Welcome friend! It is time to share about another Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist! The second short stories collection in the 2022 shortlist, Stray Dogs: Stories by Rawi Hage, has thoughtful stories to offer. Take a look at the synopsis below and then we will dive into my thoughts and reading experience.
Stray Dogs: Stories
By Rawi Hage | Goodreads
In Montreal, a photographer’s unexpected encounter with actress Sophia Loren leads to a life-altering revelation about his dead mother. In Beirut, a disillusioned geologist eagerly awaits the destruction that will come with an impending tsunami. In Tokyo, a Jordanian academic delivering a lecture at a conference receives haunting news from the Persian Gulf. And in Berlin, a Lebanese writer forms a fragile, fateful bond with his voluble German neighbours.
The irresistible characters in Stray Dogs lead radically different lives, but all are restless travelers, moving between states–nation-states and states of mind–seeking connection, escaping the past and following delicate threads of truth, only to experience the sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing and often random ways our fragile modern identities are constructed, destroyed, and reborn. Politically astute, philosophically wise, humane, relevant and caustically funny, these stories reveal the singular vision of award-winning writer Rawi Hage at his best.
Stray Dogs – Review
I generally make notes on stories as I go as you would have noticed in my review of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century. Stray Dogs was quite different. The stories were interesting but as a whole, the collection drew me more and I wanted to reflect on it rather than them.
The love for photography is a common thread among many characters in the stories, including both amateur photographers and academics. The theme of displacement, or being away from home or returning to one’s homeland, is also prevalent. As an immigrant, I particularly enjoy reading about this theme. One story that stands out to me is “Mother, Mother, Mother,” which depicts a son’s portrait of his mother after her passing. He grapples with his grief and decides not to return to his home country. Through his memories of childhood, he recalls his mother’s strength and resilience in the face of her husband’s departure and her own heartbreak.
There are stories about leaving for a better life and also returning because leaving wasn’t really any better. Some tales are set in Montreal, while others take place in Japan and Beirut. The writing is engaging and the descriptions of the places and characters are vivid. The narratives also delve into deeper political and personal themes, framed within the context of cultural and artistic pursuits.
The most haunting of the collection was “The Whistle”. It was a revisit of childhood memories while overlaying the meaning of our actions which we can only find sometimes when we are older.
The complex writing and heavy themes made it a challenging read. I can see this book as being an impactful read in a comparative literature class curriculum and I believe I would have gotten a lot more out of it in discussing with peers. If you want to take a look at this book, find it on Goodreads.
I was reminded of The Arsonists’s City which is the only other book in my memory which was set in Beirut. Read my book discussion with Ariel on that one here.
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