Had to think "Chums of Chance" when I read this again ...

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

"I suspect one of the reasons that fantasy and science fiction appeal so 
much to younger readers is that, when the space and time have been altered 
to allow characters to travel easily anywhere through the continuum and thus 
escape physical dangers and timepiece inevitabilities, mortality is so 
seldom an issue". (Thomas Pynchon: Slow Learner intro)

Perhaps it's not quite fair. The Chums of Chance are confronted with other 
people's death on a large scale (but so are fantasy and science fiction 
heroes, no?), and up to my current point of reading they did only talk about 
travelling back in time but did not really do this. Yet still ... I mean, 
there is again a talking dog! And this time he is so very very learned that 
he can even read whole novels. Except for Kafka's parables, I really hate 
talking animals in books for grown-ups. One of the reasons why I could never 
finish certain later books of Grass. Wisecritter chitchat of rats, flounders 
and whatnot all. It's silly. In contrary to this, "Vineland"'s Desmond is 
alright. Behaves like a real dog, fulfills --- by getting the blue jays in 
the end --- a working narrative function: The people and their stories (with 
the remarkable exception of Brock Vond) are taken back to earth again.

Kai