The Dogs are Curling up Again

This episode is based on the book The Dogs are Curling up Again by Margaret H Townley where political exile Isabel returns to her native Chile where things are very different. Welcome to this edition of Newsgram! Chrissie Hynde said it in her song, My City was Gone. “…I went back to Ohio. But my pretty […]

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This episode is based on the book The Dogs are Curling up Again by Margaret H Townley where political exile Isabel returns to her native Chile where things are very different.

Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

Chrissie Hynde said it in her song, My City was Gone. “…I went back to Ohio. But my pretty countryside. Had been paved down the middle. By a government that had no pride…”  Do you know the song? Sometimes nostalgia can be a dangerous thing because things often change in ways that we don’t always agree with. It also gives us a sharpened perspective on the reality of the situation. 

Imagine for a moment that you left the town of your birth. You moved to another country all together.  However, after fourteen years, the place where you live just doesn’t feel like home. So you go back, but things there have changed as well. It is now very different. It’s a divided country; one you feel equally estranged from. It doesn’t feel like the home it once was. You feel displaced, disorganized and unsettled…and many other things. Are you gonna do something about it? 

Margaret H Townley – Well she embarks on the activism feeling its the only way really to search for the country she remembers

That’s Margaret H Townley, author of the book “The Dogs are Curling up Again”. When we talk about a divided country that doesn’t feel like the one you grew up in sounds very much like our own beloved United States of America but it is not. Her story takes place in Chile and the UK more on that in a moment but I just wanted to point out that while the countries are different the overarching themes in this book are relatable to many other places. Kind of like the title….

Margaret H Townley – When I first arrived in Chile it was winter and they do have dogs living in the street. Many local people are very fond of their dogs. I never saw a dog in a bad condition but they live outside. To them its the normal place that dogs should be and in the winter, when it’s cold at night, they curl themselves into perfect circles which is fun to see. 

Imagine dogs of all kinds curled up in perfect circles dotting the winter landscape. It’s a great visual and it made such an impression on her that she used it as an analogy for her story and the title of the book. The dogs are symbolic of the Chilean dictator and his government who were indifferent to the feelings of the people they are supposed to be serving. 

 So the protagonist of the story is Isabel. She loses her father and boyfriend in the military coup d’etat and she decides to exile in the UK. 

Margaret H Townley – And then when she goes into exile she loses her mother and she loses her friends. she loses her culture and her country, a continent even and you know it’s a big step and she always felt an outsider I think as many Chileans do and refugees in general do in this country. 

So fourteen years later Isabel goes home, but as you and I both know, you can never really go home;  Especially after that long a time. 

Margaret H Townley – She was as estranged there as in England

The country she once knew is not that same so Isabel decides to do something about it by becoming a political activist 

Margaret H Townley – Well she embarks like you said on the activism and feeling it was the only way really to search for the country underneath the white washed crimes of the dictatorship that are beings or to washed over and the stranglehold that the military still has on the society and the constitution that the dictator imposed which was so unjust to many sections of the community. 

It’s a great premise and it’s like what I was talking about in the beginning. What are our duties as citizens and what are our responsibilities in the face of injustice? Do we stand up and make our voices heard or accept the status quo?  It’s a very relatable concept but this story is about much more than just politics. It’s also a love story.

Margaret H Townley – She becomes the lover of this Chilean man and he’s very supportive of the work she wants to achieve but then her English partner that she’d been with for seven years or so before she returned to Chile gets a message to her somehow that he’s searching for her. He’s in Chile. He’s doing voluntary work and um, he’s really there to look for her. 

I n t e r e s t i n g. Now we’ve got ourselves in a real situation. A love triangle set in a historic period in a country with amazing geographic diversity during politically tumultuous times. It’s also a story about self-identity. As Isabel searches for hers you can’t help but think about your own. And, if that’s not enough, It also inspires the reader to take a harder look at their personal and political values. 

Margaret H Townley – It maybe was a bit presumptuous of me to try and think can step into the shoes of a Chilean and really express her experience and yet i felt i had something to say not only for all i’d learned about the society and what I believe a person like that has been through but something to say about my own society as well. I could see when I was in Chile in the late nineties the harshness of life without a welfare state or an adequate welfare state, there was a little or adequate health services and at the same time i knew that in my own society the welfare state was in the process of being destroyed or removed step-by-step and there been this deterioration  I think there is a loss in a sense of community and sense of solidarity that’s come about ever since Reagan and Thatcher were bringing in NeoLiberalism which is not very different from what the military imposed in Chile. In Chile, it was a sudden military coup, an awful shock and thousands died but in North American and other Western societies and particularly in Britain I feel that there has been this creeping effect that ends up very similar to what’s happened in Chile. Greater poverty, greater inequality. Inequality really bothers me and it is so extreme now. The lack of adequate affordable housing and the lack of adequate funds going into health and education and these erode a sense of community and in fact I think cause a great deal of resentment or bad societal effects that come out of that huge divide between those who have and those who have not. 

I know….it’s a lot but that’s what makes it so interesting. There is plenty here to think about. Plenty of layers to peel back and explore. If you are fascinated by other cultures, world news, geography, history and even current affairs then you’ll probably enjoy this story. It will definitely play on your sense of Empathy. To quote Leo Tolstoy, “If you feel pain, you’re alive, if you feel other people’s pain, you’re a human being”. 

Margaret H Townley – I think that gives us that responsibility to want to create a better world for all of us. 

We all do the best we can right? I don’t think I’m giving too much away by saying Isabel does develop clarity with her issues and the things keeping her from being the person she once was but how she gets there; her journey is what makes The Dogs are Curling up Again by Margaret H. Townley such an interesting read. Look for it online at Amazon.com, Balboa Press, or whoever you like to shop for books. There are links in the show’s description. And that will do it for this edition of Newsgram from Webtalkradio.com.

Be sure and listen to the interview with Margaret H. Townley on the Books on Air Podcast at Webtalkradio.com. 

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