If you took a Raymond Chandler story and added elements of BDSM, rock 'n' roll, mysticism, and then threw in a huge freakin' dog for good measure, you might have something like Michael Alan Nelson's Dingo. The gulf separating the two is simpler though. In Chandler stories some small victory seems inevitable. That isn't the case in Dingo. But like all good noir stories, the reader is left hoping, even if it should amount to nothing.

The titular character of Dingo is the quintessential American hero in the sense that he's willing to suffer through much (i.e. get the snot beat out of him) even when it isn't in his best interest, but simply as matter of principal. Which, of course, means that he's usually on the losing end of the bargain. However, the losing isn't what's important, but the protagonist's persistence in the face of seemingly impossible odds. You see, Dingo is struggling to get a valuable family heirloom (lost by his drug addled brother) from a vengeful, powerful, and nihilistic ex-wife. Despite the fact that the loss of said heirloom is in no way a fault of Dingo's he struggles to get it back because the fate of his brother, possibly his family, and perhaps the human race, hangs in the balance.

While all of this may sound familiar, what sets it a part is Nelson's ability to craft odd, interesting and, more often than not, unsettling characters. To anyone who remembers the Harlot from Fall of Cthulhu this certainly won't come as a surprise, but even to those familiar to Nelson's rather disturbed prose, the lineup of Dingo will come across as more than just the usual suspects.

It should be mentioned, though, that Dingo is a comic book adaptation of a novel by the author and it suffers for it. While the story remains strong there still remains points in the narrative where it feels like gaps exist. However, whether these are failures in the plot or the struggle of the writer to contain a larger work is something that the reader will most likely never know.

Overall Dingo is the story of a broken man in a broken world filled with horrors that he can't hope to overcome but, somehow, still has the courage to try to do so. If you can't relate to that, or aspire to that, I'm not sure I want to know you.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at http://madbastard.hypersites.com

---

What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!

---