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This is a book that shouldn't be any good. To begin with, there's nothing new here -- a gateway between multiple worlds opens in which our hero encounters wizards and talking beasts in a magical battle of Good versus Evil where Good is down for the count and Evil on the verge of final victory, only to be thwarted by the cunning of aforesaid resourceful, if reluctant, hero. Ho hum. Then there's the conceit of having a human finding himself transformed into a big dog, who tags around with a befuddled human who learns that when the dog barks, it's best to listen. Sounds a little like a plot for one of those 60s Walt Disney movies starring Fred McMurray.

So why am I urging you read this book? Because it's a funny, entertaining jaunt that even manages to raise the Big Metaphysical Questions of the Meaning of Life and why Evil exists without falling into banalities, although at times it teeters on the brink. Not that you're going to get any satisfying answers, except in a kind of sappy sitcom kind of way (another reason I might have expected not to like this book). The author's theological ponderings are hardly on par with those of, say, James Morrow.

All that notwithstanding, it made me laugh. It made me want to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next, even if I already sort of knew what to expect. It made me put Jerry Jay Carroll on my "Authors to Read" list.

You're probably not supposed to like the narrator, William Bogart Ingersol, at first. Although it's hard not to. Especially since we first meet him as a lost dog, having flashbacks of another life on two legs, but still with the cynical attitude echoed by his middle namesake. To take just one example, here's Bogie's description of a close encounter experienced with new-found companion Quick, a fox (and, yes, the animals talk to one another, what should have been yet another black mark against the book), who isn't anymore (quick, that is):

    "Just as we made it to the end of a bridge, I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye, something trying to head us off. We stopped a safe distance off and looked back. On either side of the bridge were two of the ugliest things I'd ever seen. They were wet-looking and kind of purplish with warty lumps all over. Greasy, lank hair hung down over their faces. They motioned with thick arms. They has squashed-in mugs with yellow fangs and red eyes. Jesus, what a sight.
    'Trolls,' Quick said shivering. 'They nearly got us.'
    ...Trolls. I was in a goddamned fairy tale."

David Soyka is a former journalist and college teacher who writes the occasional short story and freelance article. He makes a living writing corporate marketing communications, which is a kind of fiction without the art.