Tom Lynch

Nina's in love with someone she's never met. She knows only his apartment, his framed photographs, and his dog, Sid. Thus begins Leslie Schnur's debut, "The Dog Walker," a funny, sweet ode to mistaken identity and falling in love. Her hero, Nina, runs around Manhattan walking other people's dogs, digging through their homes, learning their lives through their furniture and possessions. Schnur, the former editor-in-chief of Delacorte Press/Dell Publishing, creates a story in which the dogs are as much characters as their owners. It's "Safire barked," not "the bulldog barked." She knows her employers' tastes: music, books, clothing--but not their speech patterns, smells, stories. Except Bono, the eight-year-old son of a U2 groupie client, a pain-in-the-ass sarcastic with a knack for the morose. Schnur keeps it light and never steps out of the boundaries into melodrama country. The book's not quite laugh-out-loud, but rather a decent smile-and-continue.

Leslie Schnur reads from "The Dog Walker" on August 3 at Barbara's Bookstore, 1100 West Lake, Oak Park, (708)848-9140, at 7:30pm. Free.

(2004-07-27)

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