A Three Dog Life

 

ABIGAIL THOMAS

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Harcourt, Inc., 2007.

How acquired: Bought at a library sale.

First line: This is the one thing that stays the same: my husband got hurt.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I picked up this book because of the title, thinking it was going to be about the author's life with three dogs. And some of it was, but it was really about the author's life following an accident that left her husband with traumatic brain damage. And I loved it. It's heartbreaking, yet hopeful. It's incredibly interesting, and beautifully written. It is most definitely worth reading.

Goodreads Synopsis: When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life. How she built that life is a story of great courage and great change, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt and discovering gratitude. It is also about her relationship with Rich, a man who lives in the eternal present, and the eerie poetry of his often uncanny perceptions. This wise, plainspoken, beautiful book enacts the truth Abigail discovered in the five years since the accident: You might not find meaning in disaster, but you might, with effort, make something useful of it.