Book Reviews
King the Wonder Dog and other stories
Eleanor Lerman
She Writes Press
May 12, 2026
ISBN-13: 979-8896361145
Contact: Kourtney Jason, kourtney@pacificandcourt.com
Reviewed by Edith G. Tolchin (edietolchin.com/book-reviews); EGT@edietolchin.com
“Deep inside, where illness has scratched its indelible record and age is gnawing away at her joints, her bones.”
A shrewd, 71-year-old woman using all her senior power while jumping through hoops to adopt a dog she spotted at a mobile shelter is a perfect way to start a collection of stories: varied, personal tales of pet lovers in the Big Apple.
A senior couple faces the wife’s destructive outbreaks due to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, while their German shepherd cowers under their bed: does their love still exist?
A group of smart pigeons rides the subway out to Rockaway Beach, where they know to scavenge for food. A brother from Jersey City visits his sister in Woodstock and he worries because she’s frail and tends to seven senior dogs.
A lonely gay man summers in Provincetown, and, at the end of the season, the locals coincidentally meet in a bar where they declare that “. . . every queer over fifty has a cat.”
A visitor to a remote Catskills town alludes to Orthodox Jews walking on the roadside as, “Tall black birds walking in the dappled sunlight of a weekend afternoon.”
CONCLUSION:
Gorgeous use of prose will appeal to young and old, and, especially to lovers of furry, often-rescued companions. Each chapter’s protagonist is a senior citizen, and COVID is referenced in almost each story, so the book was clearly created during that time. Each is a vignette without a clear beginning nor end. The author’s crystal-clear knowledge of all of New York City’s idiosyncrasies, especially those of Queens, including the repeating of many of these locations and landmarks, dominates the picturesque text.
Edith G. Tolchin has been a journalist, editor, author, and book reviewer since 1998. She has written five books, most recently Fanny on Fire and Secrets of Successful Women Inventors. She has done over 150 interviews and 60 book reviews. Contact her at edietolchin.com.