Like Doyle’s previous books,including the 2021 novelEcholalia (exploring motherhood in the face of climate change),and the 2017 non-fiction workAdult Fantasy (melding memoir and cultural criticism to unpack coming of age in the time of neoliberalism),this novel is concerned about the way an individual responds to crises both personal and global.
In this case,the narrator,BB,has lost her partner and father in an 18-month period,and her loneliness and discombobulation are exacerbated by COVID lockdowns. She moves to Balboa Bay,a beachside suburb of Silver City (Doyle’s version of Sydney),where she finds comfort and companionship in her dog,Baby,and the dogs around her when neighbours mistake her for a dog trainer. The narration of her day-to-day life is interspersed with memories,particularly of her partner,who is referred to with reverential capitalisation,almost like an imagined higher being. So,who is she without Him,and how does she go on?
The story becomes increasingly surreal and includes splashes of magic realism as BB and Baby develop telepathic communication,and different sounds,such as a dog whose howl sounds like the wind,give her days their strange colour. Photographs by Nash Ferguson dotted throughout bring BB’s world into a new dimension.
Why We Are Here bears similarities – formal and thematic – toSigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel,The Friend,which depicts the relationship between an unnamed novelist and a dog after the suicide of her friend,the dog’s original owner. In the tradition of the contemporary literary novel,neither book is especially plot-driven,instead tracing the sometimes contradictory,sometimes repetitive contours of a life impacted by grief and loss,and the healing powers of canine companionship.
Both novels have elements of autofiction,which lends a sense of emotional veracity and weight. Doyle lost her father and partner in real life,and she also published a piece in this masthead in June about the loss of her real-life dog,Baby,which is heavy with the same kind of grief and love that make up so much of this book.