What readers think of A Man of His Own, plus links to write your own review.

The plot of this novel is very moving and I read it through the first time in one day. The characters are well thought out and when reading about each one it is easy to emphathize with how are feeling, including Pax the dog. At first the style of having each character written in a different voice, i.e. the dog's thoughts, the wife in first person, and the two men in third person was a little distracting, but I soon got used to it. During my second reading of the book, I realized how the author used each character's "voice" to move the plot along and to really help the reader understand each viewpoint of the story. I especially felt that Pax the dog was written with great understanding of how a dog thinks and behaves. This is a very beautiful story about three humans, one dog, the love they have in common, and how that love grows and adapts as their circumstances change.

It often takes the honesty of animals to reveal our humanity, and this book highlights this as well as any. The story and timeline is not one I would typically be interested in, but the sweeping theme of our human experience and struggles along with the love of a dog pulled me in. Rather than being cliche this book is honest, warm and revealing which helps the reader through the more emotionally charged and difficult topics.

About 1/3 of the way through the book I said "I don't need this in my life right now". I felt a lot of conflict because of the dilemmas facing all of the characters. I almost never put a book down without finishing it so after a few days I picked up the book again and finished it. I'm still not sure why I felt so personally involved, but it was not an emotionally easy book for me. I am not a dog person nor have I been involved personally with war so don't know the origin of the conflict. I think it was the sharing of such intimacy that had to be done in the story that was unsettling to me. I felt the writing was well done and had to look up a few words I didn't know the meaning of and I always like that. I think the book would be a good one for book clubs.

Rick Stanton invites me into his inner-life as I read his story. Witnessing his journey, pain, suffering, and moments of joy as he rescues Pax and bonds with him creates deep feelings within me. Rick grows his family by falling in love with Francesca and marrying her, but then his duty to country forces his path to change, and he heads to war. Broken in spirit and body he returns to his wife and home, but now Pax is on a tour of his own serving in the military as an Army K-9 Corp dog. He has a new handler named Keller.

Pax and Keller build a solid relationship during their tour of duty. Pax, severely injured during a battle, returns to Rick and Francesca, but what will happen to Keller's strong relationship with Pax? How can both men keep their relationship and love for Pax? What will Stanton, Keller, and Pax learn by sharing their lives, and healing both body and mind? Book groups, deeply drawn into their story, will present their own suggestions of how to get the relationships to work.

There's a fairy tale quality to this story; lives in distress, a dog in shining armour, and compelling characters who live happily ever after. It's a story of lives being put back together rather than being torn apart. It's also a story filled with tension and personal endurance, but without harsh words or emotional outbursts. The characters are controlled, even stoic at times.

The story teller is not in a hurry. The author ambles along at a relatively slow pace, giving each character opportunity to speak. There are no surprises. For me, the story was somewhat unrealistic, somewhat contrived. I became impatient in several places, resisting the temptation to skip ahead. Still, I would recommend this very well written book.

This was a fast, unobjectionable read. I like stories that have multiple points of view - with distinct voices for each of the main characters - and I felt that this was handled nicely, but the human protagonists remained rather flat to me. I didn't actually feel terribly engaged with any of them, and the dog was a bit too anthropomorphised for my taste. For the dept of the subject matter - marriage, war, loneliness and unrealized dreams - it felt a little over simplified. It merely skimmed the surface of these characters without providing a whole lot of insight. A good book, but not a great one for me.

I was really looking forward to this book and so was disappointed to find that I had to push my way through it. I think part of my reaction was my expectation that it would be more from the dog's perspective. This is no "Merle's Door" – a book I dearly loved. Nor is it "The Art of Racing in the Rain". It has an interesting plot although I felt as though the story was being described to me and subsequently I moved through it along the surface, never feeling engaged by or caring about the characters. I'm sure this book will have many fans. Had I not had the aforementioned books with which to compare it, I might have been one as well.