Synopses & Reviews
From the time she is nine years old and discovers a "Private Way" full of the wonderful and creepy creatures of the wild — spiders, deer, moles, chipmunks, and foxes — Lauren Slater discovers in animals a refuge from the troubled life of her suburban home. As she matures, her bond with animals — raccoons, horses, swans, cats and, above all, dogs — strengthens and grows more complex and compelling. They offer relief from the pain of her mother's mental illness, from a foster family where she feels not at all at home, from her own periodic bouts with depression. As a psychologist, a reporter, an amateur naturalist and above all an enormously gifted writer, she draws us into the stories of her love for the animals that are so much more than pets.
When an excerpt of one of the chapters of this book appeared in O magazine, they received more mail — both laudatory and angry — than they'd ever had; in fact, they reprinted it in a 20th anniversary "best of" issue as their most controversial piece. In that excerpt, Lauren described her intense love for the animals in her life without apology, and argued that there was no reason to believe that the lives of animals had less value than the lives of humans. Throughout the chapters in this book, she examines that conviction through stories, finding, at one point: "I don't know where the beast in me begins and the human ends, or what sort of centaur I am."
Review
"Slater continually surprises with connections she makes. Beautifully written, and not just for animal lovers." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"The beauty of Lauren Slater's prose is shocking....Slater's vision is, ultimately, one of unity and possibility." Claire Messud, Newsday
Review
"A lovely writer, easily read, often poetic." Michael Winerip, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"An enormously poetic and ebullient writer." Elle
Review
"Slater's writing is confessional without being sentimental, honest without being overbearing." Joseph P. Kahn, The Boston Globe
Review
"Slater is more poet than narrator, more philosopher than psychologist, more artist than doctor....Every page brims with beautifully rendered images of thoughts, feelings, emotional states." The San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
A stunning new book about the role of animals in our lives, by a popular and acclaimed writer From the time she is nine years old, biking to the farmland outside her suburban home, where she discovers a disquieting world of sleeping cows and a "Private Way" full of the wondrous and creepy creatures of the wild--spiders, deer, moles, chipmunks, and foxes--Lauren Slater finds in animals a refuge from her troubled life. As she matures, her attraction to animals strengthens and grows more complex and compelling even as her family is falling to pieces around her. Slater spends a summer at horse camp, where she witnesses the alternating horrific and loving behavior of her instructor toward the animals in her charge and comes to question the bond that so often develops between females and their equines. Slater's questions follow her to a foster family, her own parents no longer able to care for her. A pet raccoon, rescued from a hole in the wall, teaches her how to feel at home away from home. The two Shiba Inu puppies Slater adopts years later, against her husband's will, grow increasingly important to her as she ages and her family begins to grow.
Slater's husband is a born skeptic and possesses a sternly scientific view of animals as unconscious, primitive creatures, one who insists "that an animal's worth is roughly equivalent to its edibility." As one of her dogs, Lila, goes blind and the medical bills and monthly expenses begin to pour in, he calculates the financial burden of their canine family member and finds that Lila has cost them about $60,000, not to mention the approximately 400 pounds of feces she has deposited in their yard. But when Benjamin begins to suffer from chronic pain, Lauren is convinced it is Lila's resilience and the dog's quick adaptation to her blindness that draws her husband out of his own misery and motivates him to try to adjust to his situation. Ben never becomes a true believer or a die-hard animal lover, but his story and the stories Lauren tells of her own bond with animals convince her that our connections with the furry, the four-legged, the exoskeleton-ed, or the winged may be just as priceless as our human relationships.
The $60,000 Dog is Lauren Slater's intimate manifesto on the unique, invaluable, and often essential contributions animals make to our lives. As a psychologist, a reporter, an amateur naturalist, and above all an enormously gifted writer, she draws us into the stories of her passion for animals that are so much more than pets. She describes her intense love for the animals in her life without apology and argues, finally, that the works of Darwin and other evolutionary biologists prove that, when it comes to worth, animals are equal, and in some senses even superior, to human beings.
Synopsis
A stunning new book about the role of animals in our lives, by a popular and acclaimed writer.
From the time she is nine years old and discovers a “Private Way” full of the wonderful and creepy creatures of the wild — spiders, deer, moles, chipmunks, and foxes — Lauren Slater finds in animals a refuge from the troubled life of her suburban home. As she matures, her bond with animals — raccoons, horses, swans, cats, and, primarily, dogs — strengthens and grows more complex and compelling. They offer relief from the pain of her mother’s mental illness, from a foster family where she feels not at all at home, from her own periodic bouts with depression. As a psychologist, a reporter, an amateur naturalist, and, above all, an enormously gifted writer, Lauren Slater draws us into the stories of her love for the animals that are so much more to her than pets.
About the Author
Lauren Slater is the author of six books, including Welcome to My Country, Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, Opening Skinner’s Box, the short-story collection Blue Beyond Blue, and Love Works Like This, which chronicled the agonizing decisions she made relating to her psychiatric illness and her pregnancy. Slater has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2004 National Endowments for the Arts Award, multiple inclusions in Best American volumes, and a Knight Science Journalism fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Slater was a practicing psychologist for eleven years before embarking on a full-time writing career. She served as the clinical and later executive director of AfterCare Services. Slater lives and writes in Harvard, Massachusetts.