For a portion of Susan Wilson’s latest “feel
good” book, ONE GOOD DOG, it’s quite possible that you
won’t feel good at all while reading it. In fact,
you might want to pummel the main character senseless. Then pummel
him some more.

Why? Aside from being the to-be President and CEO of a
gigantically corporate cosmetic firm, 46-year-old Adam March is
arrogant, intolerant and selfish. He only eats fancy granola
imported from Norway. And he has willingly married a vapid social
climber obsessed with “being seen” and
“supporting the right charities” while flitting between
one of their three houses equipped with countless underpaid
servants, driving the “best and most current automobiles ---
gas be damned,” and wearing the most “fashion-forward
clothes and legitimate designer accessories” on the racks.
But these grating qualities can all be attributed to Adam
before his nervous breakdown and subsequent downfall (he
physically attacks his secretary for being insubordinate, gets
fired and loses everything). After that? If you can stomach it, Mr.
March actually gets even more loathsome.

When the judge sentences Adam to a lengthy stint of community
service at a homeless shelter instead of doling out jail time
(“You’re an arrogant son of a bitch and need to be
taken down a peg… You need to eat a little humble pie, and
I’m about to serve you a big bite.”), it’s hard
not to feel at least a little disappointed for a missed
opportunity. The guy is a pompous blowhard, to put it mildly. Why
not give him what he deserves? But as the plot moves forward,
it’s clear that Adam has been handed his just reward.
It’s time he learned how the other half lives. And
that’s when the scruffy pooch of the title makes his
entrance.

In semi-alternating chapters, the narrative voice switches from
the somewhat detached third-person (Adam’s chapters) to a
more natural first-person (the dog’s), and readers are
treated to the humble story of a Pit Bull (aptly named Chance)
redeemed. Once a fighter in a dog ring, Chance gleefully embraces
his brief stretch of freedom as a street hound (Delectable smells
abound! Other dogs’ crotches to sniff! Poles to pee on
everywhere!) before suddenly being recaptured and sent to the
pound. When Adam rescues Chance from certain death as a favor to
one of the homeless shelter’s regulars, Adam’s and the
dog’s fates are irrevocably intertwined. And thank goodness
for that.

Instead of giving Chance back to the pound like he had planned,
Adam begrudgingly keeps him. The more he communes with the dog, the
kinder and more generous a person he becomes. Soon, he's turning
over all sorts of new leaves in an attempt to become "a better
person." Despite a sometimes predictable and tidy plotline, ONE
GOOD DOG is rewarding --- and that's mostly thanks to Chance.
Readers (especially fans of MARLEY & ME) will adore his spunky
personality and root for his (and ultimately Adam's)
rehabilitation. In the end, Wilson's uncanny channeling of this
scrappy misunderstood dog with a heart of gold strikes just the
right chord to overshadow any of the book's shortcomings.