Walking the Dog: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
A former child prodigy and rich-girl, eighteen-year-old Ester is incarcerated after her kleptomania gets way out of hand. There, she is given the very gentile name Carleen (for her own protection) and for two decades, time is the enemy. When finally let loose onto the streets of New York, Carleen finds a job as a dog walker in Manhattan’s most elite neighborhoods. But despite her remarkable gift for canine communication, Carleen is determined to finally prove that she is a real person. To this end, she tries to reconnect with her estranged—and ferociously Orthodox—daughter.
Amid the strained brunch dates, unsent letters, and the continuing trauma of prison, Carleen begins a slow and halting process of self-discovery. Strikingly funny and self-aware, this belated coming-of-age novel asks the question: How do you restart after crashing your first chance at life?
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Elizabeth Swados. (2016). Walking the Dog: A Novel. The Feminist Press at CUNY.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Elizabeth Swados. 2016. Walking the Dog: A Novel. The Feminist Press at CUNY.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Elizabeth Swados, Walking the Dog: A Novel. The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)Elizabeth Swados. Walking the Dog: A Novel. The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2016.
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- bioText: Perhaps best known for her Broadway and international smash hit Runaways, Elizabeth Swados (1951-2016) composed, wrote and directed for over thirty years. Some of her works include the Obie Award-winning Trilogy at La MaMa, Alice at the Palace with Meryl Streep at the New York Shakespeare Theater Festival and Groundhog, which was optioned by Milos Forman for a film. Her work has been performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, and locations all over the world. Swados created issue-oriented theater with young people for her entire career.She published novels, non-fiction books, and children's books to great acclaim and received a Ken Book Award as well as a New York Public Library Award for My Depression: A Picture Book (Seven Stories Press, 2015). Walking the Dog was her last book.Other awards include five Tony nominations, three Obie Awards, Guggenheim Fellowship, Ford Grant, Helen Hayes Award, Lila Acheson Wallace Grant, PEN Citation, and others.
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- A “brilliant and layered” novel about a prodigy turned convict turned dog walker in her 40s from the celebrated author of My Depression: A Picture Book (Oprah.com).
A former child prodigy and rich-girl, eighteen-year-old Ester is incarcerated after her kleptomania gets way out of hand. There, she is given the very gentile name Carleen (for her own protection) and for two decades, time is the enemy. When finally let loose onto the streets of New York, Carleen finds a job as a dog walker in Manhattan’s most elite neighborhoods. But despite her remarkable gift for canine communication, Carleen is determined to finally prove that she is a real person. To this end, she tries to reconnect with her estranged—and ferociously Orthodox—daughter.
Amid the strained brunch dates, unsent letters, and the continuing trauma of prison, Carleen begins a slow and halting process of self-discovery. Strikingly funny and self-aware, this belated coming-of-age novel asks the question: How do you restart after crashing your first chance at life? - reviews
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"[A] funny, edgy, and winning novel [that] introduces an extraordinary narrator... One of a kind. Deserves a big splash and lots of readers."
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- source: O, The Oprah Magazine
- content: "Brilliant and layered, Swados's posthumous novel asks searching questions about the delicate nature of atonement."
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- source: Publishers Weekly
- content: "Told in short, punchy chapters. . . [the] comically touching mini-portraits of the dogs and their owners, are vivid and sharply realized, and Carleen's attempts to forge a bond with her unhappy 11-year-old daughter move at a believably halting pace. . . . [T]he novel's wit and intelligence showcase [Swados's] talent."
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- source: Newsday
- content: "Swados' wild imagination keeps the revelations coming right up to the last page."
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- source: Lambda Literary Review
- content: "A beautiful and enthralling read. It manages to contain genius without presumption, illness without stigma, and characterization without oversimplification. The balance of these empathetic factors makes the novel a true work of art, and a must read."
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April 18, 2016
The fourth novel by playwright, musician, and director Swados (My Depression), who died in early 2016, tells the slightly surreal story of Manhattan art prodigy Ester Rosenthal, who goes to prison for 25 years after she and her boyfriend stage a prank robbery that kills two police officers. Told in short, punchy chapters, the novel alternates between 2008, when the newly released Ester—who changed her name to Carleen Kepper when she entered prison—earns a living by walking Manhattanites’ dogs, and scenes from her prison years. The 2008 scenes, with comically touching mini-portraits of the dogs and their owners, are vivid and sharply realized, and Carleen’s attempts to forge a bond with her unhappy 11-year-old daughter move at a believably halting pace. The prison sections are more problematic: those set at a Dickensian federal prison in Ohio, where Carleen is nearly beaten to death, are generic, and the ones at a more liberal prison in upstate New York, where she is supervised by a “tough-lady” nun, verge on fantasy. Though it’s not Swados’s best work, the novel’s wit and intelligence showcase her talent.
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Starred review from May 1, 2016
An international art star becomes a dog walker after 25 harsh years in federal prison. This funny, edgy, and winning novel introduces an extraordinary narrator who reveals her back story slowly and tantalizingly, so spoilers must be avoided here. Her name is Carleen Kepper, but it used to be Ester Rosenthal. It was changed by the woman who admitted her into the prison system to serve her life sentence because "They'll kill you within a day and a half for crucifying their Lord." For reasons that will be revealed, Carleen has been paroled and is living in a halfway house in New York City. She works as a dog walker and trainer, an occupation at which she is uniquely gifted. She is also trying to gain access to her 11-year-old daughter, a precocious girl who has changed her name from Pony to Batya Shulamite and is preparing for her bat mitzvah. How can she have a child that age if she was in prison since she was 18? Can't tell you. What can be said is that Ester Rosenthal was an art prodigy who made the cover of the New York Times Magazine at the age of 12 and whose paintings sell for more than $100,000, and it is kleptomania and prankery that got way out of hand that led to her incarceration. Among many great things about this book, each of its many dogs practically leaps off the page. Carleen on black standard poodles: "They demand constant, unequivocal love and will leap into your lap as if they were toy versions of themselves and are insulted when ordered to get off. They learn their commands instantly, but not because they are particularly smart. They're more like teenage boys who joined the army too soon and will do any discipline just to prove they can do it." Swados (My Depression: A Picture Book, 2005, etc.), a respected playwright, died at 64 just after finishing this novel. One of a kind. Deserves a big splash and lots of readers.COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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