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Dixie O'Day: In The Fast Lane (2013)

by Shirley Hughes(Favorite Author)

3.62 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1782300120 (ISBN13: 9781782300120)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Bodley Head

review 1: Meh. Digby, a dapper dog who has a classic car, enters a tortoise-and-the-hare-style road rally and, through the rewards of occasionally courteous behavior, triumphs over his neighbor, an ungracious human named Lou Ella. Characters and plot strove for quirky but landed more in the vicinity of aimless and rather bald retreads. Plus: A) when the "friendly family" helps tug the car off a precipice, Digby exhibits sexist myopia by giving the dad all the credit for the good deed; B) it is dangerous and dimwitted to drive through closing railroad gates, especially when you hear a train coming, so why should that behavior be rewarded?; C) the introductory gossip-rag style "interview" with Digby starts the book off with big words printed in tiny type, which seems like an off-putti... moreng introduction for the presumed target audience of fairly early readers; and D) it seemed weird that some of the characters in the book were animals and some were humans. Some books can pull that off; in this one, it was both noticeable and inexplicable. I did, however, like the seals in their bathmobile. Read for library book group.
review 2: Ok- Have you ever read a really great mystery where you get to the end and blink a few times and ask "What just happened?" You're not supposed to do that with beginning chapter books.I really, really wanted to love this book- It's got a dog in a waistcoat for goodness sake! Instead it was just weird and not in a cute and quirky fun sort of way. I get that this was supposed to be a sweet and nostalgic little book. Instead it felt like someone found a manuscript that got stuck under the couch in 1952. And it just confuses me- The Friendly family has no name but their Aunt does? Digby and Percy are dogs but live in a house next to people- is this code for a gay couple? The woman is both shallow and the evil mastermind in the story? And why is everything so blessedly pink?I'm trying to figure out who I'd recommend this book to, and so far I'm coming up blank. It's just a strange, slow moving story about a dog who cheats at a road race and everyone loves him for it. Like I said weird. less

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