Book Review: Ivan! A pound dog's view on life, love and leashes

Wait a minute... was this a novel? Or was this a collection of philosophical musings coming from the point of view of a dog? It had the most disjointed flow ever which made it very difficult to read, but it still progressed through "time" logically, making me rather confused. Occasionally, Ivan had some wise thoughts to share, but I never felt like they were coming from a dog, despite the main character being just that. Unlike 'A Dog's Purpose', no tears were shed, no moments of smiling while I was reading, no emotional investments in this text. In fact, I was so unattached to Ivan, the pound dog, the main character, the narrator. I felt no attachment to him, whatsoever. I didn't really care when he was in trouble, I didn't really care when he had some random stories to share that didn't fit in with the book, I didn't really care when he passed at the end of the book. That's the sign of a bad text, in my opinion.

Yes, the moral at the end o the story was great, as it is with most texts about dogs; life is about loving and being loved in return. It's easy to make this the moral of a text with a dog for a narrator because all dogs do is love unconditionally. Yet, despite Ivan's constant mentions of loving his family, I didn't feel it like I did in the story 'A Dog's Purpose' (which I still only gave a 7/10 so don't think I'm praising this book too much).

The way the "chapters" (would you even call them that?) were written was short and sweet and made it easy to read. But despite such short sections separating the text, the last 50 pages were still a challenge to get through. I just wanted the text to be over. I had read enough. I was not invested in the character, the plot progressed terribly disjointed making it difficult to read, and Ivan just didn't capture me. This could have been a great book had it made up it's mind about whether it wanted to be a novel or a philosophical text and had Ivan been a little less human and made the same discoveries that he did throughout the book, making him more like a dog that a reader can't help but love.

Score: 5.5/10
Link to text: http://www.amazon.com/Ivan-Pound-Dogs-View-Leashes/dp/1596528311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331906146&sr=8-1