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Roger Grenier. Les larmes d'Ulysse.. Paris. Gallimard. 1998. 167 pages. 90 F. ISBN 2-07-079311-5.
Les larmes d'Ulysse defies facile classification. Partly autobiography in its affectionate evocation of "life with
my dog Ulysses," it also comments perceptively on the relationship between men and dogs, between human beings and animals, presenting a panorama, both erudite and diverting, of the role of the dog in Western literature from the Greeks until the present. The title, of course, comes from Homer. In the absence of Ulysses, his beloved dog Argos was left Uncared for. On his master's return, the dog was found star-,ing and covered with fleas. Argos immediately recognized Ulysses and leapt up to welcome him. Ulysses, touched, turned aside his head, "en essuyant une larme."
The mystery and the poetry of the relationship between man and beast has long occupied philosophers and scientists (now perhaps, with DNA, research so advanced, even more than in the past). An international meeting in...