Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* A year in the life of a 57-year-old man and his dog doesn't sound like much, but Baume has elevated this simple conceit to something elegant, heartbreaking, and inspiring. The man is an orphan, living in his father's house with no especially fond memories of his past, no friends or family in his present, and no excitement or enthusiasm for the future. The dog is a one-eyed mutt with an absolute hatred of other dogs, due to be euthanized in a matter of hours. The man rescues the mutt in the hopes that the dog, now christened ONEEYE, can help keep his home clear of vermin. ONEEYE succeeds admirably at this task, but the man soon realizes that their now-intertwined lives have become fuller, richer, and infinitely more difficult. Fans of Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008) will adore this glimpse inside a very unusual relationship between two very unusual creatures, but the lyric, lilting style of Baume's voice will endear even animal non-lovers to her thrilling and transformative story. With echoes of Mark Haddon's narrative style and a healthy dose of empathy for the lost and lonely among us, Spill Simmer Falter Wither is a superlative first novel.--Turza, Stephanie Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A solitary misfit opens up to his one-eyed dog in this debut novel. Ray describes himself as old (he's 57), shabbily dressed, and sketchily bearded, pitching and clomping when he walks. He first sees the dog in an animal shelter advertisement: a grisly photo of a mangled canine face. The kennel keeper says the dog attacks other dogs; its scars suggest it was used for badger hunting. Ray is familiar with abuse: his father, understanding Ray is "not right-minded," raised him in confined isolation. Ray reads, drives, and knows he's not a regular person. Following his father's death, he remains in his father's house alone until he adopts the dog he calls One Eye. When One Eye attacks another dog, incurring the owner's wrath, Ray takes One Eye on the road, traveling from one Irish village to another, sleeping in the car. By the time they return home, they have spent a year together, and their friendship is fixed. Baume's storytelling can be indirect. She never mentions Ray's name, only that he's named for a sunbeam or a sand shark. Nor does she specify Ray's impairment. As a narrator, he shows observation skills, appreciation for landscape, and awareness of fear and sadness. For One Eye, he's full of empathy. Baume's debut is notable for its rhythmic language, sensory imagery (especially visuals and smells), and second-person narrative directed at an animal. She is brutal detailing brutality, lyrical contemplating land and sea, and at her best evoking the connection between man and dog. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
A chance sighting of a flyer in a shop window in an Irish village leads a solitary man to a connection-probably the first one of his life-with a dog at the local pound. The nameless narrator leads a lonely life, isolated by his disabilities and his late father's indifference. Now in his 50s and still alone, he is struck by the picture of a dog missing an eye. Adopting the canine now named "One Eye," the man begins to step outside the narrow confines of his life, taking long walks and drives with his new companion. On one of these outings, a brief, accidental encounter with another dog and owner propels the two friends on a long meandering odyssey around the country as the man finally realizes the depths of his feelings for his first and only true friend. VERDICT This haunting debut novel by an award-winning Irish short story writer will appeal to readers who don't mind a little darkness in their dog stories. The detailed and almost poetic descriptions of the natural world as the seasons change add an element of enchantment to this lovely story. [See Prepub Alert, 9/28/15; this title was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2015.-Ed.]-Dan Forrest, Western -Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Ray, a disabled man, adopts One Eye, a rescue dog injured while badger baiting, in this debut novel. We get to know Ray as he speaks to One Eye: "I'm fifty-seven. Too old for starting over, too young for giving up." We learn he leaves his lonely home on the coast of Ireland once a week to visit the post office and the grocery store. He used to attend Mass, but he hasn't been lately. He's a reader and uses the "mobile library." Ray is alone and both appears and feels different than other people. He tells One Eye, "Sometimes I see the sadness in you, the same sadness that's in me.My sadness isn't a way I feel but a thing trapped inside the walls of my flesh, like a smog." In another passage he explains, "The nasturtiums have it figured out, how survival's just a matter of filling the gaps between sun up and sun down." One Eye is a good companionhe gets Ray out of the house morebut he's trained to bite badgers and not let go. Unfortunately, he does the same thing to other dogs, which propels a sad, quiet story into a desperate one. The novel is set in an unspecified time before mobile phones, but even if it's meant to be a few decades ago, it seems unreal that Ray could grow up without attending school and without any social services intervention. Baume perhaps means to make a statement about marginalized people who live unnoticed in the midst of their communities, but something doesn't quite ring true in Ray's isolation. The vague, sad ending doesn't help. Beautiful prose renders a tragically ugly picture with only the loyal but doomed love between man and dog to redeem it. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
