{"product_id":"crossing-the-plains-with-bruno-9781595346698","title":"Crossing the Plains with Bruno","description":"Dogs, like humans, have memories, instincts, fears, and loyalties. But, as far as we know, dogs do not get swept up in nostalgia, speculation, or self-analysis. Although they have hopes, they are not driven by regrets. In \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eCrossing the Plains with Bruno\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e, Annick Smith weaves together a memoir of travel and relationship, western history and family history, human love and animal love centering around a two week road trip across the Great Plains she and her 95 pound chocolate lab, Bruno, took in the summer of 2003. It is a chain of linked meditations, often triggered by place, about how the past impinges on the present and how the present can exist seemingly sans past. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTraveling from her rural homestead in Montana to pick up her nearly 100-year-old mother from her senior residence on Chicago's North Side and bring her to the family's beach house on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan, Smith often gets lost in memory and rambling contemplation. Bruno's constant companionship and ever present needs force her to return to the actual, reminding her that she, too, is an animal whose existence depends on being alert to the scents, sights, hungers, and emotions of the moment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePassing through wide open spaces, dying ranch towns, green cornfields, and Midwestern hamlets, Annick is immersed in memories of her immigrant Hungarian Jewish family, her childhood days in Chicago, her early marriage, and ultimate immigration west. Triggered by random encounters along the way, she's taken back to life as a young mother, her career as a writer and filmmaker who produced the classic \u003ci\u003eA River Runs Through It\u003c\/i\u003e, the death of her husband, and the thrill of a late romance. A lifetime of reflection played out one mile at a time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eCrossing the Plains with Bruno\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e is a story narrated by a woman beset by the processes of aging, living with the imminent reality of a parent's death, but it is the dog that rides shotgun, like Sancho Panza to Don Quixote, that becomes the reminder of the physical realities outside our own imaginations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Trinity University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/06\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781595346698\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 216\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e Montana Book Award - Honor Book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/15\/2015 pg. 131\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2015 pg. 12\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Annick Smith","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36661141504156,"sku":"9781595346698","price":15.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_101439da-0270-423a-b17c-c49402732bc1.jpg?v=1603898743","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/crossing-the-plains-with-bruno-9781595346698","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}