The Power of the Dog - Thomas Savage & Annie Proulx

The Power of the Dog

By Thomas Savage & Annie Proulx

  • Release Date: 2009-09-26
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 211 Ratings

Description

Now an Academy Award-winning Netflix film by Jane Campion, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst: Thomas Savage's acclaimed Western is "a pitch-perfect evocation of time and place" (Boston Globe) for fans of East of Eden and Brokeback Mountain.

Set in the wide-open spaces of the American West, The Power of the Dog is a stunning story of domestic tyranny, brutal masculinity, and thrilling defiance from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in American literature. The novel tells the story of two brothers — one magnetic but cruel, the other gentle and quiet — and of the mother and son whose arrival on the brothers’ ranch shatters an already tenuous peace. From the novel’s startling first paragraph to its very last word, Thomas Savage’s voice — and the intense passion of his characters — holds readers in thrall.

"Gripping and powerful...A work of literary art." —Annie Proulx, from her afterword 

Reviews

  • A Writing Masterclass

    5
    By Pengyou123
    A thoroughly enjoyable masterclass of writing with vivid landscapes, razor-sharp psychological insights and one of the best villains since Shakespeare’s Iago. Thomas Savage gives voice to four distinctly different and memorable main characters, each one trying to weave their way, some with more friction than others, through this gripping early, 20th century Western. Well worth the read with an ending as taut as a cowboy’s rawhide rope.
  • Less than stellar!

    3
    By Greenrodeo
    Not great. Stopped reading and watched movie which was far from great as well!
  • Slam bang finish

    5
    By Grossout0138
    At first I thought the writing was simple everything was just a little too… obvious and then the ending turned this into a complex and amazing book that has earned its way into what I think is in my list of great books! I tend to figure our books very quickly and this one ended up proving that you can never be sure where a book is going! I can understand why they would want to undertake a film!