A Dog's Purpose: A Novel that Explores the Unconditional Love of Man's Best Friend

Katherine: Just a wonderful story from a dog,s point of view as he eventually discovers his purpose after many years and other lives. I don't want to ruin the story so I won't give away any more. If you love dogs, you will enjoy this book for sure. AAAA+++++

United States on Oct 20, 2023

GabriellaGabriella: I don’t have the habit of reading, but for many reasons I had to start reading. So I choose this book because I thought would be an easy book to read. Oh man, it’s a delightful reading. It’s funny, it’s happy, it’s cute. Can’t stop reading.

United States on Oct 19, 2023

Stuart F Asbury: Keep the tissues ready if you are a dog lover as this really pulls on the heart strings. All in all a wonderful book that I will keep in my library always

United Kingdom on Oct 12, 2023

Laurie Kelley: Maudlin, unabashedly sentimental, charming, simplistic, sugary sweet… I was at first wondering where this book was going, but then got sucked in by the sentiments, and was in a puddle of tears by the end. This book describes a dog’s life (lives, actually) as told through a dog’s eyes. The main character lives through four lives, reincarnated after each demise as a puppy, aware that he is reincarnated and wondering in each life: what is going on? What am I supposed to be and be doing? When does this end? It makes the reader wonder too, as the book is a bit disjointed at first and it may take a bit to figure out Cameron’s style. If you are a dog lover like me, you will enjoy much of the free association by the dog, especially whenever a cat appears; very clever and funny. The dog is feral in his first life, trying to survive and eventually is euthanized; reincarnated, he comes back as a lab, and his real story begins in earnest when he becomes bonded to a boy. No spoilers here, but the dog becomes smarter and more self-aware, and as a reader you share the dog’s unswerving loyalty to humans and his unending desire to serve and please, despite humans’ baffling behavior. By...

United States on Aug 09, 2023

joy: Great book I read it in three days it was nice to read it from a dogs point of view

United Kingdom on Jun 19, 2023

Rohan jora: Are you wondering what book you should pick next? Well, stop wondering I have a beautifully crafted novel for you: W. Bruce Cameron's A Dog's Purpose is not only an emotional, hilarious and engrossing story, but also the window through which we can understand the mind and the eternal soul of a dog. It is a well-written novel in which the story is narrated from a dog's perspective. Impeccably detailed with heart. It will change your view of your furry friends forever.
It is the story in which a stray dog, with a purposeless life, surprised to find himself reborn as a golden retriever, searching for meaning, led him to the hands of loving boy Ethan who named him Bailey, that made him discover his purpose of loving his boy more than anything in the world. But this life as a family dog is not the end of Bailey's journey. His reincarnations, again and again, made him wonder if he would ever find his purpose over the course of several lives.
Everything in life happens for a purpose which every creature on the earth is meant to fulfill; we just need to enjoy every moment with love and keep moving on--lessons for us.
A Dog's Purpose one of the best books I have ever read is a...

India on Sep 10, 2021

evergreen: Be warned, unlike the subsequent film, the book has a very unhappy and unsatisfactory ending. More of this later.
It is written in the first person of the lead character. ...a dog. This dog lives and dies and is reincarnated several times. We are told how different people treat the dog, some good and some bad. The dog learns different things in each reincarnation.
The story mostly focusses on the second incarnation....when the dog (then named Bailey) is lucky enough to find a happy home with a boy named Ethan. This is the best part of the book. But Ethan's life is not without tragedy and he is seriously injured in an arson attack, after which he has to give up many of his hopes and dreams, and goes on to lead a less fulfilling life. When he is about 18 Bailey dies and is reincarnated and has new owners. I confess I skipped on to a later incarnation in which the reincarnated Bailey finds his way back to a now elderly Ethan. As in the film this all works out well and the reincarnated Bailey brings Ethan happiness in his later years....but then right as the end, when the book seems set to have a happy ending...it diverges from the film and has horrible end in which Ethan has a...

United Kingdom on Feb 06, 2020

Amazon Customer: Bruce Cameron:A Dog's Purpose

This is a moving & thought provoking book. It tells the story from a dog's perspective. The dog is Bailey; his master and companion is the boy Ethan, whose family rescue Bailey when he is still a feral puppy, born to a retriever type mother, and temporarily kept in a dog pound until he escapes, and nearly dies. As Bailey and Ethan grow up together, they are involved in a number of incidents in which Bailey intervenes and saves Ethan's life. These are narrated dramatically by the author, and are convincing and credible. I know from personal experience what loyal dogs are capable of in protecting their loved ones. Another strength of his story is in showing how humans can be so inconsistent, stupid and unable to read situations as dogs can. Because we humans lack a dog's highly developed sensory apparatus, and dogs learn lessons that humans never intended to teach them. Bruce Cameron reminds us through the story, how we should try to careful and consistent around our dogs, and try to view things from their perspective.

The real twist in the story comes when Bailey grows older, and dies, only to be reborn as another dog, with vestigial...

United Kingdom on Sep 22, 2014

Kimdy: Cameron's book may be the best depiction yet of how a dog "may" think/reason. They aren't people, despite all our wishing otherwise, they don't reason like we do. However - I have owned, raised, & trained many, many dogs in my lifetime. Like the narrator in this joyful book, to a one, they have been open, eager to please, like a child. Some have been young souls, some have been very obviously old souls. Some were toddlers in their attitudes and actions their entire life, some were wise and brave and calm. But even the old souls had no judgment in them, ever.

The people who complain about this book, and use "The Art of Racing in the Rain" as an example as to why this book is bad, want another human, not a canine narrator. Me personally? I don't respond well to a story about a "dog" that thinks constantly about wanting to be human, and narrates from that POV. It doesn't speak to my experience with dogs. Why stick ears and a tail on a character that acts and thinks like a weary, disaffected human, and who, more than anything, wants to be human? I read the book, I enjoyed it, somewhat, but I never, ever, felt like the narrator was a dog. :)

Conversely, Cameron's book...

United States on Dec 22, 2010