“Fifteen Dogs”, is a thrilling novel written by Canadian author André Alexis. It entails a fictional tale that takes place in modern Toronto and incorporates Greek mythology and modern-day philosophy to convey a very subtle message to the reader, that one cannot teach an old dog new tricks. The main plot of the book concentrates on the pros and cons of having human-level intelligence. The gods disagree on whether or not intelligence brings happiness into the lives of humans and decide to settle the quarrel by presenting 15 dogs with the intelligence level of an average human to see
if they will live happy lives. The personification linked with the symbolism present in this text directly represents how majority of people live stubborn lives and only a few cherish it. In summary, the book is mostly narrated from a canine’s perspective and due to this, the style of writing is decorated with various forms of sensory imagery. The figurative language reeks of tainting smells and unappetizing tastes that
accurately represents a stereotypical dog’s life on the streets of Downtown Toronto. From a critic’s point of view, the novel’s content is quite mature as the topics implicitly discussed contain derogatory information that many children wouldn’t have knowledge of. The inner workings of the sexual prowess of human intelligence is discussed with detail and the role it plays with the happiness one feels in life. The overall theme of teaching an old dog new tricks is quite evident as the majority of the dogs constantly refuse to adjust to the newfound ability to communicate with each other. They feel that with their new “powers” they will be more like miserable humans and less like their canine counterparts. The lucid language plays a critical part in propagating this theme as it displays exactly how the dogs are adjusting to their newfound ability to comprehend what their senses are detecting. Another secondary theme of societal hierarchy was displayed through characterization, as it allowed André Alexis the ability to display how smarter but weaker individuals have to bow to those of physical advantages (larger dogs). The part of the book that really hit it home for me was the setting of the novel. The metropolitan area of Toronto created a level of familiarity with me as I am constantly passing by certain mentioned landmarks on a weekly basis. Although it was interesting to read, the novel was heavily centered around philosophical themes and brought many confusing monologues of characters defining social traits that they were encountering on a case-by-case basis. My recommendation to people viewing this book as a future prospect on their reading list is that read it with an open mind as it put a spin on social situations that we all know too well. With that in mind, I would like to conclude that this novel was an above average read and I personally recommend it to be a leisure novel of those studying at a university level as it includes
concepts that many younger audiences may have not have experienced yet in this day and age (i.e. sexual maturity and working relationships).