Men and Dogs

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In Pictures

And while most of the town and her family accepted Buzz's disappearance, Hannah remained steadfastly convinced of his imminent return. More then twenty years later, Hannah's new life in San Francisco is unraveling. Her marriage is on the rocks; her business is bankrupt When Hannah Legare was eleven, her father went on a fishing trip in Charleston Harbor and never came back.

Her marriage is on the rocks; her business is bankrupt. After a disastrous attempt to win back her husband, she is shipped to her mother's home to "rest up," and she is once again sucked into the mystery of her missing father. Suspecting that those closest to her are keeping secrets -- including Palmer, her emotionally closed, well-mannered brother, and Warren, the beautiful boyfriend she left behind -- Hannah sets out on an uproarious, dangerous quest that will test the whole family's concept of loyalty and faith.

Hardcover , pages. Published April 12th by Little, Brown and Company. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Men and Dogs , please sign up. Lists with This Book.

Men & Dogs by Alice Chaygneaud-Dupuy - Penguin Books Australia

Jul 01, Lisa rated it did not like it. This book was an utter disappointment. Although it was decently written, I found myself caring more for the supporting characters than the main character. The last chapter is what pissed me off There was no resolution, and the story ended the way it started, leaving the reader to believe that the main character learned nothing throughout the book. Jun 18, Patricia rated it did not like it.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I have a hard time with books where I don't like the protagonist. In this case, a something internet tycoon - Hannah - who is a serial adulterer whose poor husband finally leaves her. She stalks him, climbs a balcony to spy on him and his new girlfriend and falls three stories only to slightly bruise her ribs and impale herself a little bit with a nail to the head - PLEASE!!

She is sent home from California, the land of all good things, to Charleston, where her mother, stepfather and gay b I have a hard time with books where I don't like the protagonist. She is sent home from California, the land of all good things, to Charleston, where her mother, stepfather and gay brother try to care for her. She continues poor judgment in her behavior at home, where it is revealed that her father disappeared from a boat when she was eleven, leaving only the dog behind in the boat. She still thinks he is alive and coming back after all those years, despite everyone else in the world accepting that he is dead.

So, poor Hannah has an issue with being left - thus, she left her beloved high school beau who she reconnects with in Charleston, leaves her family in Charleston to rarely return, and leaves her hubby again and again by cheating with her yoga instructor, the milkman, etc.

She treats her family very poorly, acts like an eleven year old throughout her visit and finally realizes all her beliefs about the past were incorrect this she finally accomplishes by re-creating her father's last voyage, complete with dog, almost getting run over by a Carnival cruise ship. Although not bad writing style, the characters are stereotyped, the symbolism dealt out with a heavy hand Hannah has a closet "womb" that she retreats to when stressed or depressed.

I will not be reading any other books by this author. Blurb - Crouch's accomplished sophomore novel kicks off with a flashback: The fallout of his disappearance and presumed death appears in his something children: Hannah drink workaday mp3 - looks like an angsty affair, still, with so much to do it'll sing along in the background - and there is always the option of shouting out 'next' if it really doesn't suit.

Hannah drinks too much, her business is failing, and her husband has kicked her out after her repeated adultery.

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Hannah's gay brother, Palmer, refuses to let anyone get too close—he's ready to end his yearlong relationship when his partner brings up the idea of adopting a baby. After Hannah injures herself trying to break into her husband's apartment, she heads home to Charleston, S. Damaged and vulnerable, she zigzags through her past—an old boyfriend, questions about her parents' fidelity, and finally facing down where her unwillingness to accept love has gotten her. There's nothing unique about the premise—woman in crisis goes home and discovers herself by exhuming the past—but Crouch Girls in Trucks handles it deftly; her dialogue is snappy, the situations darkly funny, Hannah and Palmer are unlikable but sympathetic, and there's just enough mystery to keep the pages turning..

View all 15 comments. What a great title for an interesting, sometimes hilarious, and always thought-provoking novel. Often I am given books to review where the title or the cover art don't make sense to me after reading the book, but Katie Crouch and the folks at Little Brown have hit the nail on the head with both on this one.

The men in the heroine's life and her disparate relationships with each are the forefront of the story, and the beautiful photo of a young woman in a fishing boat with her back Men and Dogs. The men in the heroine's life and her disparate relationships with each are the forefront of the story, and the beautiful photo of a young woman in a fishing boat with her back to us is representative of the central mystery which she is trying to answer.

Like many people, Hannah Legare's life has been formed completely around an event from her childhood, the disappearance or death of her father while he was out in his fishing boat. I say death or disappearance because although the incident is investigated and declared a death, without a body Hannah has always refused to believe that her childhood hero is gone.

Her brother and mother move on, but Hannah's insistence on bringing up the topic, planning her life around his possible return, and resistance to her mother's new husband crack their relationship almost to the breaking point. Now it's twenty years later and Hannah lives in San Francisco,on the opposite coast from her family, and rarely visits. Her once thriving business built with her husband, Jon, is bankrupt, and Hannah's out of control behavior with men has pushed her saddened and defeated husband to leave her.

After a horrible accident while Hannah is trying to win back Jon, she is "sent" to her mother's in North Carolina to recuperate physically and hopefully mentally. Being back in Charleston brings out even more wackiness in Hannah, and she begins an investigation into her father's disappearance, looking through old photos, questioning her family and long-time family friends.

8 Reasons Why Men Are Like Dogs

Instead of answers she gets more confused, and the and the small webs that had begun to repair the cracks start falling apart as she alienates and frustrates those around her. Many interesting, well-thought-out characters live in Hannah's world of Charleston, NC. I especially enjoyed her stepfather, DeWitt, a boisterous good ol' boy who wants everyone to have fun and enjoys writing checks for Hannah and her mother Daisy.

Daisy, wife to one of Charleston's wealthiest men and organizer of numerous charity events is hysterical in her thrift-store clothing and frequent Goodwill shopping, especially seen through Hannah's eyes. I enjoyed the relationship Hannah has with her former teacher, Virginia, who is also the mother of Hannah's high school boyfriend. Virginia is an artsy, earthy woman, who takes time to listen to Hannah both as a teen and an adult, and tries to guide her in her decisions, to little avail. The side story of Hannah's brother Palmer, with his separate remembrances of their father's death and his own childhood show that she is not the only one who has held on to childhood events, but instead of yelling his issues from the rooftops Palmer holds everything in and, like Hannah, is destroying his relationship with his partner, Tom.

This makes Hannah, who might have been a somewhat unsympathetic heroine, less raw, as I was able to understand that she was not the only one hanging on to the event, she was just the loudest about it. Hannah is bright, creative, and funny, sometimes an ostrich with her head in the sand and others an owl hooting questions into the night. While she is spouting questions and theories all over town, she is ignoring the fact that her husband has filed for divorce, she hasn't done any work for their business in several months, and when informed of their bankrupt status she just ignores that too.

As a professional procrastinator I can definitely relate to that! Hannah ends up with some answers to her questions, and some insight into the behaviors of others, and eventually gets her act together so she can begin building a new life as a single woman in a new career. Katie Crouch's Men and Dogs is thoughtful and quirky, with quick-witted descriptions and interesting characters, making it a story that will appeal to many. May 13, Allyson Langston rated it it was ok. I think if I lived in or had any ties whatsoever to San Francisco or the Carolinas, I would probably have appreciated this novel more.

Hannah, the protagonist, is 35 and a complete mess: I kept trying to feel sorry for her, but at the end, just wanted to slap her upside the head and tell her to grow up. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood when I read it??? Her gay brother, Palmer, isn't much bett I think if I lived in or had any ties whatsoever to San Francisco or the Carolinas, I would probably have appreciated this novel more. Her gay brother, Palmer, isn't much better--and their mom, Daisy, couldn't really exist and survive in Charleston.

On the upside, I feel much more in control of my life than I did before I read the novel--if you are feeling overwhelmed or out of control, this novel will have a settling effect and let you realize just how much worse it could be! Oct 27, Jinky rated it it was ok Shelves: Beautiful cover hold on..

But that's about the best part of the book! The plot sounded intriguing Hannah, girl at 11yo looses her dad declared dead but no body , 24yrs later she still believes her dad's alive and seeks to find out the truth, and in-between she lead a messed up life. Hence, the rated PG13 language and content.

She was wishy-washy protagonist and I think she was suppose to get it all together in the end Beautiful cover hold on.. She was wishy-washy protagonist and I think she was suppose to get it all together in the end but I don't think she did. The book didn't give me the Southern kind of book feel at all either.

I do like the side story of her gay brother Palmer and his lover Tom Apr 05, Christina rated it liked it. It's hard to truly like a book when the main character is a self-indulged, spoiled attention whore. I mean, yes, poor baby girl was abandoned by her father, who might or might not be dead. And yet I had zero sympathy for her, which is a good indication that she wasn't drawn in a particularly effective light. He's just as messed up from the past as Hannah, but expressed in different ways, and I truly felt for him. And one moment in the book just took my breat I don't know.

And one moment in the book just took my breath away: When he is told that he, in fact, is NOT the reason his dad disappeared. After carrying that certainty his entire life, the certainty that shaped his entire personhood, it turns out to be false. Sure, you knew it would be false. But it resonated for me. As someone whose own parent actually DID abandon her, I grew up feeling responsible somehow, even though there's no way it was my fault. I was 5 when my mother left. It was only when, during an offhanded conversation, that I learned my mother had abandoned another child before me, a sibling whose gender I don't even know, that everything changed for me.

Aug 06, Jacquelyn rated it it was ok. I really didn't care for this book, but it was an easy read so I kept going. Firstly, I found the writing to be weak in general.

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None of the characters were very well-developed, although the main character, Hannah, was enough so to make me know I didn't like her rather quickly. But honestly, why on page of a page book am I getting further description of what she looks like? Felt a bit late in the game for that. The dialogue was also unrealistic. There were several occasions where I would I really didn't care for this book, but it was an easy read so I kept going. There were several occasions where I would read what one character said to another and thought, people just don't talk like this. There were also parts of the book that simply didn't seem to be as fleshed out as much as I anticipated.

For example, the breakup between Hanna's brother, Palmer, and his boyfriend Tom takes up only a page or two--and he does it via phone. It felt rushed and just thrown in there. Overall, I just didn't find the storyline to be terribly interesting and the fact that I didn't care of the main character made it even less enjoyable. Jun 29, Sara rated it did not like it.

Jun 14, Gwendolyn rated it did not like it. Didn't like the main character. According to the author, this work of fiction was actually born out of a true story. There was no bad weather or anything, but all his family found was his little fishing boat floating in the river. Even Tucker, the family dog is on board for this excursion.

Men and Dogs

Buzz was a doctor and always quizzing Hannah on little facts like: She was a smart girl, a studious student and planned to become a doctor just like her Dad. Everywhere Hannah goes she searches the crowds for her Dad but all she ever sees is different people with different body parts resembling her Dad.

Both Daisy and Palmer have let go, given up and moved on. After therapy and counselling her mother remarried within the year. Hannah has never quite been able to forgive her for that. Hannah just has too many unanswered questions like: Why did no one else see her father out in the harbour, and why was he fishing on a Monday at twilight? She has only been back to Charleston four times for Christmas and a funeral.

This was a hilarious, affecting and wholly original tale of siblings trying to reckon with their flaws, featuring a heroine as exasperating, magnetic, and breathtakingly real as family itself. Men and Dogs was a pretty serious audiobook that brought us into the life of Hannah Legare when she basically hits rock bottom. Hannah was married and had a very successful on-line business but somehow managed to lose it all by never fully accepting her father's absence in her life.

After a life-threatening accident Hannah finds herself back home in Charleston being nursed back to health by her family that she hasn't seen in years. Upon arriving at her childhood home she starts to wonder once aga Men and Dogs was a pretty serious audiobook that brought us into the life of Hannah Legare when she basically hits rock bottom.

Upon arriving at her childhood home she starts to wonder once again about the disappearance of her father. She has always believed that her father is still alive somewhere and throughout the novel new things come to light about her parents that help to give her a different and clearer perspective on her own life. Hannah's brother Palmer was a very interesting character in this novel.

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He was a local veterinarian that also happened to be gay. Since his father's disappearance a piece of Palmer seems to be missing also, as he can't seem to maintain a long-term romantic relationship. Where Hannah seems to lose control of her life in general, Palmer seems to be afraid of the implications of love. I loved the journey that this book took me on, giving me insight into the lives that both Hannah and Palmer led. We see how the decisions that they made when they were younger shaped them into the adults that they have become.

By not accepting the truth about their lives, they found themselves living in a way that wasn't really living at all, but just getting by.

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