A review by ellenw
The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

2.0

Let's get this out of the way first: there is nothing even remotely resembling linguistics in this book. The main character could have just as easily been an English teacher (more believably, in fact), and the author doesn't seem to have, you know, done any research on the subject. When the main character decides to try to teach his dog to talk, his colleagues think he's gone around the bend -- and RIGHTFULLY SO. He should have been laughed out of that department. (It would get a pass if he were supposed to have been genuinely unhinged, but that's not the impression I get elsewhere.)

Anyway. Other than that, interesting concept, and I liked some of the flashback passages. Overall, though, took some weird twists and turns to end up at the conclusion I'd been expecting all along. Not an intellectual novel, but nor is it as moving as it might have been.