The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage: book review

The Power of the Dog (1967, this edition 2016) is set on a large ranch in Montana valley in rural Utah, America, in 1924.

Forty-year-old Phil Burbank and his thirty-eight-year-old brother George own one of the largest ranches in the region, and live together, as they have done ever since they were children. Although brothers, they are as different as chalk and cheese. Phil is brighter, taller, and more eloquent than George the stocky silent one. While Phil is mean, vicious, and dominant, George is gentle, loving, and kind.

They both agree that they’ve had ‘some great old times.’ Much of the novel focuses on reminiscing about the past. But now, quiet George is even quieter.

George quietly and unexpectedly marries. Rose has a sixteen-year-old son Peter. Rose moves into the Burbank Brothers’ home. Phil is not happy for George; not at all. Something has to be done about Rose, he thinks. He is out for slow, evil revenge. Peter visits his mother for the summer holidays, and begins to understand what has been happening. And he is not happy about that; not at all.

This novel is a study of opposites. But people are not what they seem. It begins with a brutal farm scene – the castration of an animal – which sets the theme of this novel – repressed sexuality, repressed anger, and repressed evil. Dark and quietly disturbing, the novel is brave enough to explore these themes in a time when nothing is said.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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