Although Myles definitely stretches the definition of 'a dog memoir,' there is some marvelous writing on dogs, and about dog ownership in particular-both the intense scrutiny that's borne out of love and also the dilemma of all that tenderness and adoration weighed against the wrongness of leading another living being around by the neck.

And some of it is just too dense or esoteric for the likes of me, and I was perfectly happy to read along and let some of it settle to the bottom in order for the stuff that resonated for me to rise. Some of it is just gorgeous, lyrical, madly associative and evocative. That's definitely the case with this book, and honestly I get the feeling that Eileen Myles would be just fine with the idea of taking what you want and leaving the rest. I think a lot of the time poets' prose efforts can be so packed that they're by nature uneven-I guess you can say the same for poetry as well. Moving from an imaginary talk show where Rosie is interviewed by Myles's childhood puppet, to a critical reenactment of the night Rosie mated with another pit bull from shimmering poetic transcriptions of video footage taken during their walks, to Rosie's final enlightened narration from the afterlife, this totally singular text combines elements of science fiction, screenplay, monologue, and lucid memory to get to the heart of how and why we dedicate our existence to our dogs.

At the same time, it reimagines Myles's experiences with alcoholism and recovery, intimacy and mourning, celebrity and politics, spirituality and family history, while joyously transcending the parameters of memoir. And starting from the emptiness following Rosie's death, Afterglow launches a playful and incisive investigation into the mostly mutually beneficial, sometimes reprehensible power dynamics between pet and pet-owner. Over the course of sixteen years together, Myles was devoted to the pit bull and their linked quality of life. In 1990, Myles chose Rosie from a litter on the street, and their connection instantly made an indelible impact on the writer's way of being.

Afterglow by Eileen Myles