Igloo Book Buzz: NYC Rom-Com for Dog Lovers
“A humorous tale of a young New Yorker’s search for happiness, and the two dogs who help him find it” is Marie Claire’s take on JONATHAN UNLEASHED by Meg Rosoff, published by Viking on Tuesday (7/5). Two more buzz lines about this beach bag-ready summer read: “With whip-smart dialogue, Rosoff explores how twentysomethings find their feet in the big city, face up to the horror of entry-level employment and figure out who they really love” and “Funny, smart writing from a novelist with such an assured voice that you can’t resist accompanying her on the novel’s journey.”
Ms. Rosoff, National Book Award finalist and Printz Award winner, describes the inspiration behind the writing of JONATHAN UNLEASHED: “I woke up one morning with the line ‘Jonathan came home from work one day to find the dogs talking about him’ in my head. I knew instantly it was the next book, even though I didn’t know who Jonathan was, and why the dogs were talking about him. I thought, ‘I must write that line down,’ but also knew that I wouldn’t forget it. The process of writing a book is made up of a thousand micro-decisions, and I think one of them with this book was that the news was depressing me quite a lot, and I thought a comedy might cheer me up.”
JONATHAN UNLEASHED is a romantic comedy that follows Jonathan Trefoil, a twenty-something New Yorker who feels stuck and helpless, and the two dogs, Dante, a border collie and Sissy, a spaniel, that inspire him to lead a different life.
Film rights for the novel have been optioned by Qwerty Films, with Michael Kuhn as producer (Being John Malkovich, The Duchess, Florence Foster Jenkins) and Ms. Rosoff writing the screenplay.