“Dogs are not people dressed up in fur coats, and to deny them their nature is to do them great harm.” So says short-story writer Jeanne Schinto in her witty introduction to
The Literary Dog
, a superlative collection of contemporary stories written by some of the most important writers of our time.
A traditional dog story usually recounts some heroic and unbelievable dog deed that the teller swears is true. The stories in
, however, are not traditional dog stories at all. Writers of short fiction, from Kafka to Updike, have a distinguished history of using the dog as a subject for the highest and purest literary aims, stories not about dogs but rather ones in which dogs are essential and intrinsic to the effect.
Schinto has selected only contemporary pieces, most of which were first published in the 1980s. Including stories by some of the most important writers of our time, this beautiful and highly accomplished collection features good dogs and bad dogs, but only great fiction.