Look at this cover! That’s a five star cover right there!

This was an interesting, meaning unusual book and I had to steel myself to read it, knowing that it dealt with “New Yorker” cartoonist Bliss’s writings about his life, especially about his relationship with his beloved dog, Penny and losing her.

Actually, though, the book is the author’s memoir, that he just happened to write while grieving Penny, so she was at the forefront of his mind. There’s lots more than just Penny, though, and Bliss has had an interesting life. In fact, he comments that he’s telling much more than the author of children’s books ought!

Naturally the illustrations are gorgeous, especially the many studies of Penny. Those were sometimes tough to see, and were also a big part of the reason this was a five star read for me, though it won’t be for many others. Last December we lost our dog Cutch at age sixteen and he looked so very much like Penny, especially when sleeping. The book made we cry more than once. And the book is also about age and grief of all kinds, so it’s tough, but it’s lovely. There are some hand-written portions that were hard to read in my digital copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.

I requested this for the beautiful drawing of the dog on the cover. I wish Bliss took commission requests because I would pay good money for a drawing like that of my dog!! I love old dogs, and my husband and I have been rescuing elderly and special needs dogs from shelters for more than 5 years now. We have lost 8 so far and it never gets easier. So I really enjoyed the stories and drawings of his dog Penny. I will say that the summary of the book made it sound like it was ALL about his dog, so I was thrown at first by the other stories. However, I also found the bits about caring for his parents particularly moving. I do wish the galley had included captions for each drawing as I found his handwriting a little difficult to read - maybe the published copy will include that!