*** 1/2 - This was definitely a different take on a pirate tale, and I enjoyed a great deal of it. But the book definitely hit one of my hot buttons - it simplified a complex issue and conflict (the U.S. Civil War) to the point of trivializing it. And in a book packed full of 'gray' moral and sexual choices, I found it jarring and insulting.It's pretty much a given that an Irish childhood is a difficult one - but things are more difficult still for Emer Morrisey who was growing up during Cromwell's invasions into Ireland. But Emer is not one to be daunted easily. So when she is torn from her childhood love and meant to be married off to a Frenchman, she turns notorious pirate instead! And what's a pirate without a curse?
Saffron Adams is born in the 1970s in a trailer park with all of Emer's memories (and bloodthirsty inclinations) - and a drive to get the heck out of her dreadful life with her dull parents and nasty brother, grab her buried treasure and live a life of ease. After some initial difficulties, she hops over to Jamaica to see if she can't find the gold - and runs into some trouble with an odd lecherous middle-aged man who may or may not be the reincarnation of that very dastardly Frenchman.
I wanted to like this book so much. It's got a fun premise (who doesn't love pirates, or teenagers that dream of popping the eyeballs out of their algebra teacher?), dogs, and all kinds of quirky. And parts of it, I really did like - I was swept away by Emer's childhood in Ireland, and I enjoyed reading about her slow burgeoning romance with Seanie. But round-about the time she turns pirate, I stopped liking her much.
I admired Emer's strength in getting herself to Jamaica, but I was pretty pissed off about her sexual choices. Let me be abundantly clear here, I don't have a quarrel with the author or her presentation of Emer's decision. This is a very honest and real portrayal of a dilemma young women face (in a less drastic form) and Emer's decision to have sex with a man she doesn't love to 'get it over with' essentially isn't glorified or condemned. The decision, and its consequences, are dealt with in an unflichingly honest way - everything is very much shades of gray. My quarrel is thus not with the author, but with the character. I didn't like the character's decision. It made me lose respect for Emer. And that wasn't the only section where the sexual undercurrents of the novel squicked me out. The entire situation with the middle-aged creep in Jamaica gave me the heebie-jeebies.
As to the dog facts - I liked some of them, some were incredibly sad, several were irritatingly preachy (the one about the Civil War just made me downright irate). What I didn't quite get was how they tied into the rest of the novel. They seemed largely random with no real connection to what was going on in either Emer or Saffron's stories - and that made them seem more like a gimmick than anything, which was a bit disappointing.
Given my reaction to a lot of the moral dilemmas and the moral stances the author throws into the mix, this was never going to be a favorite of mine. But with the cover and the premise, I expected something with more swashbuckling adventuring in the past life, maybe some entertaining sections in math class about keelhauling someone. So I was taken aback by the novel's tone and by its grittiness. While others found a lot to love in Saffron and Emer's stories, The Dust of 100 Dogs just wasn't the story for me.
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