Men And Dogs: Praise

ORDER FROM: Amazon Barnes & Noble Borders IndieBound

"Prepare to have your heart broken while laughing out loud at this breathtaking, scathingly sardonic novel."
—People Magazine

"Before Buzz disappears, he warns little Hannah: “There won’t always be a why.” In a book that goes down as easily as this one, that’s just fine." —Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A delicate and subtle novel"
—Boston Globe

"A compelling family drama...with enough dark humor tossed in at unexpected moments, thus avoiding melodrama. Crouch blends these elements seamlessly - and rather than deliver an eye-rolling happy ending, she gives us exactly the ending we hope for."
—San Francisco Chronicle

Crouch's accomplished sophomore novel kicks off with a flashback: 20-odd years ago, Buzz Legare vanished while on a fishing trip. The fallout of his disappearance and presumed death appears in his 30-something children: Hannah drinks too much, her business is failing, and her husband has kicked her out after her repeated adultery. Hannah's gay brother, Palmer, refuses to let anyone get too close—he's ready to end his yearlong relationship when his partner brings up the idea of adopting a baby. After Hannah injures herself trying to break into her husband's apartment, she heads home to Charleston, S.C., to get her life back on track, but instead finds herself pursuing the past. Damaged and vulnerable, she zigzags through her past—an old boyfriend, questions about her parents' fidelity, and finally facing down where her unwillingness to accept love has gotten her. There's nothing unique about the premise—woman in crisis goes home and discovers herself by exhuming the past—but Crouch (Girls in Trucks) handles it deftly; her dialogue is snappy, the situations darkly funny, Hannah and Palmer are unlikable but sympathetic, and there's just enough mystery to keep the pages turning. (Apr.)
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

The collapse of her marriage, not to mention a three-story fall, sends a woman back home to Charleston, S.C., to investigate her father’s disappearance, in Crouch’s sardonic second (Girls in Trucks, 2008).
Hannah, 35, and her now-estranged husband Jon are sudden San Francisco millionaires—their online sex-toy business has taken off. Her drinking and infidelity have driven Jon away. Hannah suffered her most intractable emotional wound 24 years before, the day her father Buzz, a successful doctor, motored out alone into Charleston harbor, accompanied only by the family dog, Tucker. He never showed up for his son Palmer’s soccer game that afternoon. His boat was found, containing only Tucker. Buzz’s body was never recovered. His beautiful wife, Daisy, moved on and married DeWitt, Charleston’s wealthiest man. Hannah has always compared her looks—she resembles her father, whose features look too big on her—unfavorably to her mother’s. After drunkenly scaling Jon’s apartment building to prove her love, and losing her footing thanks to a yapping terrier, she wakes up in the hospital. Jon and Daisy give her a choice: recuperation in Charleston, or rehab. Rooting among old photos in DeWitt’s mansion, she discovers some unsettling clues. One snapshot shows Daisy and Buzz at a party with a group of stoned, hippie-like friends. Hovering in the background is DeWitt. But Daisy claimed not to have met DeWitt until after Buzz vanished. Palmer, a veterinarian, is quarreling with his boyfriend Tom over whether they want a child—as if gay life in Charleston wasn’t challenging enough. In his mind, Palmer obsessively revisits his father’s last day—was Buzz driven to suicide after accidentally spotting Palmer in flagrante with another boy?  Only Hannah still thinks Buzz may be alive. But if he is, why did he abandon her? Although it’s believable, one senses Hannah’s quest for Buzz is merely a pretext—self-knowledge and redefinition of family are the real goals here.
Sunny outlook with enough clouds to keep it interesting.
—Kirkus, 2/15

When Hannah Legare was a young girl, her father disappeared on a routine fishing trip. Years later, Hannah finally confronts her past when she is forced to recuperate at home in Charleston, SC, after a drunken accident in San Francisco. This is not Hannah’s best moment. Her marriage is failing, owing to her serial adultery; her sex-toy business is tanking; she drinks too much; and she holds her mother, stepfather, and brother Palmer at a distinct distance. By digging into the past—her father’s disappearance, the state of her parents’ marriage, and unfinished business with her high school boyfriend—Hannah doesn’t really discover the answers but learns just enough about love and herself that she can face her present reality. VERDICT Hannah is not exactly a likable character, but she reflects enough humor in her brokenness to be memorable. Crouch’s second novel sounds formulaic, but as in her best-selling Girls in Trucks, she writes with a dark, twisty, but approachable Southern charm.
—Library Journal, 3/1


"Katie Crouch's novel-- about hope, healing and coming home Southern-style-- is not only moving and suspenseful and wise, but hilarious! Suffused with sassy intelligence and warmth, Men and Dogs gripped me from the first page and wouldn't let go."
—Irina Reyn, What Happened to Anna K.

"Katie Crouch is at her stealthy best in this tale of unresolved memories and early mid-life crisis. MEN AND DOGS sucks you in and won’t let go."
—Lucinda Rosenfeld, What She Saw

"Katie Crouch is an American original. MEN AND DOGS is an opus of the struggle between a daughter and her father and the wounds and jubilation carried from that relationship into marriage and adulthood. It is, in turns, poignant, revealing, hilarious and sad.  This is a great pick for book clubs everywhere! Katie's novel will not only inspire a lively discussion, it will ignite one!"
—Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

"A joyous, furious story of people getting everything wrong - in a book that gets everything right."
—Daniel Handler, author of Adverbs