num_pages: 307
description: Imagine if Annie Dillard had taken a dog along with her to Tinker Creek. Now imagine Tinker Creek was a New Jersey suburb and you have an idea of the surprises that await in John Zeamans book. Humorous thought-provoking and playful Dog Walks Man might also be called Zen and the Art of Dog Walking. Zeaman takes us on a journey from a 'round-the-block fraternity of dog-walking dupessuburban fathers who indulged their childrens wish for a dogto a strange and forbidden wonderland at the edge of town the New Jersey Meadowlands. Along the way he rediscovers childhoods forgotten fringe places investigates the mysteries of the natural world and experiences moments of inexplicable joy. Each chapter of Dog Walks Man is a bite-size meditation on the wisdom derived from dogs and dog walking. Woven into the narrative are musings on such familiar dog-walking issues as the war of nerves that precedes each walk (or w-a-l-k if your dog is in earshot) the problem of dog-walking monotony and why dog walkers are always the ones to discover dead bodies. This is also the story of Pete the prescient standard poodle who begins as the family glue and evolves into Zeamans partner on a journey through an abandoned landscape as alive as any jungle. Above all Dog Walks Man is about a search for wholeness in an increasingly artificial world. It is about discovering what Thoreau meant when he wrote in his seminal essay Walking Life consists with wildness. Because the truth is something as simple as walking the dog can open up unexpected worlds.
language: English
title: Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey
publisher: Lyons Press