What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

In the Preface, Gladwell refers to his essays as “adventures” (xv)—in other words, pieces that do not so much persuade readers to adopt his view as encourage them to explore other minds and come to their own conclusions on what they find there. His final command in the Preface is for the reader to “enjoy [I]” (xv), an instruction that supports the adventuring spirit in inviting the reader to delight in his storytelling and adopt a playful rather than doctrinaire spirit.

One dominant feature of adventure writing is digression from pure argument and immersion in the people and locations the writer encounters along the way. Gladwell’s interviewees are not abstract ciphers who present themselves merely by their opinion but characters who emerge as concretely as those in a novel. For example, Rob Popeil, kitchen-gadget impresario, is described as “a handsome man, thick through the chest and shoulders, with a leonine head and striking, oversize features” (5). The description, with its reference to Popeil’s amplitude and resemblance to a lion, an animal known as the king of the beasts, implicitly alludes to how physical presence aids Popeil’s endeavor as a salesman and accounts for his astonishing success in persuading people to buy what they never knew they wanted.