Myles possesses, in abundance, two qualities of the highest value for a writer, irreverence and relentless curiosity, and here both are on full display. A mind as searching and honest as Myles’s would not be content to explore the commonplace joys and rewards of dog ownership without also looking at the dark side. Her grief at losing Rosie is profound it is also a revelation. Going back over the painful, at times gruesome, details of Rosie’s decline, Myles is unflinching but also irrepressibly humorous. A book that’s wise to miscommunication but hungry to overcome it, Afterglow celebrates that rare authorial ability to get out of one’s own way and show us a singular and limber mind roaming free. Afterglow becomes an ever-deepening investigation into the nature of human-being-ness, self-knowledge, and knowing things outside of yourself. Throughout the book, Myles accentuates and diminishes the distance between the multiplying voices and styles. For Myles, it’s a dog that becomes the surrogate, or perhaps the midwife, for a sort of vicarious enlightenment. Some writers portray the experience of raising a child as an opportunity to live a second childhood, at least vicariously. Of all the human foibles examined in the book, it is our inability to live in a moment-for the moment-that is most profoundly explored. Afterglow portrays a complex and often hilarious relationship between two animals, characterized by love and a deep interrogation of power, creativity, and point of view.
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