Synopses & Reviews
Ella Leroy dreams of escaping the dreary routine of her 1950s wife-and-mom life. Without telling her husband, she enlists her son Peter and his locally notorious girlfriend Patti in a scheme: to buy a run-down clamboat and reinvent it as an elegant cruising vessel for summer people in the beach town of Babbington, Long Island. But after Arcinella is purchased, Peter discovers that it is slowly sinkingand so each night he sneaks from his home to the harborfront, where he pumps the boat dry and so inflates his mothers hopes a bit longer.
Eric Kraft is the author of eight novels, including Leaving Small's Hotel and At Home with the Glynns. He was once part-owner and co-captain of a clam boat, which sank.
Ella Leroy dreams of escaping the dreary routine of her 1950s wife-and-mom life. Without telling her husband, she enlists her son Peter and his locally notorious girlfriend Patti in a scheme: to buy a run-down clamboat and reinvent it as an elegant cruising vessel for summer people in the beach town of Babbington, Long Island. But after Arcinella is purchased, Peter discovers that it is slowly sinkingand so each night he sneaks from his home to the harborfront of Bolotomy Bay, where he pumps the boat dry and so inflates his mothers hopes a bit longer. Inflating the Dog offers a delightful proof of the genius of an author whose work Newsweek has called "the literary equivalent of Fred Astaire dancing: great art that looks like fun."
"One can't help wishing Peter's story could continue forever."Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times
"Inflating a Dog . . . is a hilarious riff on Don Quixote, on the desire for fame, the need for success, the power of fantasy."Barbara Fisher, The Boston Globe
"A real delight. Peter Leroy's world shines through just like childhood itself: both tiny and enormous, full of mystery and wonder. Lovely . . . we're hooked. Kraft's erudite asides and abstract musings are what make Inflating a Dog fascinating and sophisticated reading."The New York Times Book Review
"Having trouble reading Proust? Forget it. Read Eric Kraft instead . . . The eight volumes of Kraft's fictional memoirs . . . constitute perhaps the most ambitious and rewarding literary enterprise of our time."San Francisco Chronicle
"A sprightly, sly, sophisticated entertainment, light enough to digest in a long summer evening . . . good fun for grown-ups."The Washington Post Book World
"Charming but never sappy, droll but never cynical . . . the literary equivalent of Fred Astaire dancing: great art that looks like fun."Malcolm Jones, Newsweek
"A sunny, upbeat American version of the Argentine fabulist Jorge Luis Borges . . . A masterful tale teller."The Washington Post Book World
"There aren't enough adjectives to praise this delightfully generous storyteller."Andrei Codrescu, NPR
"Reading Eric Kraft is at times like taking a dizzy tumble into Long Island Sound . . . As richly detailed in its way, and a great deal funnier, than the masterpiece from which it can never be disassociated, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time . . . Digressions on clamming, the constitution of the soul, and Bernoullian physics are tossed off with such verve and humor that the reader feels flattered and privileged to be invited to join Kraft's remarkable, ongoing 0dance of time and memory."Richard Gehr, Newsday
"As books by Eric Kraft usually are, Inflating a Dog is simultaneously delightful, provocative, poignant, and deeply satisfying . . . For its brevity (242 pages), Inflating a Dog is packed to the gunwales with the incendiary hungers, slippery bravado, and rampant uncertainties of adolescence . . . Inflating a Dog proves once again that Eric Kraft is a writer of magical verbal and narrative invention. The novel's various threads, its complications of character and plot, its reality-bending notions of showing and telling snap together, finally, with a gentle, inevitable, tear-inducing click . . . Inflating a Dog is downright elevating."Frederic Koeppel, Memphis Commercial Appeal
"Is there a more beguiling writer today than Eric Kraft?"Publishers Weekly
"[An] often hilarious bittersweet tale of adolescence recollected in tranquility . . . a kaleidoscopic narrative that's a little like a marriage of Marcel Proust and Mark Twain . . . Glorious stuff."Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"It's always a welcome occasion when a new novel is added to Kraft's ever-growing oeuvre . . . comic masterpieces that are also testaments to the exhilarating power of memory . . . Sentimental, loving, raucous, wise, and great fun, this is simply not to be missed."Booklist (starred review)
Review
“One cant help wishing Peters story could continue forever.” —
The Seattle Times“Lovely...were hooked. Krafts erudite asides and abstract musings are what make Inflating a Dog fascinating and sophisticated reading.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Having trouble reading Proust? Forget it. Read Eric Kraft instead...the eight volumes of Krafts fictional memoirs... constitute perhaps the most ambitious and rewarding literary enterprise of our time.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“A sprightly, sly, sophisticated entertainment, light enough to digest in a long summer evening...good fun for grown-ups.” —The Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
Ella Leroy dreams of escaping the dreary routine of her 1950s wife-and-mom life. Without telling her husband, she enlists her son Peter and his locally notorious girlfriend Patti in a scheme: to buy a run-down clamboat and reinvent it as an elegant cruising vessel for summer people in the beach town of Babbington, Long Island. But after Arcinella is purchased, Peter discovers that it is slowly sinking—and so each night he sneaks from his home to the harborfront, where he pumps the boat dry and so inflates his mothers hopes a bit longer.
About the Author
Eric Kraft is the author of eight novels and lives in New York with his wife, Madeline.