A Member of the Family is written in the third person from the point of view of Tom, the protagonist. Butterworth's free style, interspersed with a great deal of conversation, reads easily and quickly. He carefully develops the personalities of the characters, sets the background, and helps the reader to understand the bonds that grow between people and between people and animals. His careful research of the subject of schizophrenia in dogs gives credibility to the way Precious behaves and the conflict of the story. A postscript dedicates the book to Butterworth's "son, John, who, when he was sixteen, met his responsibility to put down the family pet in circumstances very much like those described in A Member of the Family."

Butterworth weaves just the right amount of humor and levity into the story to relieve the stress of Precious' vicious behavior and the gravity of...