The Speckled Beauty

When Rick Bragg shuffles home to his mother’s place in rural Alabama, spent from chemotherapy, depression, and years of hard living, he figures it’ll take a sweet old dog to lick the crankiness out of him.

There’s nothing sweet about the stray who shows up at the side of the road, “seventy-six pounds of wet hair and bad decisions.” In a willful Australian shepherd with a ruined eye and a lust for carrion, Bragg recognizes himself—his wounds, his tenacity, his devotion to family. Speck “would rather die than be clean” but he stands by his people when they need him,… show more.

There are plenty of books out there about good dogs but not so many about a category I hold dear to my heart, the good bad dog. (I have one of my own.)

I read this entire book in one sitting at my uncomfortable dining table, underlining as I went. It’s beautifully written and Speck, the dog, as well as the author and his human family come alive on the page.

Sometimes the dogs that don’t do what we ask them to are exactly the dogs we need. 

The Speckled Beauty by Rick Bragg is as extraordinary as his other books and carries his unique stamp: a small southern story told gloriously big. I’ve read just about everything written by Bragg and am enamored by his sublime, original voice. He began as a journalist and won the Pulitzer Prize in ’96 yet he’s never steered far from his humble roots. If you love great southern writing, put Rick Bragg on your list.