By: kacunnin

kacunnin — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:31:29 +0000

“Some dog, huh?” Dean Koontz’s A BIG LITTLE LIFE, is a beautiful and inspiring tribute to his golden retriever, Trixie. Those of us who have read Koontz’s novels know that dogs – and especially goldens – have always appeared prominently in his works; and Trixie’s picture has graced many a book jacket, sitting happily with her human owner. So it was no surprise how much this dog meant to both Koontz and his wife, Gerda. Trixie was a dog who not only changed their lives, but showed them a glimpse of the truly spiritual. As Koontz so beautifully writes, “She lived to love and to receive love, which is the condition of angels.”A BIG LITTLE LIFE is a very spiritual memoir, and Koontz is clear that he saw Trixie as an angel (in the overarching, grandly sacred sense). One of Koontz’s acquaintances referred to Trixie as a “holy soul,” and that is just the way Koontz portrays her. In the memoir he describes incident after incident that reveals Trixie as an amazingly special being, with the ability to connect with the humans in her world, to differentiate between good and evil, and to see beyond the mundane. Whether or not you believe the stories Koontz tells, it’s impossible to read this book and not feel the impact of this dog on the lives of her human owners.I’ve read most of Koontz’s novels – I have always found them to be both frightening and uplifting in their affirmation of the human spirit. Even his most disturbing novels (like INTENSITY) contain within them an element of hope that leaves the reader profoundly touched. My favorite Koontz novel has always been WATCHERS, in which a wonderful golden retriever named Einstein leads her human companions out of the darkness. That this novel was written over ten years before Koontz acquired his own wonderful golden is amazing!Read A BIG LITTLE LIFE – it will move you in unexpected ways. Even if you’re not a dog lover, you can’t help but be inspired by this animal’s impact on the humans in her life. Koontz writes, “We are a community of potential saints with a shared destiny, and each of us is a thread in a tapestry of meaning.” Trixie is the one who helped Koontz see this and live this – and in that alone she was an angel. This is a lovely tribute to a very special dog.

By: Sheila L. Beaumont

Sheila L. Beaumont — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:01:23 +0000

A heartwarming tribute to a joyous dog I love Dean Koontz’s fiction, and I found this heartwarming nonfiction tribute to his late golden retriever, Trixie, just as absorbing as any of his novels. It portrays Trixie’s life with the Koontzes, and her death, but mostly her life and the amazing impact she had on the lives of Dean and his wife, Gerda.This innocent, joyful, intelligent, uncannily mysterious, dignified, fun-loving dog, retired before the age of three as a service dog with Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), became part of the Koontz family in 1998. I was surprised to find out that many of Koontz’s dog novels, including “Watchers,” had been written before he ever had a dog; obviously he already had an affinity for canines. He and Gerda had been supporters of CCI for eight years before adopting Trixie.I loved Koontz’s account of how Trixie’s intelligence and sense of wonder revealed that she had a soul, and restored his and Gerda’s own sense of wonder. Trixie made it evident that dogs are not mindless mechanisms operating solely on instinct, as some animal behaviorists would have us believe, but rather that they do think, possess intuition, experience emotions similar to ours, have a sense of humor, and even a spiritual dimension.Of course, there is real sadness in the account of Trixie’s last days, and her death, and it brought me to tears. But there’s also gratitude for the joy she brought to the Koontzes’ lives, and hope that her spirit survives. On the whole, this inspiring memoir is joyous, delightful and lively, and much of it is very funny. I highly recommend this book to all dog lovers and to readers who enjoy Koontz’s dog stories.

Comments on: A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog

By: kacunnin

By: Sheila L. Beaumont