The Lost Dog

January 21, 2008
De Kretser (The Hamilton Case
) presents an intimate and subtle look at Tom Loxley, a well-intentioned but solipsistic Henry James scholar and childless divorcé, as he searches for his missing dog in the Australian bush. While the overarching story follows Tom’s search during a little over a week in November 2001, flashbacks reveal Tom’s infatuation with Nelly Zhang, an artist tainted by scandal—from her controversial paintings to the disappearance and presumed murder of her husband, Felix, a bond trader who got into some shady dealings. As Tom puts the finishing touches on his book about James and “the uncanny” and searches for his dog, de Kretser fleshes out Tom’s obsession with Nelly—from the connection he feels to her incendiary paintings (one exhibition was dubbed “Nelly’s Nasties” in the press) to the sleuthing about her past that he’s done under scholarly pretenses. Things progress rapidly, with a few unexpected turns thrown in as Tom and Nelly get together, the murky circumstances surrounding Felix’s disappearance are (somewhat) cleared up and the matter of the missing dog is settled. De Kretser’s unadorned, direct sentences illustrate her characters’ flaws and desires, and she does an admirable job of illuminating how life and art overlap in the 21st century.

April 1, 2008
While staying in a remote cabin trying to finish his book on Henry James, divorced college professor Tom Loxley loses his dog and sets out to find him in the Australian outback. Accompanying him is Nellie Zhang, a highly regarded contemporary artist with a scandal in her pastand a woman with whom Tom would like to be more than just friends. Tom's search for the dog is mirrored by multiple needs: to understand his past as an immigrant from India, to grasp both Nellie's art and her personal history (information about which is doled out in fragments), to be sensitive to his mother's growing disabilities, and to anchor himself in the present. De Kretser, whose "The Hamilton Case" was a 2004 "New York Times" Notable Book, overlays her protagonist's perceptions with layers of imageryfrom nature, Henry James's ghost stories, contemporary art, urban decay, and renewalcreating a nuanced portrait of a man in his time. The novel, like Tom, is multicultural, intelligent, challenging, and, ultimately, rewarding. Recommended for all literary fiction collections.Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2008
De Kretser (The Hamilton Case, 2004) renders prose thats spare and sublime. Its too bad the protagonist of her third novel is such a self-absorbed bore. Tom Loxley, a divorced professor living in Australia, spends his days dwelling on lifes minutia. This even includes his personal scent (varnished wood with a bass note of cumin, notes Tom, the same aroma as his late father). So when his dog goes missing in the Australian bush, it leads to endless rumination about what might have transpired. Some distraction is provided by Toms friend, Nelly, an eccentric painter whose life has the whiff of scandal(her husband disappeared under suspicious circumstances). Also of concern is Toms mother, Iris, a once-indomitable woman quickly withering with age. Toms scholarly pursuits (hes writing a book on Henry James) are often upstaged by carnal preoccupations (namely, lust for Nelly, who repeatedly refuses his advances). And then theres the matter of the dog. The mystery surrounding Nelly is by far the most interesting part of a book that sags under the weight of Toms tedious ways.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)