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Synopsis
In Dinosaurs on the Roof, acclaimed author and playwright David Rabe delivers a singular work that reaffirms his extraordinary range and talent, and introduces a story and a collection of characters whose genuine audacity will echo with readers for years to come.
In the town of Belger, Iowa, recently divorced Janet Cawley is attempting to find some peace and quiet, and perhaps a solitary place where she can finally fall apart. She's quit her job teaching fourth grade, though with the money she has, she will probably get along fine for another six months. She still needs to extricate herself from an affair with an ex-colleague that has the neighbors talking, but after that she can spend her time alone, jogging, drinking, and making the occasional trip into town.
Her plans are interrupted one morning by the sudden appearance of her now-deceased mother's oldest friend, Bernice, who has an urgent matter to discuss. Bernice's preacher, it seems, has informed his congregation that they are to be visited by the Rapture that very evening — and Bernice's first question, and most pressing fear, is how her dogs and cats will be fed and cared for after she's gone.
Through that night and into the next, the lives of these two women will become inextricably woven together as they struggle to find reason in the incomprehensible and sometimes ludicrous events that unfold, and search for tangible signs of faith in themselves and the world around them. Dinosaurs on the Roof is a magnificent novel that speaks volumes about spirituality in the twenty-first century and explores the intimate, everyday gestures of the strangers closest to us with unforgettable humor and remarkablehumanity.
The New York Times - Charles Taylor
It's with Bernice that Rabe distinguishes himself. This elderly woman, missing her husband, realizing that the pains and frailties she's feeling are only going to get worse, happy with the love of her cats and dogs, could so easily be a figure of ridicule, a target of sneering superiority. I don't think it s just home-state fondness (Rabe grew up in Dubuque) that makes him treat Bernice so tenderly. The finest parts of the book are spent with Bernice, feeding her pets, making her own breakfast. The section in which Bernice watches how and where the cats and dogs sleep at night has a becalmed enchantment and an understanding of the bond between humans and domestic animals that, I think, J. R. Ackerley would salute.