THE POWER OF THE DOG BY THOMAS SAVAGE

I wasn’t sure where the plot of THE POWER OF THE DOG by Thomas Savage was going.  The loose conversational style of the writing with an almost mock seriousness and characters who are described down to the condition of their hands and their choices in footwear relaxes the reader so when the ending comes, an ending that knocks the wind out of you, it’s so perfect, so chilling, so powerful, it instantly elevates DOG for me as one of the greatest books I’ve ever read.

That sounds like a big statement I know but most works of fiction, even great and near great novels, meander along and one can feel the writer struggle with the plot and how best to express it.  One can feel the language pulled from within the writer and as the author of a couple of books myself I know this can be an effort.

So when a book comes along like this without a hint of effort, with gears meshing like the perfectly executed literary machine, it's striking.  

The Burbank brothers own a ranch in rural Idaho.  Their parents have retired to Utah after an unspecified conflict with older brother Phil.  Phil is one of the most complex, fully realized characters in fiction I’ve come across.  A master of everything he attempts be it playing the banjo, making arrowheads, managing men or just keeping up on world events, reading books etc.  He is an alpha male but one who neither cares for nor seeks the approval of others.  Phil does not like people but this dislike is not caused by any sense of victimization but rather by a sense of his own superiority coupled with a secret he is hiding (I’ll get to that).

His younger brother George by comparison is affable and easy-going.  Whereas Phil handles the ranch’s inner workings, George is the exterior guy - handles the purchases of supplies and the selling of what the ranch produces.  Phil and George have an unspoken relationship that works for them.

What changes is the introduction of a woman, Rose, who George marries.  She is the widow of a local doctor who had failed to make a decent living for them, turned to alcohol, and committed suicide after being publicly embarrassed in a bar by a rancher.  One of the great twists in this book is that George turns out to be the rancher.

Phil treats Rose (who moves out to the ranch) with disdain ignoring her except for the occasional rude comment.  He does however towards the end of the book strike up a relationship with Peter her effeminate son by her first husband.  This proves to be his downfall.

The last 50 pages or so of this book remind me of another of my favorite novels THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN by Christina Stead.  Both books have carefully crafted narratives and fill their ending cycle of death, of one of the main characters, of the unhealthy status quo with razor sharp tension.

Annie Proulx in her afterword makes a big deal about Phil being a repressed homosexual (his secret).  I do agree with this analysis but I don’t believe that is as important to the story as she thinks it is.  If he had been allowed to express himself, he still would have been a petty bully.

In retrospect, the character of Peter totally passes the reader by until his final action then understanding hits full force.  Unlike say the boys in a book like THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA by Yukio Mishima, there are not as many hints as what’s going to happen.  Well played, Thomas Savage!