Richie's Picks: THE DUST OF 100 DOGS by A.S. King, Flux, February 2009,
320p., ISBN: 978-0-7387-1426-4
"We are passengers in time
Lost in motion, locked together
Day and night, by trick of light
But I must take another journey
We must meet with other names"
-- The Fixx
"Imagine my surprise when, after three centuries of fighting with siblings
over a spare furry teat and licking my water from a bowl, I was given a huge
human nipple, all to myself, filled with warm mother's milk. I say it was
huge because Sadie Adams, my mother, has enormous breasts (something I never
inherited).
In 1664, while trying to escape to a new life together, the wildly
successful pirate Emer Morrisey and her first and only love Seanie Carroll die
violently hand in hand on a beach on the island of Jamaica after burying two
crates
of priceless gems taken in bloody sea attacks upon Spanish vessels. During
her final fight -- moments before being killed on that beach by her nemesis
The Frenchman -- Emer is splashed with a dust and cursed through incantation
by The Frenchman's first mate, who dooms her to live 100 dog lives. Through
those dog lives and into her 1972 human reincarnation as Saffron Adams of
Hollow Ford, Pennsylvania, she retains the memories of her years as Emer and of
each canine incarnation she has experienced since being cursed.
Brilliantly melding adventure and well-researched historical fiction with
fantasy, romance, and contemporary YA, THE DUST OF 100 DOGS moves seamlessly
back and forth between the Seventeenth century life of Emer and the Twentieth
century life of Saffron, with periodic (and very amusing) interludes for
Saffron's experiential-based "Dog Facts."
Emer grows up in a small Irish valley, a bright and aware child who is
frustrated by the limitations placed upon girls. She becomes orphaned during
Oliver Cromwell's violent conquest of Ireland. Betrayed by her abusive, turncoat
uncle and submissive aunt with whom she is then forced to live, she is to
be sold at fourteen into a marriage with a overweight, middle-aged Parisian
but runs away upon reaching the Continent, escaping Paris upon a ship of whores
bound for the Caribbean.
The stellar historical fiction segments that make up Emer's story are evenly
matched by the near-contemporary portions of the book that comprise
Saffron's tale:
"A puppy can walk and wander and whine from the minute they leave the
amniotic sac. There is a freedom in that, which I learned to appreciate during
those first years as a human again. Lying on my back for hours in a crib,
wearing a diaper, and drooling made me feel like an idiot."
It is so much fun to watch Saffron growing up, equipped with all the
memories of Emer's mistreatment at the hands of Seventeenth century male
scoundrels
and female enablers, as she verbally jousts with her clueless, uneducated,
and opportunistic Twentieth century parents, and runs into such cultural sacred
cows as the Senior Prom. Saffron also has a habit of daydreaming about the
punishments she would choose to inflict upon those who cause her pain and
frustration -- and we fully expect from what we are learning of Emer that
Saffron well recalls inflicting each graphic punishment back in her previous life.
"I didn't like Mrs. Zeiver, but now I had reason to like her even less. I
pictured myself liberating her eyeball from its socket and tossing it onto the
merry-go-round in the first grade recess area."
"We are matching spark and flame
Caught in endless repetition
Life for life we'll be the same
I must leave before you burn me
I'm the stranger who deserts you only to love you
In another life"
Tell the truth. What would YOU do if you were born recalling how you'd
buried several very-heavy crates of precious jewels on a beach in Jamaica? Would
you be an adolescent obsessed with who was going with whom or where you were
going to attend college? Where would YOU plan on heading the moment you
became liberated from your parents, your felonious, druggie brother, and the
trailer park, at eighteen? If you can find the right spot, might the treasure
actually still be buried there? And, finally, who else might have gotten
splashed with a dose of that curse dust?
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
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