WE GIVE OUR HEARTS TO DOGS TO TEAR: INTIMATIONS OF THEIR IMMORTALITY

Book ID/图书代码： 13149008B25469

English Summary/英文概要： This is the story of a family and their animal companions for thirty years. It 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. The answer he finds, does not come through attempting to produce exact replicas of them through inbreeding, as professional breeders often do and which he sees as a form of genetic death, but in their embodiment of spirit over mortality. It is through the window of their brief lives that we glimpse eternity.

To speak of the spirit of the eternal for Chase is not to ignore the matter of the Earth itself, of land and the bonds forged between man and dog over thousands of years. Chase sees the threat to dogs and people in terms of the decline and in some cases the utter defeat of rural life as such. The rise of social forces supporting unbridled urbanization, and of dog breeders who see dogs as creatures to be judged by conformation rather than ability are dealt with frankly. At a time when dog “breeding” increasingly follows the whims of fashion, with attendant threats to the future of dogs, the work of Alston Chase is of major concern.

This book is an eloquent tribute to the dogs we love, and a reflection on mortality, the limitations of life, and the final triumph of the spirit. Rich in poetic citations, it can be read as an environmental cri de coeur, as a naturalistic appreciation of a world slowly dissolving, or as a deeply religious reminder that even if individual peoples and dogs perish, the idea of immortality does not. And that lesson, which dogs teach us daily makes this book special to read and moving to feel.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 狗是人类最好的朋友。本书讲述了一家人与他们的宠物相伴了三十年的故事。这本书充满了爱，同情，不安，鼓励，和死亡。作者通过对克犬的研究，即使某天知道它们会离开我们，但我们还是愿意和它们成为朋友。通过近亲交配，来繁殖后代，虽然人类和狗都避免不了死亡，但是不朽的精神永远都留在人们的心中。这是一本感人至深的书，感人的描述，赚取了无数读者的眼泪。如果你是一个爱狗人士，一定要要读这部精彩的作品。(RY)

Awards/获奖情况："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

"[Alston Chase] may have written one of the great dog books of our time. "Hearts" is simultaneously a memoir of his decades spent in Paradise Valley, where, before the movie stars arrived, making a phone call could be a three-day affair, and a well-informed rumination on wilderness land use. Mathematician, philosopher, outdoorsman, and amateur economist, Chase addresses many difficult subjects here, in a direct, yes, Thoreauvian prose style. In a chapter titled ’The Soul of a Dog,’ he asks, ’Was not the immortality of dogs at least a possibility?’ If you care about the answer to that question, read this book."---Alex Beam, The International Herald Tribune

"This may well be the most beautiful and richest book abut dogs ever penned."---Richard S. Wheeler, Winner, Owen Wister Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature

"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? ... He visits breeders, seeking to reincarnate the spirit of Bungee. Of course, it doesn’t work. But the vivid ghosts of Chase’s dogs demonstrate that what does happen is another kind of immortality.... Yes, they tear our heart—but their indomitable, timeless spirits heal it again and again."---Bark Magazine

"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

“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 & Rhett Butler’s

"In this personal narrative of the working terriers he has loved, learned from, and lost, Alston Chase tells a tale that is sometime funny and always moving. But he also gives us the story of working animals in real country, and how this heritage is being lost everywhere, often because of the good intentions of animal lovers themselves."---Stephen J. Bodio, author of Querencia and On the Edge of the Wild

"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

“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

About the Author/作者介绍： 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.
擅长写有关博物学，环境学，动物保障类的书。获得哈佛，牛津，普林斯顿大学学位。

Format:照片

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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