This unusual book looks at one of those "10 best small towns to live in" through the eyes of a social anthropologist, who comes to study the people who live there. What she finds is not what she expected. Dogs are being killed and there's a big brouhaha over a dog park. There’s definite animosity between the dog lovers and the not-so-fond-of-dogs people. Add to this a family that is falling apart, a daughter who doesn't seem to connect to her life, a wife who has an affair and a depressed husband who has lost his job in a brokerage, and this turns out to be not the normal, happy town one might expect. Yes, it is worth reading because of its originality of but it is not one of my favorites.

Somebody is poisoning the dogs of Littlefield. What else is not OK there?

A study of unhappiness that people does not seem to recognize - about themselves.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. Some of the individual sentences are beautiful and so well crafted. The idea is interesting. The characters have more than one dimension.
Yet - the message (or, to be blunt - what the authoress wanted to say by this novel) is unclear. The ending seems to be abruptly cut. And the engagement factor is somehow missing. Maybe there was an effort to make the novel so well artistically honed, that the storytelling needed to play the second fiddle to the next big Americal novel of sorts? I don´t know and I don´t want to judge. So let me say this - the writing talent is here. The sensitivity is here. The pain is here. Fingers crossed for everything else needed to come (honestly).

Well written and engaging, The Dogs of Littlefield is a semi-satirical tale of the residents of Littlefield, Massachusetts. In this leafy, affluent suburb, all is not as it seems. Sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins has come to study the residents of the town with an excellent quality of life and the most therapists per capita. Does this make for more contented, well-adjusted lives?

The trouble starts with the proposal of an off-leash area for dogs in the town park. The citizens are deeply divided on this issue, and someone (perhaps in protest) begins poisoning the town’s dogs.

Set against this backdrop, we meet the inhabitants of Littlefield and watch their personal dramas unfold. We meet Margaret and her family, who seem to be representative of the town: hiding deep anxieties and insecurities despite their financial security and what looks on the outside to be an idyllic home life.

Told in muted prose, The Dogs of Littlefield is more about the melodrama under the surface of suburban life than it is about the mystery of the poisoned dogs. The inhabitants of Littlefield are interesting, and this keeps the reader going, but I had trouble staying engaged. I sometimes had to remind myself which character was who.

I was expecting more from this read, unfortunately. It just didn’t grab me. The emotions are subdued, and felt removed from the characters and therefore the reader. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve read this year, but I have a feeling it’ll be forgettable. But for some readers, this may be right up your alley.

Personally, I struggled to finish this book. I am not too sure why, but I couldn't really stay in tact with it. The characters are really great, but I feel like there needed to be something else there to keep me going. Maybe a little more fast-paced?

Perhaps I will try again another time :)

Did not finish, even though I don't consider myself an over-the-top animal lover, something about the storyline just didn't sit right with me.  Perhaps I am the wrong audience.