DOG WALKS MAN

A humorous thoughtful absorbing narrative aboutthe metaphysical joys of a simple daily task Imagine if Annie Dillard had taken a dog along with her to Tinker Creek Now imagine Tinker Creek was a New Jersey suburb and you have an idea of the surprises that await in John Zeaman s book Humorous thoughtprovoking and playful Dog Walks Man might also be called Zen and the Art of Dog Walking Zeaman takes us on a journey from a roundtheblock fraternity of dogwalking dupes suburban fathers who indulged their children s wish for a dog to a strange and forbidden wonderland at the edge of town the New Jersey Meadowlands Along the way he rediscovers childhood s forgotten fringe places investigates the mysteries of the natural world and experiences moments of inexplicable joy Each chapter of Dog Walks Man is a bitesize meditation on the wisdom derived from dogs and dog walking Woven into the narrative are musings on such familiar dogwalking issues as the war of nerves that precedes each walk or walk if your dog is in earshot the problem of dogwalking monotony and why dog walkers are always the ones to discover dead bodies This is also the story of Pete the prescient standard poodle who begins as the family glue and evolves into Zeaman s partner on a journey through an abandoned landscape as alive as any jungle Above all Dog Walks Man is about a search for wholeness in an increasingly artificial world It is about discovering what Thoreau meant when he wrote in his seminal essay Walking Life consists with wildness Because the truth is something as simple as walking the dog can open up unexpected worlds An excerpt In the beginning I walked around the block Or a couple of blocks It didn t seem to matter That it didn t matter was in itself novel It had been a long time since I had gone out without any particular destination or direction without knowing whether I was going to turn left or turn right at the end of the front walk The simple aimlessness of it made me feel like a kid a