day 17 of the 30 day book challenge

Day 17. Favorite non-human character

I really enjoy Dave Eggers. He does amazing things for fun literature, amazing things for children with his 826s, really enjoyable writing for films & lots of hard work for public education. TED recognized him for this.

He is also an outstanding writer. No matter the character, Eggers makes you fall in love with them. Their emotions are your emotions; their motion is your motion. His understanding of character & human sensitivity helped make "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" an enormous success.

But my favorite Eggers character is found in his short story collection "How We Are Hungry," in a story told by his most excited, passionate, amiable narrator.

The dog in "After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned" (can be read here). I can't tell you anything more about him without spoiling the story, but I have never looked at a dog & a dog's happiness the same way. My heart is warmed & broken by him, as it is with so many of Eggers' characters.

Here are a few quotations to pique your interest. But really, click & read it. I'm not sure if this was illegally put online, but I'm sure he won't mind too much. He seems to be a nice man.

I wanted him to be happy. I wanted the squirrels to jump and be happy as we dogs were. But they were different than we were...

I feel good. My eyes feel good, like I will see everything before I have to. I see colors like you hear jet planes. 

My claws grabbing at the earth like I’m the one making it turn.