"The Labrador Pact" by Matt Haig (Penguin,
ISBN 9780670018529, $23.95)
Prince is a good dog. To his family, the Hunters--Adam, Kate, and their
children, Hal and Charlotte--that's all he is, a young black Lab fond of
chasing sticks and walks in the park. But to Prince, the Hunters are a
sacred responsibility: his duty under the generations-old Labrador Pact is
to keep them together. And he believes he can do it; with the help of his
mentor, Henry, he learns to observe the humans' moods, detect and deflect
threats from without, even defuse situations by means of eleven distinct
types of tail wag. Prince is confident that with his special skills and his
devotion to duty, he can keep the Hunters from falling apart as so many
other families have. Their success or failure depends on him alone.
But while Prince's canine perception gives him a unique insight into human
emotion--sadness, love, jealousy, and desire are all smells, uncontrollable
and impossible to counterfeit--there is much he does not understand. The
arrival in town of a wealthy couple, Simon and Emily, along with their "sniffaholic"
mutt Falstaff, tests the Hunters' bonds in ways that confuse and thwart
Prince. As events spiral out of control, Prince struggles with the belief
that it is all his fault, that if he were a good enough dog he could make
the trouble go away. His realization that even the Pact may not be enough to
preserve the Hunters leads him to a final desperate act.
Matt Haig's novel has some hilarious moments, like Prince's solution to
Charlotte's making out with an "undesirable" boy--answering the call of
nature on the carpet--or a vicious Rottweiler who speaks almost entirely in
four-letter words. But it's a heartbreaker in the end, telling hard truths
about stubborn faith and the sacrifices necessary for love. My sister,
scarred by Bambi, refuses to read animal stories, and I won't be
recommending "The Labrador Pact" to her: but for other literary dog lovers,
it's a good catch indeed.
Review by Anna
Perleberg, March 13, 2008
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