Border Dogs

by Karen Palmer

Book Overview

The stretch of border James Reese guards, a hundred miles east of San Diego, is a line between poverty and wealth. All the illegals want is to labour in the fields on the other side. Guides take them... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569473153
• ISBN13: 9781569473153
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Soho Press
• Length: 305 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Lesson in Craft

In this story of a man torn between cultures, choices, and identities, Palmer does an amazing job of continually upping the stakes for James Reese. A series of events--the escalating dangers of his job, his wife's pregnancy, and the death of his birth mother--come together to force him into a harrowing examination of his past. Palmer presents an utterly convincing male narrator whose difficulties are both global and personal. James is a character who will remain in your mind long after you've finished the book. Furthermore, Border Dogs functions as a beautiful example of how a novel should be written, combining an almost thriller-like sense of tension with a precise yet lyric style. Palmer is both a writer's writer and a reader's writer; her novel is not only a page turner but a lesson in craft.

The Curve Balls of Life

I am not a professional reviewer and do not know much about border agents and patrolling, but there is something I do know about, and that is life sure can throw some tough curve balls at you. I think Palmer brilliantly depicts the vagaries of life, the insecurities which we all face in our love, our work, and relationships. Her protagonist is an imperfect man trying to find the right path in a world that surrounds him with deceit and danger. I can identify with that. Palmer's language is real, her characters true, her descriptions so compelling that I can taste the grit, the dust, the ash on my tongue as her character traverses the desolate landscape of the desert as well as the haunting shadows of his life. I actually enjoyed this book more than All Saints, and I loved that book as well. Looking foward to a third novel from this exceptional writer.

An evocative, writerly tale

I didn't read this book for an education about the Border Patrol, but because I knew (from All Saints) that the author could tell an absorbing story in a style both lucid and poetic. In my opinion she succeeds beautifully here, leading us gradually to an intimacy with her characters that makes the book's eventual revelations very moving. I confess to having very little particular knowledge of border policing, but I do understand the criminal justice system and the laws governing inheritance, and found Palmer's descriptions of those processes quite precise and reliable. This is a memorable book, thoughtfully and unsentimentally conceived, exquisitely well written.