Drinking with Miss Dutchie

"So pleasurable to read that it almost overcomes the underlying pain and loss at its heart."

"A Labrador retriever taught Breslin more about life than any teacher had...His hymn to Miss Dutchie is heartwarming and heartbreaking."

"Drinking with Miss Dutchie is clearly a book that Ed Breslin 'had' to write: it's an expression of grief as pure and as harrowing as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. That it is centered on a dog instead of a human being subtracts nothing from its power. As surely as if Dutchie had been a spouse or a child, her spirit, her splendor, evoked an absolute love from the Breslins, and the translation of that love into grief convinces us of its actual majesty. To borrow a word from Didion's title, this is a magical book."

Ed Breslin's memoir is tough-minded and tender-hearted. Compulsively readable, it details the darkness of his drinking days and the great light shed by his companion dog, Miss Dutchie. Half elegy, half life lessons, Breslin's book eulogizes a great-hearted Labrador retriever who taught her master the joy of living.

Breslin writes with an elegant simplicity...The book is a sweet, sad tribute to that purest of all relationships.

An intense book, a real page turner, one of the best and also one of the most unusual, celebrating the human-animal bond. It's the kind of book that one remembers for a very long time.

"Breslin writes intensely and emotionally about psychic pain, grief, and the loss of friends and dogs."

"Dutchie is as clearly drawn as any literary figure, and Breslin's love and gratitude toward her are palpable."

She 'taught me more about life than any teacher I ever had, ' Breslin writes, 'and she never said a word.' Breslin is just the man to find those words. Grover Gardner narrates with the consummate skill of an AudioFile Golden Voice.

"In his debut memoir, former book editor Breslin writes about the death of his cherished dog, Miss Dutchie, and how, with her help, he succeeded in overcoming alcoholism...A moving story of love, death, and recovery."