Rating: 3/5
Review:
Not Matt Haig's best
I thought How To Stop Time was outstandingly good and I also
enjoyed The Dead Fathers Club very much, but I'm afraid The Last Family In
England didn't really do much for me.
The book is narrated by Prince, a Labrador
who lives by the Labrador Code of Duty Before Pleasure and protecting his
(human) family at all costs. These
tenets are challenged as other breeds undermine them and his family suffers
emotional problems and comes under threat.
It's a good idea, which is loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV
plays, and Matt Haig's humanity, compassion and insight are all there as he
explores ideas of duty, responsibility, sacrifice and how far we can rely on faith
and received wisdom.
Given all this, I'm not exactly sure why the book didn’t
quite work for me. Partly it's having a
dog as narrator; I didn’t really find Prince's voice convincing - and I
certainly wasn't convinced by the family cat, either. If even Kipling couldn't pull off a book in a
dog's voice (even this admirer of Kipling's writing would strongly advise
avoiding Thy Servant A Dog) it must be very difficult indeed. Also, I somehow didn’t find the outsider's
perspective on the family persuasive, although it's something that Haig does
brilliantly in other books. Whatever it
was, I found myself surprisingly unengaged.
There is a lot that is good about the book so it may well be
worth a try if you like Matt Haig's work, but I can only give this a very
qualified recommendation.
(My thanks to Canongate Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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