)