AP Review from The Mercury newspaper of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
February 11, 2011
Book
Dog Walks Man, John Zeaman, Hamlyn, $22.99
John Zeaman is a New Jersey art critic who is duped into getting a dog by his children. "The kids wanted a dog . we talked it over .. . they promised to walk it." Sound familiar? Exercising poodle Pete falls to Zeaman. They regularly march around the block "like two pieces on a Monopoly board". Eventually Zeaman discovers that a simple dog walk opens up a whole new world. Day by day and walk by walk, he and Pete journey through their
neighbourhood and get to know the characters and natural wonders in its heart. Woven into the narrative are the issues of how dogs drag you into the most unlikely of conversations, and Zeaman finds an almost Buddhist-style quality of meditation to the daily ritual. "My role as husband and father could be altered and renegotiated, but not my responsibility to the dog," he writes. "There is a hope that a dog injects into every walk, more than a hope an expectation really that this is going to be something wonderful. You'll see, says the dog, something great is going to happen, just you wait." AP
Publisher's Weekly Review, Dec. 20,2010
Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey
John Zeaman, Globe Pequot/Lyons, $22.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-59921-963-9
An experience shared by millions each day, dog walking establishes a bond between people and their pets, and, at its best, allows for a daily period of contemplation and quiet; at its worst, it's an exercise in tedious repetition. Zeaman, an award-winning art critic and children's book author (Before They Were Pets), presents a set of thoughtful, well-written essays about his experience walking Pete, a poodle who draws the family closer together, and helps Zeaman rediscover his childhood sense of wonder, better appreciate nature, and fully explore the wilderness outside his suburban New Jersey front yard. These essays are alternatively humorous and poignant; from analyzing the Meadowlands after a tropical storm ("Pete sloshes through every puddle. Tiny minnows dart and flicker in the shallow water. How'd they get in there? It's like seeing the origins of life.") to struggling to explain a marital separation, Zeaman's relationship with Pete will be instantly familiar to dog lovers everywhere. The author speaks from a place of great affection for dogs, nature, doggie dads (that "brotherhood of dupes"), and New Jersey.
Editor's Lit Picks, Five Best Dog Books of 2010, Bark magazine, Nov/Dec 2010
Dog Walks Man by John Zeaman is a contemplative and humorous exploration of one of the simplest of pleasures: walking with a dog. The narrative's strength comes from its quiet, meditative pacing. Whether he's walking along suburban alleys with Pete, the poodle, or exploring the phantasmagorical landscape of New Jersey's Meadowlands, the author's musings on life's wildness are a pleasure and a joy.
In this same issue, Bark (250,000 readers) printed a 1,000-word excerpt from Chapter 2, Gratitude, with their own illustrations.
http://www.thebark.com/content/magazine
Review in November 7, "Discoveries" column in the Los Angeles Times
Dog Walks Man / A Six-Legged Odyssey
How does a "seemingly mundane chore end up at the center of a person's life?" Walking Pete, beloved standard poodle owned by John Zeaman, an art critic; his wife, Janet; and their two children, Claire (7), and Alex (4), is the still point at the center of the author's life. The family moves from Manhattan to the suburbs of New Jersey and, somewhat impulsively, buys Pete.
For full review:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-discoveries-20101107,0,686491.story
Review in Library Journal, Nov. 1
"Memoir readers—not just New Jerseyans or nature lovers/dog people—will find this book’s gentle humor and wisdom, its exploration of the strange and ordinary, thoroughly absorbing. Highly recommended."
For full review:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviewsbook/887158-421/science_and_technology_reviews_november.html.csp
Review in October BookPage
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
"Journalist John Zeaman creates a masterpiece of contemplation in Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey. After becoming the de facto dog walker in his ..."
www.bookpage.com/reviews.php?id=10002846
Feature article in local newspaper:
Local writer explores the Meadowlands in a dog-walking odyssey
Thursday, October 7, 2010
South Bergenite
Dan O'Keefe
STAFF WRITER
Local writer John Zeaman recognizes that there’s something a little peculiar about taking pride in dog-walking.
"There is nothing to know, in the conventional sense, about walking the dog," he writes in his new book "Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey." "There are few outdoor activities less athletic, strenuous or dangerous. There really is no technique involved. You can’t look back over years of it and take satisfaction in the progress you’ve made. There’s no dog walker’s high that comes after the third trip around the block."
http://www.northjersey.com/news/104465599__Six-legged_odyssey_through_the_meadows.html
Book Review, Tulsa World newspaper
'Dog Walks Man,' man reclaims wonders of life
By Kim Brown
Saturday, October 02, 2010
REQUIRED READING, New York Post, September 26, 2010
By Billy Heller
Dog Walks Man
A Six-Legged Odyssey
by John Zeaman (Lyons Press)
Chicken soup for the dog walker’s soul?
New Jersey arts writer Zeaman ruminates on philosophy, nature and the changing world.
It’s all explored through the lens of man’s most dependable ritual: the daily dog walk. Don’t look for how-to tips here. The closest Zeaman comes is advising you to spell out w-a-l-k in front of your pet so he doesn’t get too excited.
A feature article in the June 14, 2010 issue of Publishers Weekly entitled “Can Sales Reps Survive?” includes some “Rep Picks for Fall,” with DOG WALKS MAN leading the pack.
DOG WALKS MAN by John Zeaman. Globe Pequot/Lyons Press, Oct.
“It’s a very well written and funny John McPhee-style approach to a subject (dog-walking) that at first seems if not boring then uninteresting at best, and eventually becomes fascinating. John Zeaman is an arts columnist for the Bergen County (N.J.) Record and the Newark Star Ledger.”
—TED WEDEL, CHESAPEAKE & HUDSON
