Buster: A Dog

Pelecanos (The Man Who Came Uptown) veers from crime fiction with a tender if scattershot story of a dog who shuffles from owner to owner in Washington, D.C. Buster, who narrates, fondly remembers his first home in the apartment of a single mother named Darcia, where he lived with his siblings and mom and befriended Darcia’s son. When pest exterminator Ed Grange visits the apartment, he convinces Darcia to let him take Buster off her hands. At home, Ed verbally abuses his wife and son and beats Buster with a broom handle. When animal control comes to take Buster, he makes a break for it and winds up living with an older man named Joe and his dog Lucy. Then Lucy dies, and Joe passes Buster on to his nephew Top, a weed dealer who dotes on Buster. The story builds to a heart-rending crisis point after Top lands in hot water with his criminal associates. The tone is a bit inconsistent, swerving from sentimental survival story to coarse street fiction (“You had your share of bitches,” Top tells Buster after his neutering). Still, this curiosity has its moments. Agent: Sloan Harris, CAA. (May)