What the dog saw

“Worth a read?” is not your ordinary book review; it is a meta-review that provides an overview of the opinions contained in a variety of book reviews published in the media at large. This week we take a look at a collection of essays under the title What the Dog Saw, by Malcolm Gladwell and released in South Africa in June 2010.

What is it all about?

Go to any supermarket in the United States and you will find dozens of varieties of mustard. However, there will be only one brand of ketchup – made by Heinz, and tasting very much like it did when it was originally launched over 130 years ago. Have you ever wondered why? Well, Malcolm Gladwell has.

In fact, Gladwell is curious about almost everything. Are smart people overrated? What did Cézanne do before painting his first significant works? What can pitbulls teach us about crime? What is the link between artistic influence and plagiarism?

What the Dog Saw is a collection of 19 essays answering these questions and more. The essays were originally published in The New Yorker between 1996 and 2008.

Exploring ‘minor geniuses’, the underdog and the overlooked, Gladwell shows how everything and everyone has a story to tell – and often one that reveals counterintuitive wisdom.

Who is the author?

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker since 1996. His three previous books, The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, skyrocketed him to international fame.

In 2005 he was named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine.

What do others say?

Most Gladwell lovers have hailed What the Dog Saw as yet another classic. His capacity to use startling contrasts, flesh out his characters and provide thought-provoking analysis are typical of what has made Gladwell so famous.

However, critics point out that while Gladwell succeeds in his transparent, lucid and informal conversation-like writing style, he fails when it comes to his technical grounding in psychology and statistics. As such, many of his findings struggle to hold true when placed on a broader canvas.

However, the essay format of What the Dog Saw is better at hiding these flaws than a 300-page book, and Gladwell himself seems aware of criticism against him when he argues: "Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. Not the kind you’ll find in this book, anyway. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think." And you can rest assured that What the Dog Saw will do just that.

The Independent: "Gladwell’s detractors often point to what they see as plagiarism in his own writing: the uncredited borrowing of existing scientific research in the service of derivative, Gladwellian theories… But Gladwell, who does frequently cite his sources, is a journalist, not a specialist. Moreover, the criticism overlooks his greatest gift – not for ideas, but for captivating stories."

The New York Times: "Gladwell is a writer of many gifts. His nose for the untold back story will have readers repeatedly muttering, 'Gee, that’s interesting!' He avoids shopworn topics, easy moralization and conventional wisdom, encouraging his readers to think again and think different. His prose is transparent, with lucid explanations and a sense that we are chatting with the experts ourselves."

Guardian.co.uk: "This is what Gladwell does best: he takes an idea, recasts it as a human story, and works it through to its conclusion, taking a strip off conventional wisdoms as he goes. Even when the patterns he identifies are spurious or the conclusions flawed, the arguments he raises are clear, provocative and important. It’s as if he is saying, read this, then go and think for yourself. His pieces, he says, are meant to be 'adventures'."

How do I get hold of it?

What the Dog Saw is published in South Africa by Penguin Books. It is available at Exclusive Books at a price of approximately R170.00.