I’ve just finished reading Straw Dogs, by John Gray. Jim, a friend of mine, told me to buy it and read it and that if I didn’t like it he would pay my money back. His money’s safe.
I was initially confused because the book shares the same name with the Sam Peckinpah film starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, and I couldn’t see how that linked to the existential meanderings that had led Jim to suggest that I read it. There’s no connection between the two, apart from the fact that they both, each in their own way, address the issue of men as animals.
Gray’s book is disturbing, provocative, insightful and argumentative. When I saw him in discussion with Martin Amis and Blake Morrison, he seemed a thoughtful and cheery bloke, which seemed at odds with the unrelenting and apocalyptic polemicist that he can be on the page. I found reading the book to be a journey, from ‘What’s the point?’ to ‘See the world around you, see what we’re doing and question everything.’ As somebody who values questions more than answers I revelled in Gray’s willingness to see nothing that men pride themselves on as a given. Paradoxically, he seems to be a guy who has an answer, or maybe a response, to everything. One of the notes I made at the end of the Amis event was that John Gray would be a good guy to spend an evening at the pub with.
No comments:
Post a Comment