Feels like a pseudo-blueprint for Do Not Say We Have Nothing, but that impression probably results from blitzing through this less than 48 hours after finishing the other, and it's really a disservice to both, suggesting Dogs at the Perimeter is a dress rehearsal. They explore similar themes, rendered in clear prose, but that's the extent of it. There's an uncompromising starkness to this earlier work that the more recent one lacks, making Dogs less immediately accessible, and ultimately better at conveying the conflicted reality of forging identity in the wake of personal and historical trauma.