Sounds to me like he's got a friend who went off to war in an attempt to escape his own broken heart. Fionn (or the narrator) tried to disuade this friend, but he went anyway. He then ruminates on his teenaged love lost, and his own subsequent war, which is just inner turmoil/life. A rhodesian ridgeback is a dog, and rhodesian war is zimbabwe's independance, which played a role in the cold war. Its a nice play on words and loyalty/friendship; the paul auster book is about a recently deceased homeless man's dog making his way. This could suggest a loss of family as well, homeless - perhaps the most vital love lost was not romantic. Also, and most likely, the friend could very well be himself, and this song could be his adulthood asking his adolesence for advice. Looking at each verse fairly literally: first he got drunk and stole some shit(from a dinner, plus a book). Second he's mourning someone who has gone away despite the odds of returning. Third and fourth are the third split, on about a dog and a girl, respectively. Then he's 17 and reading augie march, which is a coming of age tale. This is a sort of coming of age tale told backwards without beginning or end.