Dogs and Monsters (Mark Haddon) – book review

Mark Haddon joined the growing ranks of authors taking on Greek mythology in The Porpoise. Haddon clearly has a fascination with this material, in particular reimagining it and recontextualising it and he picks apart a number of famous Greek myths in his latest short story collection Dogs and Monsters. But this is not all Greek mythology, along the way, among other things, Haddon also looks at the story of St Anthony and HG Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau.

The opening story of Dogs and Monsters, The Mother’s Story, takes on the myth of the Minotaur. This is a complete reimagining of the story in which the legendary monster is not at all monstrous and the labyrinth is a sleight of hand, designed to keep the populace in check. Haddon returns to Greek myth in D.O.G.Z in which he retells the story of how Actaeon was turned into a stag by Diana but uses that as a jumping off point as he explores the role of dogs through literature and history, morphing into the story of Laika, the dog sent into orbit by the Soviet Union. A dog also ends up playing a major role in The Temptation of St Anthony.

Most of these tales draw on broader traditions or other stories. The Quiet Limit of the World is another reimagining of a Greek myth – the story of Tithonus – while St Brides Bay is written to accompany a Virginia Woolf story. While their wildly varying subject matter makes it difficult to find a connecting thread between these stories, the common feeling that they engender is one of melancholy. Whether it is the narrator looking back on his life in a boarding school in My Old School, or the protagonist of The Wilderness regretting her decision to cycle around the world which inadvertently leads her into danger or the plight of the mother of a boy who is cast as a monster.

But despite their sometimes downbeat nature, most of Haddon’s stories end on a note of optimism. They don’t have big twists as short stories often do. Rather they reflect characters who go through some form of trial and learn from their experience. Overall Dogs and Monsters is a treat. A diverse range of stories, drawing deeply from the well of Western literature and myth and delivering these tales back in new and surprising ways.

Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed

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