The Last Days of Dogtown by: Anita Diamant

Curiosity creates motivation. Motivation creates movement. Movement enlightens you… or at least makes you shed a few pounds and go to the bathroom regularly. Diamant’s motivation for The Last Days of Dogtown came from a pamphlet about a once named community called Dogtown in Massachusetts. Although the information from the pamphlet was minimal, she got a sense that this community had a story to tell and just like her fabulous novel The Red Tent, Diamant went on to create a completely fictional story about a place, despite uninhabited, is still today called Dogtown. Diamant is very good at persuading the reader into believing that what she has created really did happen. Her imagery, tone, and characters always manage to convince you of their deserved place at that time. Her stories are consistently so wonderfully compelling, she definitely has got a knack for the art of the written word.

However, unlike The Red Tent, which was thick with drama and suspense, Dogtown is read in the same way a dog might go about his day. You start up, read a bit. lay down again, have a snooze, wake up, read a little more, your ears perk up, you wag your tail, then maybe take a walk with it. Stop to lap up some water, scratch the back of your head, suddenly you get excited, your tongue pops out and you start panting and drooling, you pounce on it like a dog would pounce on a possum that has unexpectedly fallen from a tree, chase it a while only to get tired once more. Have a nap, eyes half open, yawn, stretch, take a moment to lick your privates, then finally snuggle up to it.

I know my above analogy must sound like I’ve popped a dozen pills and that the voices are speaking to me again…unfortunately, not today. But this was kind of the pace of the novel… please don’t get me wrong here…this is not a criticism, on the contrary, it felt good to be part of her characters unglamorous, hard, and somewhat tiresome existence. After all, this novel is set in the 1800’s, the human race had not yet created Game Boy, the Internet or cell phones…and how did we ever manage without them I ask you!

When I lived on the Island of FuvahMullah in The Maldives, I lived with barely anything. I had no TV, newspapers, refrigerator, beepers, gadgets, vibrators and most importantly I did not have my electronic nose hair trimmer … Nothing…Okay, I lied, my vibrator came with me (I have short fingers..what can I say!). My point is; that when you strip all the noise and interference out of your lifestyle, you finally get to hear the natural humdrum pitter-patter of living. What your neighbor does becomes very important.. Gossip is what Fatima’s mum said to Khadija’s mum…not who got the Oscar for the best performance in the female genre. It’s a day to day existence that really matters yet it is unhurried and unfolds slowly…Just as with Dogtown.

Dogtown was once a hopeful place that quickly turned into a haven for the despondent and rejected. The small population was made up of widows, drunks, prostitutes, homeless African Americans, abused kids, abandoned dogs even (some said) witches. This community was sneered at and repudiated by more affluent communities and maybe this reputation wasn’t altogether unsubstantiated. We come across some very odious characters that seem to taint all the inhabitants of Dogtown reputations. Among some of the putrid characters are a couple of gems who’s hardships you deeply sympathize with. Nevertheless, their socio/economic situation makes it almost impossible for them to be truly content. Their small glimpses of happiness moved me so, because they stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the realities of their situations and surroundings.

Dogtown recreates a time and place where misery seemed inevitable. Very few opportunities ever presented themselves to those who, from the start, were already doomed. If we take a moment to think about today, we know very well that we have communities like Dogtown scattered all around us. But because our communities have grown so big and prosperous we tend not to notice the people of Dogtown who walk among us. I live very close to Venice Beach in California now and I am appalled that such a rich community has so many vagrants. It breaks my heart when I stop my 8 seater SUV to let the lady with one shoe on her foot, screaming at the sky, cross the road. When I walk home from filling my belly at the local Mexican restaurant and see the aged old man, huddled in the refuge of a shop door, surrounded by cardboard and his own piss. I feel sick inside, when I step outside my dentist’s office and pass the prostitute with meth stained teeth in a carcass of a body. When I worked in the schools of Compton, South Central, I was humbled and very worried at the conditions of the schools. I worked in 5 different Middle schools, and I never came across a white student. Have we really moved on from the days of Dogtown…or is this all an illusion?

The Last Days of Dogtown depicts a grueling way of life. Most of the characters are gruesome in some shape or form and I can only imagine that gruel was a staple diet for almost all at that time. Gruel, otherwise known as porridge, is a thin watery cooked cereal that is now mostly consumed for breakfast but was once served out as an economic necessity, often used to nurse the sick back to health. It has been used as a metaphor for cruelty, as seen in Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist and has carried a bad reputation ever since. For me, The Last Days of Dogtown, conjures up the image of a big bowl of cruel gruel yet there is beauty in this baron tasteless town. It comes from the endurance of Diamant’s castaway characters. and their battle against their respective lives.

Once again, Diamant has written a poignantly real tale of human behaviors that have direct links to their time and place…Diamant, you must know by now that I think you’re the bee’s knees and all I ask is “please ma’am, may I have some more!”

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