Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage

10 reviews

farmpaws's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The heartbreak and dread of this story prowl around you for this entire book, staring out at you through Thomas Savage’s incredibly vivid descriptions. I’ve never smelt sagebrush, or been anywhere close to Montana, but I felt like I was on every page of this story. I could sit down at the table in the Burbank’s enormous house, and feel the silence crawl down my spine. Every inch of this was vividly alive, each character, especially Phil, felt so alive. It was stunning. 

This book is a product of its time politics wise, but otherwise, I have no complaints. I only wish I could have lingered longer. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Racism, Homophobia, Animal death, and Blood

This book starts with castrating a bull calf, and contains fairly detailed descriptions of butchering animals for food.

mia_merrill's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Racism, Grief, Homophobia, and Antisemitism

Minor: Murder

booksthatburn's review

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

THE POWER OF THE DOG is about manhood and homophobia in the last gasps of the Old West, following a rich cattle rancher and his brother as one starts to have a life outside of their duo and the other tries to make him miserable enough to stay.

If you liked the 2021 film of the same name, adapted from this text, then you’ll probably like the book. The main changes are consolidations; placing some events as backstory instead of showing them as the book does, collapsing two side events into one, and to move Phil’s bigotry into fewer targets. The rest of this review contains minor spoilers, as it’s impossible to discuss what makes this so good without talking about some of what happens in it.

Phil is an odious person, a homophobic man who has based his hygiene and personal habits around as many opposites to his idea of a gay man in his era (clean, well-dressed, quiet, liking womanly things) that he possibly can. The end result is someone who bathes once a month (not at all in the winter), refuses to wear gloves (not even when castrating cattle and doing all the other bloody, messy work required to drive cattle and run a ranch), and uses his exceptionally sharp mind to whittle down the confidence of anyone who catches his ire (usually in language dripping with bigotry of whatever kind will sting the most). His closest relationship is with his brother George, a closeness which assumes George would never request distance and leaves Phil frustrated when George falls in love and marries a widow. He’s also enamored with his long-dead mentor in all things cowboy; Bronco Henry, talking up his wisdom and exploits to the ranch hands even two decades on from Bronco Henry’s death.

George meets and marries Rose, a widow whose husband killed himself early on in the book, years before the main story. Their son is strange, eventually assumed by Phil to be gay, called a sissy for his arrangements of paper flowers and way of dressing and walking. The boy’s quiet study of medical texts and dissections of animals hum along in the background, eventually he attends medical school with the help of his late father’s books. His actual sexuality is secondary to Phil’s perception of it, seeing the boy as weakness walking, the embodiment of everything Phil despises even as he eventually longs for connection again. 

Phil’s homophobia is one of a pile of bigotries which he wields like barbs when he’s irritated or inconvenienced. He most common method of addressing his brother is “Fatso”, and when Rose starts drinking in an attempt to stomach living in the same house as him, he belittles her for it, taking it as proof that she’s just taking advantage of his brother. His every action drips condemnation, that if someone has chosen to do what Phil would not, then they must be weak or scheming and their choice is contemptible. 

The audiobook narrator’s calm tone is perfect for this dryly delivered story which builds slowly, layers of time pooling to form the whole. The ending is quiet, managing to tie together everything in a single calm moment. It’s a resolution that feels like life, where one phase can unquestionably be over even as everything else continues on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Racism, Alcoholism, and Bullying

Moderate: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Antisemitism, Ableism, Homophobia, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Pregnancy, Violence, Miscarriage, and Murder

larseneiii's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Animal death, Antisemitism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, and Racism

felofhe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Death, Grief, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

meganeorcx's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Antisemitism, Racism, Colonisation, Animal death, Suicide, and Alcoholism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Bullying

kangaci's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide, Colonisation, Murder, and Sexism

irenecm's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Suicide

saldre's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Power of the Dog is a hidden literary gem. I didn't know this book existed until I watched the movie on Netflix. It's a beautifully written, complex psychological drama about 2 brothers on a Montana ranch in the 1920s. It's a thought provoking look at good versus evil, toxic masculinity, repressed homosexuality, and alcoholism. Don't miss out on this book! Also, make sure to read the afterward written by Annie Proulx. In the afterward, the reader learns that the author Thomas Savage took characters & situations from his own life and included it in this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Animal death, Bullying, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death, Blood, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Panic attacks/disorders

proseproseprose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Antisemitism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Racism