Product Description

From the author of the classic book, Playing God in Yellowstone, comes a rare book about the relationship of dogs, people, and the land they inhabit. Alston Chase tells a deeply personal and exceptionally moving story of his relationship with his animal companions over a period of thirty years. The title of the book was inspired by the words of Rudyard Kipling: "When we are certain of sorrow in store/ Why do we always arrange for more/ Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware/ Of giving your heart to a dog to tear."

The book is at one level about the Jack Russell terriers Ifrit, Bungee, and their own friends as well as the people who nominally owned them and other dogs as well. Alston Chase tells of his search for the immortality of dogs, what makes them special, and why we willingly give them our hearts knowing that someday they'll die and leave us bereft.

Chase's connection to his dogs is strong as the pull of the land that he loves. He writes of both, and the spirits of both, as "inseparable ghosts." To Chase, land is a community of living things that is born and eventually dies, like dogs and people - but their spirits live on.

Rich in poetic citations, We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear presents a deeply moving belief that though people and dogs may perish and the land may change beneath one's feet, the essence of each individual soul is immortal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #649201 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 235 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781412807791
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear is a poignant, wise account of dogs, men, the land they inhabit which inhabits them." -- Donald McCaig, author of Nop's Trials, Jacob's Ladder and Rhett Butler's People

"We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear is a fantastic piece of work. I could not put it down. I pray and hope that many will read this wonderful book to understand better the true character of our terriers, and what is happening to our environment." -- Ailsa Crawford, Founder and President Emeritus, the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America

"The author is Alston Chase, one of the more interesting and reflective writers about nature and the wilderness...I really like his book...Among the delights of the book are the snippets of poetry and prose Alston has used as chapter epigraphs." -- John Derbyshire, National Review Online

"[An] altogether engrossing book - a wonderful book - exceedingly well written and, for me, more powerful than any of the other excellent books of yours that I have read." --Robert H. Greenwood, The Greenwood Company

"We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear, the story of Alston and Diana Chase's thirty year adventure with successive generations of Jack Russell terriers in Montana, is a thinking person's dog book. Funny, sad, charming and profound, it will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost a dog." -- Tim Cahill, author of Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, Lost in my Own Backyard and Hold the Enlightenment

"A dog is man's best friend. Unfortunately, this does not always prove true in reverse. Alston Chase examines both sides of the matter in We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear. Chase's wonderful new book combines a heartfelt personal history of his relationships with several generations of beloved Jack Russell terriers and a serious examination of how kennel club inbreeding has sapped the vitality of noble sporting and working dogs, converting canine types into 'breeds,' where conformation counts for more than valor and heart. Anyone who truly loves dogs as more than mere fashion accessories will love this book." -- William Hjortsberg, author of Falling Angel, "Tom Horn" and more

"Alston Chase comes to Montana looking for a new pair of glasses, and is as surprised as anyone when they appear in the form of a series of small terriers which serve as a window into the land and the forces that have made it. We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear is more than a memoir about small dogs in Big Sky country, however; it is a book about an adventurous life, an intrepid wife, and the passing of the baton from a generation to another. What lasts? Chase' surprising answer is a simple one: Nothing loved is ever lost." -- Patrick Burns, author of American Working Terriers

"Every day with the dogs, writes Chase, 'is filled with love, play, empathy, anxiety, courage and near sudden death.' Too often, death catches up with them..... The deaths of these feisty dogs, as much as their lives, form the heart of the book. There are lots of great characters, moving descriptions of the land, discourses on the history of the Jack Russell and the dangers of breeding for appearance instead of performance. But these are incidental in the journey that is the book's narrative core: Chase is looking for immortality for his dogs. Aren't we all? ... Yes, they tear our heart--but their indomitable, timeless spirits heal it again and again." -- Bark Magazine, July 2008

"If you haven't read it, get yourself a copy of Alston Chase, We Give Our Hearts to Dogs to Tear: Intimations of their Immortality (Transaction Publishers, 2008). You will laugh, you will cry, and you'll remember again why you gave you heart to JRs. This book is a keeper! --Joseph Harvill, publisher of Great Scots Magazine

"Like the Jack Russell terriers who animate its pages, this book will steal your heart, tear it up--and somehow manage to mend it, too." -- Sy Montgomery, author of The Good Good Pig

"[Alston Chase] may have written one of the great dog books of our time." -- The International Herald Tribune, July 2008

About the Author
Alston Chase has written widely on natural history, the environment, and animal welfare issues. He holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton universities. In addition to his fiction writing, he has written well-received analytical books including Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America's First National Park, In a Dark Wood: The Fight over Forests and the Myths of Nature, and Harvard and the Unabomber. He lives with his wife in Paradise Valley, Montana.

Customer Reviews

A book about real dogs
Alston Chase has gone against the popular grain with his fascinating account of life on the edge of the wild in Montana with several generations of real, sometimes difficult Jack Russell terriers. They may be "cute" but they are first and foremost working dogs, with bold hearts and ambitions bigger than their bodies. While he may make you cry, Chase is never cheaply sentimental. In a time when too many people reduce dogs to surrogate children or toys, he reminds us what remarkable creatures real dogs are, and how strong a bond they will make with their human partners.

The Deepest Bonds
On one level, this is a book about the Chases' retreat to Montana wilderness and their discovery of the treasures around them, including the Jack Russell Terriers they began to acquire. But it runs deeper than that, and explores what dogs are and need to be, and how breeders are ruining them by heeding human criteria, such as form and size, and ignoring the genetic traits that keep a breed viable and healthy.

But this is also a love story, about how the Chases and their Jack Russells (and other pets) deal with each other, and how their differing personalities give and receive differing commitments and differing forms of love. There are passages of great tenderness here, but also passages of speculation: do animals have anything we might call a soul, anything that might transcend death? Might we ever be reunited with our pets beyond the grave?

There is warning here as well: we stand on a precipice. If dogs continue to be bred for purely human criteria such as those imposed by the AKC, and not for those qualities that yield a healthy, athletic animal, the time is not far off when some breeds will be ruined. They will suffer more and more disorders such as deformity, and fewer live births.

This is a love song, and we need to listen to Alston Chase's music.

This is a keeper
I read "We Give our Hearts" in one sitting simply because I couldn't put it down. At variance with other "dog" books, this book delves into the man dog connection in a completely new way. Dr. Chase is a philosophy professor and his expertise in this area allows him to investigate our love for our animals in a believable and convincing way, and to answer the question about the soul of a dog. His experiences with his dogs and his love of the land make his ventures ring true. The photographs included portray his life in Montana. His unabashed love for the entities in his life that are meaningful flow beutifully. This book is a real treasure.