Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central Narrator)
My Life in Dog Years is a nonfiction book about nine special dogs that author Gary Paulsen has known. In nine chapters, he tells their stories; but in the process, he also tells his own.
Often, when people write about their lives, they're the stars of their own story. It makes sense, right? Probably you haven't had a chance to write a book about your life just yet, but think about your journal or blog, if you have one. In writing like that, you're usually talking about you.
In this book, Paulsen places his dogs in the spotlight. So even though he's technically talking about his own life story, it exists at the edges of his stories about the dogs. You have to read between the lines of quick references to his parents' alcoholism, for instance, to understand that he had a troubled childhood.
The narrative progresses chronologically except for the story about Cookie, to whom he dedicates the book. Within each story, things are also told in the order they happened, no fancy narrative tricks here.