My Dog: The Paradox

Matthew Inman’s illustrated retelling and clever description of the process of “The One-Man Human Centipede”—wherein his cute dog, Rambo, eats his own poop, pukes up the poop, eats the puke, re-poops it all on the floor, and tries to eat it again (while Inman rushes around his house trying, in vain, to stop him every step of the way)—is not as disgusting as it might sound. In fact, in Inman’s comic hands, it’s extremely funny, as is the rest of this book chronicling the random, baffling, lovable traits of this one man’s best friend. Inman is the guy behind the hilarious online comic site The Oatmeal, which features his quirky, sometimes (refreshingly) shocking, always side-splitting comics, such as “What it’s Like to Own an Apple Product” and “How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You”, and My Dog: The Paradox initially appeared there. He immortalizes Rambo here in all his contradictory glory: The little guy will bark at bears or moose and has no fear of the garbage truck, but he can’t even make eye contact with the cat and runs away from hair dryers. It’s a short, fun romp in the dog park that not only points out the many ways our dogs are paradoxes, but also how the owners who invest themselves in these sometimes frustrating, short-lived furry friends are as well.