This book is, in a word, melancholy. There's not a lot of dialogue and years pass in the scant pages, but the sparse style works to tell this simple story.
When there's no food to be found through honest means, the head of a poor black family gets some on the table dishonestly. The police cart him off and shoot the titular coon dog in the process. The remaining family makes do while the eldest son searches for the dog and, later, for his father.
I saw the movie about a week ago, so it was fresh in my mind. The changes and additions certainly weren't bad ones, but they changed the story so completely that they probably should've changed the name too. The movie has a fundamental joy that the book doesn't pretend. The movie shortens the sentence while the book stretches out the punishment for a crime of a few dollars to years. The book also contains vivid passages of revenge daydreams in which the son indulges when cruelty is visited upon him -- daydreams that would've been impossible to recreate on film but which, for me, were some of the most important passages in the pages. The movie was good, but the book is definitely superior.
B+
