Spill Simmer Falter Wither - Sara Baume

Houghton Mifflin, February 1, 2016.

Three Stars

This novel is a (one-sided) conversation between a man and his dog, and in many ways it is a love story, told with affection and empathy. The adventures of man and dog follow the seasons, as echoed in the title of the novel. However, the plot is secondary to the experimental structure and lyrical language.

The narrator is overcome with loneliness after the death of his father, his only real companion in life. As he tells us more about himself, we realize that he might not be the most reliable narrator, with his sheltered upbringing and undeveloped sense of self. In fact, he is likely living with a high-functioning form of autism, and his experience with mental illness is told with care and compassion. The story seems to moves at a fast pace due to the brisk speech patterns, yet there is actually very little action.

When the man sees an advertisement for an unwanted dog, he finds the answer to his isolation. The dog comes to be named One-Eye, for obvious reasons. He is a scraggly mutt that no one else wanted, but the narrator becomes attached to him almost immediately, able to see the world through the eyes of another unwanted member of society. One-Eye, however, is also lacking in training, and he bites a child in his excitement – leading to a cross-country road trip to escape a one-way journey back to the pound. The man must leave the only home he is ever known in order to save his dog, yet he doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice everything for One-Eye.

Although there are a few incidents where the two run into other humans, the man and his dog are essentially the only characters in the novel. And in fact, One-Eye becomes a reflection of the man’s own inner world – the man begins to have dreams from the dog’s perspective, and there are many similarities between the two. The man treats his dog better than he cares for himself, and imagines that One-Eye has human characteristics and desires. However, One-Eye is fearless, going after what he wants, while the man lives with constant anxiety about the world around him – although he is slowly inspired to become more like his dog.

With a sense of dread, the story slowly accelerates toward disaster, just as the action words of the title move toward decay. The actual plot is slow and repetitive, which adds to the distinctive voice of the narrator. The ending is in fact worthwhile, giving us a completed (and somewhat shocking) picture of our narrator, but it just takes so long to get there. The strength of this novel is its creative use of language, which manages to be poetic and playful at the same time. The exploration of speech patterns is fun and interesting, once you get into the rhythm.

Please don’t pick this up if you are looking for a feel good story of a man and his dog – instead, it is the character study of an unstable man, with dog as confessor. His loneliness is assuaged by the unconditional love of a rescue dog, and in spite of the heartache presented here, the love between human and pet is thoughtfully and realistically portrayed.

I received this novel from Houghton Mifflin and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.