Review
If servants write the best novels, as Andrew O'Hagan observes in his tragi-comedy
The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe, then a dog, the most loyal of servants, would write the best novel of all. Mafia Honey, or Maf for short--philosopher, champion of the footnote, Socialist, and Trotskyite--does not fall short of the mark. Maf is a loyal servant, but he is not a sycophant, and the view from his rug-level perspective is intensely real. As he discusses the lives and loves of humans, along with the occasional philosophical diversion, with other dogs he meets, one begins to wonder if all household dogs are actually watching their human friends with such a critical eye.
Indeed, this picaresque novel has the feel of a memoir as Maf describes his experiences with Marilyn Monroe and his impressions of Natalie Wood, Frank...
Beyond the Book
The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend Marilyn Monroe creates a believable character in Maf, a character based on Marilyn Monroe's dog. Fiction about or including dogs has a popular and long history. Wikipedia offers an expansive page listing the dogs in literature including Odysseus's faithful companion Argos, and Crab "the sourest natured dog that lives" from Shakespeare's
Two Gentleman of Verona. Clearly, fictional dogs are abundant, from children's literature to adult novels; yet
Maf the Dog is rare in being one of the few books to depict a real-life dog in fiction. Here are two others:
