Both a personal memoir and a French novelist's encounter with American reality, "White Dog" is an unforgettable portrait of racism and hypocrisy. Set in the tumultuous Los Angeles of 1968, Romain Gary's story begins when a German shepherd strays into his life: "He was watching me, his head cocked to one side, with that unbearable intensity of dogs in the pound waiting for a rescuer." A lost police canine, this "white dog" is programmed to respond violently to the sight of a black man and Gary's attempts to deprogram it like his attempts to protect his wife, the actress Jean Seberg; like her endeavors to help black activists; like his need to rescue himself from the "predicament of being trapped, lock, stock and barrel within a human skin" lead from crisis to grief.
Using the re-education of this adopted pet as a metaphor for the need to quash American racism, Gary develops a domestic crisis into a full-scale social allegory."
- ISBN10 6049638640
- ISBN13 9786049638640
- Publish Date 1 May 2018 (first published 29 July 1971)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Imprint Van Hoc/Tsai Fong Books
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Language vie