Dogs

In this fantastical work, canines assume human get-ups while one outcast man, Reuben Smart, attains a certain doggishness from being chained outside with the family dogs for a year as a child. After much abuse suffered at the hands of dog-shooting masters, animals gather in a revolutionary pack to attack their human tyrants, routing them from the island of Terra Futura. Other incredible entities include a flying car and a magician who transforms from human to horse to giant corgi. Under obvious allegorical guise, the author rails against the anthropocentric economics and politics of Homo sapiens. Only mildly amusing, often violent, and fairly incoherent, this doggerel novel does not match up to better animal fantasies like Richard Adams's Watership Down ( LJ 4/15/74) and The Plague Dogs ( LJ 4/1/78). Recommended only for canine collections and William Wegman's private library.-- Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.