102 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A Dog and a DCM Unleash Chaos at Post Dog’s Breakfast Tom Navratil, Willow River Press, 2025, $19.99/paperback, e-book available, 328 pages. Reviewed by Donna Scaramastra Gorman Deputy Chief of Mission Andy Pulano has always been the smartest guy in the room. He’s prepared. He’s conniving. And he really dislikes the dolt of an ambassador he’s been saddled with at the embassy in the fictional backwater country of Vodania. When the ambassador’s beloved but mischievous dog, Davos, gets sick, the ambassador suspects poisoning, and DCM Pulano sees his chance to move up the ladder while bringing the ambassador’s career to an embarrassing end. He finds the perfect fall guy in newly arrived second-tour officer Tara Zadani, and he sets her up with the thankless task of figuring out what happened to the dog while he works to set his own complicated plot in motion. His plan quickly spirals out of control thanks to overly ambitious country team members, fighting between ethnic groups in Vodania, and contractors back in Washington, D.C. Along the way, readers catch glimpses of power struggles at the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and other agencies. Dog’s Breakfast, the satirical debut novel by retired FSO Tom Navratil, skewers embassy life with wit and insider accuracy, along with a good dose of exaggeration. Navratil spent almost 30 years in the Foreign Service, serving in Santo Domingo, Havana, Tokyo, Moscow, and as deputy chief of mission in Skopje from 2007 to 2010. The book’s intricate plot somehow hangs together all the way to the end, continually offering up small, realistic details that will keep Foreign Service readers laughing. Who hasn’t dealt with a VIP visitor who is a bit of a blowhard? What general services officer hasn’t worked to fit the regulations to the needs at post? And the family pet that interrupts an official event—that definitely happens, though hopefully not as memorably as it did in these pages. Outlandish bureaucratic and military snafus keep the plot moving and keep the reader wondering what’s next. Many of the main characters are unlikable caricatures of the worst sorts of people you’ll run into overseas, but they are offset by the idealistic young officer, Zadani, who is trying her hardest to do her job well, make a difference in the local community, and maybe even—if it’s not too much to hope for—find love along the way. Zadani’s sense of duty stands in stark contrast to the petty rivalries going on around and above her. It’s nice to know that of all the book’s characters, an idealistic do-gooder is the most relatable and recognizable. Foreign Service members in need of a laugh—sometimes at their own expense—should give Dog’s Breakfast a read while they wait for Navratil’s second book, this one centered on a Foreign Service family, to hit the shelves. n Donna Scaramastra Gorman is the deputy editor of The Foreign Service Journal.
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