Philosopher and the Wolf

January 26, 2009
Animal lovers or not, Nietzsche-lovers or not, readers will admire how Rowlands, a philosophy professor at the University of Miami, interweaves essential philosophical questions with charming anecdotes of raising his pet wolf, Brenin. An alcoholic and self-described misanthrope with a penchant for fierce dogs and rough sports, Rowlands is eminently likable and even laugh-out-loud funny. He describes the isolation he eventually acquired in order to write and be with his (eventually three) dogs as follows: “There were girlfriends, but they came into my life and left it again with a regularity by which you could set your watch and an inevitability on which you could bet your bottom dollar.” Of Brenin’s escapades, he writes: “We discovered him... in flagrante delicto with a white German shepherd.” But as funny as these passages are, they are a preamble for a meditation on happiness—for both man and animal. Rowlands’s gruff humor, erudition, honest assessments of himself and the world around him, and his all-out affection for his “pack” result in a book that is surprisingly thoughtful and frequently poignant.