Publishers Weekly
03/30/2020
Masson (The Secret World of Farm Animals) discusses people’s close relationships with their pets through the lens of mortality in this moving and intimate study. Now 79, he reflects on a lifetime of pets, including his current one, yellow Labrador Benjy, who at 13 is already a year beyond the breed’s average life expectancy, a realization Masson finds “unbearable.” He also elicits stories from friends, which are moving and occasionally heartbreaking, dealing with cats and dogs, as well as less traditional pets, including turkeys and wombats. “Grief is grief,” Masson writes, and though he’s decidedly “not a great fan of psychology,” he covers the stages of grief. Masson also tracks how humans’ relationships with animals have changed over time (a “coevolution,” he terms it) and suggests that dogs have “developed something unique in their ability to intuit our emotional states and to show empathy.” Anyone who’s found it difficult to deal with the fact that pets’ “lives are so much shorter” than humans’ will appreciate this compassionate work. (June)
From the Publisher
"Losing a pet or other animal friend can be incredibly traumatic. This touching book is all about the bonds between humans and other species, and why we grieve their loss as much as we do." —Frans de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves
"A thoughtful examination of a heartbreaking thing that happens to many of us, the death of a beloved pet, Lost Companions is a beautiful book about a largely ignored subject, and will help many people."—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Lives of Dogs
"When animals enter our lives and hearts, a difficult inevitability arises. None of us live forever, and because we often outlive our beloved pets, we will miss them terribly someday. It’s not a subject we like to talk about. Fortunately, Lost Companions does the talking for us, helping to prepare us, helping us to realize that grief is the flip side of all the delights they have given us and that we will always have." —Carl Safina, New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Words and Becoming Wild
"Highly recommended for all animal lovers who inevitably must deal with the death of their pets." —Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] moving and intimate study...Anyone who’s found it difficult to deal with the fact that pets’ 'lives are so much shorter' than humans’ will appreciate this compassionate work." —Publishers Weekly
"A touching, sensitive journey that will, like Masson’s previous books, find a wide audience." —Kirkus Reviews
“The work of an accomplished, learned, and great-hearted man, Lost Companions offers a balm to all who face the sorrow of parting with a beloved animal. Like other classics by Jeffrey Masson, it is filled with helpful wisdom, original insight, and the beautiful, charming style of a masterful writer.” —Matthew Scully, author of Dominion and former presidential speechwriter
"Many of us are devoted to the pets as well as the wild creatures that share the world with us. Their deaths can be wrenching, yet the culture we live in often trivializes our grief. With empathy and tenderness, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson writes of the innate dignity of other animals and the strength and beauty of our mutual bond — illuminating our right to love them, and mourn their leaving, as deeply as we want." —Lydia Millet, author of A Children's Bible
"This is not only an important book, it's a beautiful book —and absolutely essential reading for anyone who's ever loved and lost an animal companion. No other writer can shine a light into the very heart of the human-animal bond like Jeffrey Masson." —Gwen Cooper, New York Times bestselling author of Homer's Odyssey
Library Journal
★ 05/01/2020
From Masson (What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origin of Good & Evil; Dogs Never Lie About Love) comes a heartfelt book about grieving for one's nonhuman family members. He affirms the need to mourn our pets as well as ways to help them in their final moments by offering stories that allow readers to explore their own responses and reactions to death and find ways to memorialize loved animals. After all, as the author says, "Grieving for an animal is what makes us human animals." VERDICT Highly recommended for all animal lovers who inevitably must deal with the death of their pets. [See Prepub Alert, 12/9/20.]
Kirkus Reviews
2020-03-29
The acclaimed author of numerous books about the emotional lives of animals now turns to the experience of losing a pet.
“I believe it is a deep and ancient longing, to bond with a member of a different species,” writes Masson near the beginning of this heart-rending foray into the challenge of “facing the death of…the animal you have come to love like any other member of the family.” Nothing brings home the depth of that relationship like death, upon which we “are confronted with mortality in general, writ large in these animals who have become family, but in some sense even more than family—maybe part of ourselves.” The author investigates the psychology of this loss through testimonies from their human companions as well as conversations with friends and veterinarians. Masson’s tone is sympathetic, for he is a firm believer in the sentience of animals and the dignity with which they should be treated in life and death. He argues that animals have a sense of impending death and that death could be as relevant to them as it is to us. Dogs, in particular, bring an unalloyed state of pure happiness when they are in our presence, an elemental love free of all the baggage that accompanies human relationships. In many ways, that is why their loss is so heartbreaking. Occasionally, Masson’s associations go too far—“losing [a pet] is very much like losing a child”—but readers can skip parts that seem over the edge. The author has many wise things to impart about a child’s grief—e.g., “it is important to recognize the genuineness of the emotions of the child, to honor them by taking them seriously.”
A touching, sensitive journey that will, like Masson’s previous books, find a wide audience.
