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Dogs and monsters : stories / Mark Haddon.

Haddon, Mark, 1962- (author.).

Summary:

"Greek myths have fascinated people for millennia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew. The dawn goddess Eos asked asks Zeus to give her lover Tithonus eternal life, but forgets to ask for eternal youth. In "The Quiet Limit of the World" Haddon imagines Tithonus' life as he slowly ages over thousands of years, turning the cautionary tale of tempting the gods into a spellbinding meditation on witnessing death from the outside, and ultimately, how carnal love evolves into something richer and more poignant with time. In "The Mother's Story," Haddon takes the myth of the minotaur in his labyrinth, in which the beast is the spawn of the monstrous lust of the king's wife Pasiphae, and turns it into a wrenching parable of maternal love for a damaged child, and the more real monstrosities of patriarchy. In "D.O.G.Z." the story of Actaeon, who was turned into a stag after glimpsing the naked goddess Diana and torn to pieces by his hunting dogs, becomes a visceral metaphor about the continuum of human and animal behavior. Other stories play with contemporary mythic tropes - genetic engineering, trying to escape the future, the viciousness of adolescent ostracism - to showcase how modern humans are subject to the same capriciousness that obsessed the Greeks. Haddon's tales cover a vast range, from the mythic to the domestic, from ancient Greece to the present day, from stories about love to stories about cruelty, from battlefields to bed and breakfasts, from dogs in space to doors between worlds, all of them bound together by a profound sympathy and an understanding of how human beings act and think and feel when pushed to the very edge. Throughout Haddon's supple prose showcases his astonishing powers of observation, of both the physical world and the workings of the psyche. His vision is clear-eyed, but always resolutely empathetic"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780385550864
  • ISBN: 0385550863
  • Physical Description: 272 pages ; 22 cm.
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Doubleday, [2024]

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:
The mother's story -- The bunker -- My old school -- D.O.G.Z. -- The wilderness -- The temptation of St Anthony -- The quiet limit of the world -- St Bride's Bay.
Subject: Mythology, Greek > Fiction.
Genre: Mythological fiction.
Short stories.

Available copies

  • 2 of 15 copies available at NC Cardinal. (Show)
  • 1 of 2 copies available at Iredell County Public Library.

Holds

  • 2 current holds with 15 total copies.
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Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Statesville Main Library F HADDON (Text) 33114018867747 Adult New Fiction Checked out 11/06/2024
Troutman Branch Library F HADDON (Text) 33114018867754 Adult New Fiction Available -