Does the author seem to have a friendly, unfriendly, or some other type of relationship with the content of the book? Why do you think so?

I finished The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman and am now reading My Dog Skip by Willie Morris, published 1996.



Willie Morris is most definitely, I believe, writing about his dog Skip with a very friendly and fond tone. This is a dog that he loved very much and that was a very large part of his childhood. He begins the book with the following passage: "I came across a photograph of him not long ago, his black face with the long snout sniffing at something in the air, his tail straight and pointing, his eyes flashing in some momentary excitement. Looking at a faded photograph taken more than forty years before, even as a grown man, I would admit I still missed him." This lets the reader know from the very beginning the depth of the relationship between Morris and Skip. Skip and Willie shared a lot of personal history in their time together. Skip is now long dead, and Morris most likely has made other human friends and perhaps gotten married, sharing very deep, personal relationships with other people. But the fact that he still misses Skip and recognizes the importance of their relationship says a lot about Skip as a dog.
Morris addresses Skip in his book as "Old Skip," giving him a very friendly nickname, furthering his friendly tone towards the dog. He also talks about Skip with pride, saying things like, "Our first dogs were the big ones--Tony, Sam, Jimbo--and since they were bird dogs, they had a fine and natural inclination to hunt. Yet Skip was the best of all, for he trampled the woods with an inborn sense of possibility and adventure." His bragging about Skip is an example of his love for him.