Reviews

Il potere del cane by Thomas Savage, Annie Proulx, Luisa Corbetta

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yak_attak's review against another edition

4.0

This is a particularly hard book for me to get my head around, because I ended up reading it very soon after seeing the recent 2021 film, and so much of my reaction to it is inevitably colored by my experience there - How does X compare to the film? Did the film do X better? Did it suffer for leaving out X scene? Not really interesting questions when just looking at the book itself, but that's all I can focus on.

So I guess I can say this - if you're a fan of one, you'll be a fan of the other, Campion has made an extremely faithful adaption of this work, capturing so well all the anxiety and subtle social malice Savage has managed to capture in his work. As noted by so many reviews, Phil is such a masterfully created character - complex, real, deeply unlikable, his motivations both simple but also something you have to discover as the layered plot unveils.

The major difference then comes down to the writing, and that's where I'm just not sure - Savage writes with such a stark simplicity that you can really only react one of two ways. One, he lays out the burgeoning west with a piercing eye, digging in to masculinity, class, fear, and the grandeur and draw of nature, but never in a way that overwhelms. The second though, Savage commits to his focus with an almost childish simplicity, at times it feels like you're reading the violent, simmering hateful sequel to 'see spot run'. As you can probably guess, I have a preference for prose that's a little more flourishy than this, but it's hard to complain much when it works so well - Either way, it's imminently readable.

I'm not well read in westerns, so I wouldn't start here for your western takes, but... yeah, totally understandable why this is a classic, and definitely would recommend.

kennedien's review against another edition

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5.0

How is this book not more widely known? It is so beautiful, I feel as if I actually know these characters in real life they are so vivid and fleshed out. Their experiences can be so odd and surreal but also very relatable. So fantastic, I loved the ending.