My Boy, Ben: A Story of Love, Loss and Grace

Wheaton, a ranked tennis player, takes readers on a long sentimental journey through the eight-year life of his dog Ben, a yellow Labrador retriever. The author lives with and through his dog, and when the animal becomes sick with cancer, Wheaton puts his life on hold. The treatment options for a sick dog are many, and the author goes far and wide in his exploration. For dog lovers this might be an enlightening part of the book. The search for answers about the meaning of suffering and the possibility of an afterlife occupy much of the last third of the book. Wheaton finds hope and comfort in stories from the Bible. The story is relentlessly sad, even though the author eventually finds another dog, whom he names Grace; and a wife, with whom he eventually has a family. But Wheaton never completely gets over his loss of Ben. “It goes down to one of the deepest and most basic human needs and desires, and that is relationship,” he writes. (Oct.)