Mah, miracolo che sia riuscita a finirlo. In questa saga familiare che copre tre generazioni sono tutti un po' squinternati, non se ne salva uno. Ambientato tra Norvegia e Danimarca, abbiamo a che fare con una famiglia disfunzionale, partendo dal nonno che diventa un alcolizzato dopo esser sopravvissuto in un lager tedesco, arrivando alla nipotina che si porta a letto quasi ogni maschio del paese. Inoltre, ogni personaggio ha diversi soprannomi, quindi ci si mette un po' a capire di chi si sta parlando. Forse il libro dovrebbe essere divertente e far ridere, ma sarà un umorismo che non capisco. A me non sembra la classica tragicommedia che potrebbe strappare qualche sorriso. Tra il nonno che tocca il petto alla nipotina per vedere se le è cresciuto il seno, una zia ritardata che si struscia sul nipotino, e una ragazzina di 12-13 anni che stava per essere stuprata da coetanei, ero parecchio disgustata. Leggere di famiglie del genere non fa per me.

I picked this book up simply because of the cover and the title. I hadn't heard anything about it before picking it up.


It's really, really good.


I've read [b:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo|2429135|The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)|Stieg Larsson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275608878s/2429135.jpg|1708725] and [b:Smilla's Sense of Snow|124509|Smilla's Sense of Snow|Peter Høeg|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1278501090s/124509.jpg|2607049] over the past year and noticed a striking similiarity between the two heroines. it was refreshing to read a book that doesn't stick to that female character.

Doghead is a family history as well as a slight tragedy and very funny. The story starts at the end of World war II and continues to the modern day. it is about the ties that bind people together, sibling love and rivalary as well as mushrooms.

Words cannot express how magical this book was for me. Instant favorite. If I had stopped at page 30 I would have still marked it down as one of my all-time favorites. Rarely does a book stay so consistently engrossing for me.

Meh...

Últimamente he leído tantas sagas familiares (y variantes) que podría escribir un tratado sobre ellas. Cabeza de perro, de Morten Randstand, ha sido la más reciente, y una de las más interesantes. En primer lugar, yo matizaría un poco la sinopsis oficial de esta novela. ¿Divertidísima? Yo no diría tanto. ¿Originalísima? Permíteme dudarlo. ¿Episodios disparados? No sé yo, me pregunto qué entiende Salamandra por disparatados. Sí que es cierto, sin embargo, ese tono entre cautivador y grotesco, ese paso de ternura a brutalidad en cuestión de líneas. Creo que ese es uno de sus grandes aciertos. Sí que estoy también de acuerdo con esta crítica en Politiken: Ramsland escribe como si fuera un camión de bomberos con la sirena puesta y a toda marcha El ritmo de la novela es trepidante, y no es difícil mantenerse inmerso en la lectura. Una vez has entendido que Stinne y Signe son chicas, que Thorsten y Thor son personas diferentes pero Orejotas y Niels Junior son la misma, que los nombres largos e impronunciables suelen ser lugares y que hay continuos (y un tanto arbitrarios) saltos en el tiempo, empiezas a disfrutar de la novela. ¡A mí solo me llevó medio libro conseguirlo! A pesar de ello, y aunque parece que la cultura escandinava nos queda muy lejos, si a Cabeza de perro le quitas todos elementos nórdicos te queda una simple historia familiar. Y no cualquiera, sino algo parecido a la maravillosa Las cenizas de Ángela. No a Cien años de soledad, o Hijos de la medianoche, como dice la contraportada, sino a de la familia de Frank McCourt. Y solo por eso, bien merece una oportunidad.

Genialt sammenvævet historier over flere generationer af en fortumlet og fantasifuld familie.

Madcap history of a Norwegian family through three generations that is kind of hit and miss. Since it covers so much time and tells so many stories about people in this family, only makes sense that some of the tales are more entertaining than others. I chuckled here and there, but didn't flat out laugh as I was reading DOGHEAD. I was hoping it would be even wilder than it was based on the plot description and the cover blurbs, but it was entertaining if a tad repetitive. I don't get to read many books set in Scandinavia so I liked that aspect about it too.

I wanted to like this book, but couldn't get excited about finishing it - mostly because it's too similar to other (better) books about "cooky" families involving a homecoming of some sort. Opt for Zadie Smith's ON BEAUTY or Jonathan Franzen's THE CORRECTIONS instead for a more sophisticated read.