Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones

One of the weird things about reading an author’s entire body of work from the start of their oeuvre, especially if you’ve already cherry picked parts of it as a lifelong avid reader, is that you can see the themes develop throughout the creator’s lifetime and echo back and forth through the books. Dogsbody, for example, feels very much like the precursor for The Game, tho feels far more successful as a novel. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when I revisit the latter book, but for now Dogsbody impresses me as being superior, tho definitely still not without its flaws.

The story revolves around the luminary inhabiting the star Sirius, who’s known throughout the novel by the name of his star. Hot-headed Sirius is convicted of murder and, perhaps more gravely, of losing the weapon he used to kill his fellow luminary — both charges which he denies. The Zoi, as it’s known, has fallen to Earth, a planet belonging to the minor luminary Sol. As Sirius’ punishment, he’s sentenced to be reborn as a mortal on Earth. If he can retrieve the Zoi during his mortal incarnation’s lifetime, then he’ll be reinstituted as a luminary. But if he dies, he dies.

After the trial, Sirius awakens in the body of a newborn puppy. The vexed owner of his purebred mother decides to toss the majority of the mongrel litter into the river. Sirius is rescued downstream by Kathleen, an Irish girl who’s been sent to live with her distant English relatives. Mr Duffield, her uncle, is kind but oblivious, while his wife Duffie resents Kathleen with a burning passion. The Duffield’s youngest son Robin tries to be an ally, but the older son Basil is casually disdainful of her in the way of all self-absorbed teenagers.

Kathleen is determined to keep Leo for her own, begging Duffie to let her have him in exchange for doing most of the housework. As Sirius grows and bonds with Kathleen, he gradually becomes more aware of why he’s on Earth and what he must do, even as forces work against both his and Kathleen’s happiness. Will he be able to retrieve the Zoi and save Kathleen from a life of drudgery and abuse?

Speaking of abuse, people are not kidding when they say that this book has several distressing scenes of cruelty to animals. Fortunately, the abuse is never romanticized or depicted as anything but acts of viciousness by truly awful persons. There’s also, of course, the issue of the abuse that Kathleen has to endure, which seems to prompt fewer trigger warnings. In all honesty, I was truly taken aback by the ending. Kathleen just goes through so much in this book, and while the emotions and non-fantasy situations ring true, it still felt like a lot to heap on one girl. I also felt like I was supposed to find Sirius’ decision to keep his Companion spot open in the end to be moving, but I thought it was presumptuous? I dunno, I just felt like I had a whole lot more sympathy for Kathleen than for the hot-tempered, short-sighted main character.

I did like how most of the characters eventually came around to both Sirius and Kathleen’s side: most individuals truly aren’t bad actors, especially when out of the direct influence of actually evil people. And the depiction of animals, in general, was very well done. But I really can’t get over the annoying vagueness of both the Zoi and the Master. The Zoi is a meteorite that also represents a scientific concept: I just wish I could figure out what that was! Is it will? Is it force? Is it momentum? And while I can accept that the Master is essentially a British Isles version of the sacrificed god, I didn’t at all understand the reference to him wanting to be able to walk in the daylight again. Is he meant to be a vampire then? Or was this just a reference to the mythological metaphor of Christianity driving pagan beliefs underground? Regardless, all the panic about him wielding the Zoi felt eh, tho perhaps readers better immersed in the history and mythology of the area would understand it.

It’s a shame that the fantasy bits felt incompletely built out to me, especially considering the much better job Diana Wynne Jones did in Eight Days Of Luke. I feel like this was her breakout novel, as it was the first of hers to be nominated for an important award, but I didn’t like it as much as I did the other early works of hers I’ve read. Upon reflection, I think that the promise of an afterlife that simply serves to flatter a powerful being regardless of the once living person’s own inclinations — well, it certainly led me to understand why Sirius was loathed enough to be framed for murder.

Oh, and even tho I’ve always been lukewarm on Neil Gaiman, even before the entirely credible recent allegations against him, I did appreciate the fact that he told readers in his introduction to skip reading it till after they’d read the novel actual. Tho why the editors didn’t simply put his commentary in the back is beyond me.

Update: after discussion with a trusted reader of this oeuvre (hi, Emily!), I believe that the Zoi isn’t actually a real thing but a Macguffin we’re not supposed to think about too hard. Lol, like that’s ever stopped me.

This edition of Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones was published April 12 2012 by Firebird and is available from all good booksellers, including