I felt obligated to finish reading The Second Chance Dog: A Love Story (#358) by Jon Katz since it was a GoodReads giveaway, but it was really a chore for me. I expected a memoir about the dog, Frieda, but instead, this memoir deals with Mr. Katz' breakdown over his divorce and his subsequent obsessive pursuit of a penurious and insecure artist named Maria, the owner of Frieda. Frieda was frightening to everyone else who ever met her and that initially included Jon Katz. Only Maria thought she was "cute" when she found her in a shelter, but even she was afraid of her. Since Maria would not give up Frieda, Jon had no choice but to surmount the obstacle Frieda presented in his courtship. By dint of his persistence and perseverance, he wins over both females. That's the whole book, right there in a single paragraph. But Mr. Katz takes an interminable 267 pages of tedious repetition to arrive there, and unless you're one of his fans, that's about 250 pages longer than I was willing to tolerate.
Frieda "barks, roars and lunges" at every living thing in sight throughout the book. Over and over and over and over.... And though I'm sure Maria (now Mrs. Katz) has many excellent qualities, I did get rather sick of her being portrayed as the most wondrous person who has ever trod the earth. Yep, it was that bad. I could feel my blood sugar rising to dangerous levels as I plowed on through one rapturous paragraph about her after another. And no one else on the planet has the correct attitude towards dogs (or for that matter, any other animals) and how they should be treated and trained other than Jon Katz(!). So if you have a dog, however you're treating it, you're wrong on some level, and Mr. Katz will be happy to tell you why. This from someone who deals with a problem rooster on his farm by taking out his .22 and shooting it! I found his philosophy both repellent and repugnant. And did I mention contradictory? In one place, dogs definitely do not have souls or afterlives according to Mr. Katz, yet once he has achieved a modicum of success with Frieda (after he kicks her, by the way) she suddenly has a "great soul". Well, which is it, Jon? Does she suddenly acquire a soul once she does what you want her to do? That must be part of the spiritual aspect of training that you aver you feel a number of times in your memoir.
Well, I know I'm in the minority on my opinion of this book, since his fans are apparently legion, but my strong recommendation about The Second Chance Dog is don't spend your money or your time. Ugh!
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