Dog Eat Dog
Jerry Jay Carroll
Ace, 304 pages
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When I read Jerry Jay Carroll's genre-blending Inhuman Beings earlier this year, he jumped immediately
onto my list of favorite new authors. Even so, when I saw that Dog Eat Dog was a sequel to Top Dog,
Carroll's debut novel, I was doubtful. Could that weird mix of satire and fantasy be pulled off a second time,
without seeming stale or self-derivative? Yes, it turns out: Dog Eat Dog is every bit as fresh, entertaining
and funny as its predecessor.
In Top Dog, William "Bogey" Ingersoll, a bloodthirsty corporate raider whose huge fortune has
been made by gutting businesses and putting thousands of people out of work, wakes up one day in another world,
transformed into a dog. It turns out that he's been abducted by the wizard Zalzathar, the main representative of
Evil in the other world. Zalzathar's management style, it seems, is a trifle inflexible, making it impossible for
him to win his ongoing war against the angel Helither, leader of the forces of Good. Zalzathar wants Bogey's underhanded
strategizing skills so that he can turn the tables. Bogey, playing both ends against the middle, is finally forced
to make a moral choice, helping Good to vanquish Evil yet again, and wrecking all of Zalzathar's world-dominating
plans.
When Dog Eat Dog opens, Bogey is back in his own body in his own world, a changed man. He's given up corporate
thuggery, made his estate a home for stray dogs, and plans to give away his entire fortune to worthy causes. But
he isn't allowed to enjoy this new life for long. Zalzathar has followed him, and is now intent on two things:
getting revenge, and fighting on new turf the battle he lost in his own world. To that end, he co-opts Bernie Soderbergh,
a fabulously wealthy tycoon even more rotten and ruthless than Bogey used to be, and sets out to make him President
of the United States.
Once again, Zalzathar has underestimated Bogey--who, escaping Zalzathar's attempts on his life, sets out to destroy
Soderbergh's candidacy in the most logical way possible: by supporting it. But Zalzathar still has a few tricks
up his sleeve, and Bogey is only human. And this time there may not be divine intervention to save him...
Like Inhuman Beings, Dog Eat Dog is a dizzy blending of themes and styles, combining over-the-top
parody, thriller-like suspense, and some pretty trenchant observations about God, the universe, the nature of evil,
and the psychology of dogs. It's a delicate balancing act that constantly runs the danger of descending into mere
silliness. But Bogey's sardonic, offhand narration, which makes a joke out of even the most chilling moments, provides
just the right note of amused distance, and binds all the wild events together with a zany logic that's difficult
to recount but makes perfect sense while you're reading.
Carroll is a skillful writer, with a precise, bare-bones prose style that packs as much story into a paragraph
as other writers do into several pages. He's funny, too. The book is full of comic set-pieces and clever turns
of phrase. "Plastic surgery had given Mimi's face a molded look, as if to cut down on wind resistance,"
Bogey says of a woman he encounters. And about executives with an addiction to exercise: "They walked on treadmills
while doing three other things so that every moment was crammed to the fullest." Yet there's considerable
seriousness here, layered beneath the humor and the throw-away lines. Angels and others speak deeply about theology
and metaphysics. And the hilarious account of Bogey's nefarious "support" of Soderbergh is also a clever
skewering of the out-of-control political campaign industry. (It makes perfect sense, actually. I wish someone
would try it for real.)
The problem with this kind of crazy souffle of a story, of course, is the ending. How do you wrap it all up in
a satisfying way? Carroll doesn't quite succeed--things are resolved just a little too quickly--but he comes close.
I don't know if Bogey will return for a third installment (which would surely make for one of the stranger fantasy
trilogies ever written), but some room seems to be left for that possibility. I hope it materializes.
Copyright © 1999 Victoria Strauss
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