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The Isle of Dogs by Daniel Davies (view source)
Revision as of 20:25, 20 May 2011
, 20:25, 20 May 2011no edit summary
For many readers, ''The Isle of Dogs'' will be less about social commentary and more about an insight into the dogging 'scene' though. The technical details including the codes of (largely non-verbal) communication are convincing (although I find it hard to believe that lone women never, ever turn up at any of the meets). The sex scenes are graphic and on their own wouldn't be out of place in a collection of erotica/porn, but - strangely - they didn't feel gratitious in the larger scheme of the narrative.
''The Isle of Dogs'' abounds with literary references, both ironic and serious. [[:Category:Michel Houellebecq |Houellebecq]] and [[:Category:J G Ballard|Ballard ]] have both been mentioned in the reviews quoted by the back cover blurb, and Davies himself perhaps courted such references directly by having his character read a Houellebecq novel. The clinically detached manner of the delivery, the alienation of the main character and the (occasional) cold poetry of the urban dereliction is remindful of Ballard (as is, on a simple level, the whole 'sex in cars' scenario).
A scant two hundred pages long, ''The Isle of Dogs'' is mostly a first-person narrative of Jeremy's, but is framed by an authorial introduction and epilogue which make it contrived and slightly clunky.