Difficulty of Being a Dog

Roger Grenier, an editor at Editions Gallimard, has published over thirty novels, short stories, and literary essays and is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Grand Prix de Litterature de l'Academie Francaise. Alice Kaplan is the author of French Lessons and The Collaborator, both published by the University of Chicago Press. She also translated Grenier's novel Another November.

"This slim volume is beautifully written, and the prose flows like poetry. The market has been flooded with a plethora of popularly written books attempting to explain canines and why people love them, yet this book... raises the subject to a higher plane. A gem." - Library Journal, starred review "[L]iterate, light and lighthearted....[A] kind of anthology of literary musings about dogs based on Mr. Grenier's extensive readings in everything from Faulkner to the Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki." - Richard Bernstein, New York Times "[A] very superior commonplace book of canine characteristics, the mixture of Grenier's own anecdotes with quotations from other intellectuals making it far from the average gift-shop item - as if Roland Barthes had opted for domestic animals rather than for fashion or photography." - John Stokes, Times Literary Supplement "With whimsical humor and mordant wit, [Grenier] applies a broad and deep knowledge of literary dog lovers from Homer to Flaubert and Faulkner, elaborating not only on their insights into doglove and hate but also on what these writers' revelations tell us about ourselves....[A]n appealing gift item, this slim volume will make lovers both of literature and canines sit up and take notice." - Publishers Weekly