Note on May 18--Oh man. My book club's selection this month. Just started reading it last night. A dog narrator. And car racing. I dozed off in self-defense.May 20--Not my kind of book. Don't read any farther if you loved it.-----Elsewhere on this site my friend Judy compared Garth Stein to Robert James Waller. I think that's insulting to Waller. It felt like Stein had a list -- dog hero, check. Wonderful woman with fatal brain tumor -- check. Adorable child -- check. In-laws from hell -- check. False accusation of rape -- check. Wait, what was that last? Are you kidding me? Daughter taken away -- check.And then of course fairy godFerrarifather -- check. Rape victim recants -- check. Gets his daughter back -- check. Reconciliation with estranged parents -- check. Who also give him check -- check. No good deed goes unrewarded! The top of his profession -- oh of course check, how could it be otherwise. But wait, there's more! Dog reincarnated as human boy and race car driver wannabe!I didn't buy the dog as narrator for a moment. I'm not saying an animal's point of view can't be done, and done well (The Incredible Journey, The Silent Meow, Watership Down, The Wind in the Willows), but not here. And the whole plot was just so implausibly over the top. I put it down at page 3, page 26, and page 29, and then I remembered that I, too, have picked books for book club that people hated. Readers, I finished it. I consider it to be a triumph over my gag reflex.I see now that I've been completely wasting my time for the last twenty years. My next book will be about the mother of a little girl with leukemia as told by their cat. Husband deserts them -- check. Mother loses her job because of bad economy -- check. Has to work three jobs to replace it -- check. She sells their house to pay medical bills -- check. Arrested and child removed by family welfare due to child neglect -- check. Husband's mother sues for custody -- check. Through it all the only comfort is the cat -- check.Child dies. Cat runs away. The abyss.No, wait, this is a cynical feelgood Stephen Spielberg book, what am I saying? Of course the child doesn't die, the child is cured by a all! new! and improved! treatment! Check! Mother discovers an ability to make yarn from cat's hair -- check! Fairy godartgallerymother discovers cat hair sweaters on mother's do-it-yourself website online and gives her her own show -- check! She sells them for millions -- check! Doctor who invented the treatment falls in love with mother -- check! Cat lives to twenty-one and comes back as third child of now leukemia-free daughter, and grandma gives her knitting lessons.On the other hand, Stein's book sold a zillion copies and I'm sure he's crying all the way to the bank. I just hope they don't make a movie out of it.

2015 Super Favorite!I went into this novel not knowing much about it really, only afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it if it was too sad (being the animal lover than I am) and had already started a great classic play I was eager to get into, but after reading two chapters of The Art of Racing in The Rain I knew it would be utterly impossible to put it down...and it was.This story is so much more than I thought it would be. It is touching, inspirational, filled with kindness, understanding and just an absolutely unputdownable work of fiction. It makes you think about your pet's life and their thoughts through gestures. It even has twin humanoid villains and an imaginary striped demon...and yes...there is some sadness and despair within these pages, but overall, it is a happy, feel-good amazingly enjoyable book.If this is on your agenda to read, don't wait....read it now. If it's not, add it....you won't be disappointed you did. (IMHO)I actually feel like starting over and reading it again!

This is the best book I have read in a long time!Let me just say - I'm not a race car fan at all, but this book really isn't about race car driving. It's about the love a dog has for its humans, the nature of life, and how - according to the dog - race car driving is a metaphor for all of life. (And I have to admit that I'm crying my eyes out right now!)To start at the beginning, the book is narrated by the dog - Enzo. He is smart and funny, observant and clever, good and loyal. He is everything a dog should be. He watches TV and learns from TV documentaries - although he's never learned to read even though he tried by watching Sesame Street. He thinks that humans are evolved from dogs and not monkeys - as in case study #2 when he says "The full moon rises. The fog clings to the lowest branches of the spruce trees. The man steps out of the darkest corner of the forest and finds himself transformed into...A monkey? I think not." After watching a documentary about Mongolia and how they believe that dog's are reincarnated as humans, he knows that he is a misplaced human soul in a dog's body and when he dies he'll become human. He has it all planned out and while he doesn't long for death, he is certainly ready to embrace it. And so he practices being human and controlling his base animal instincts. His love of race car driving? He watches races all day, and his owner, Denny, is a race car driver. Often they even watch the races together!As the reader, you become intimately connected with Enzo - his every thought and emotion. But reality isn't so skewed in this book that he can talk. He has to communicate with gestures which frustrates him greatly. But that's one reason why this book is SO good...at least if you've ever owned a pet. It's believable. Reading this I believe - I believe that pets could/do communicate with us and understand us. I became completely immersed in Enzo's world.Of course, Enzo's world centers around his family which is absolutely just torn apart by tragedy and maddening circumstances - his wife's death due to brain cancer, his in-laws suing him for custody, a made up law-suit against him so they can win custody of his granddaughter. Visitation rights being revoked, his entire life's savings gone with lawyer and trial fees. Almost giving up time after time after time. Enzo is there narrating the entire thing, giving his perspective of the situation and being there completely and utterly for a human in need.There is a heartbreaking scene when Enzo is hit by a car and Denny rushes him to the hospital. And Denny can't afford to pay the vet bill because he has nothing. And even though Enzo is in such pain afterwards and he never fully recovers, he pretends he is fine for Denny because he knows that Denny doesn't have the money to pay for more vet bills!In the end, everything works out for Denny and his daughter Zoey. And in the end, of couse, Enzo gets what he wishes for. But in the end, he realizes there is so much more to life that he wants to live. In the end he realizes that he doesn't want to leave Denny and Zoey even though they don't need him as much anymore. And in the end, Enzo is reincarnated as a human - a boy who is a natural born race car driver named Enzo who is Denny's biggest fan.I loved this book! Loved it! I can't express how much I loved this book. Go out and read it today!!!! "Sometimes I believe...Sometimes I really do believe!"

I was rather sceptical about The Art of Racing in the Rain. I continued to be so as I read, even when I was more than halfway through. It bothered me: the description of Eve's illness, the situation with Annika. And I wasn't sure I was getting much out of it in return for getting so unsettled. I didn't think that much of the narration -- the conceit of a dog narrating the story. Parts just didn't go together: you can't have a really smart dog with ideas on philosophy who then gets confused about really simple things. Neither rang true.But somewhere, around three quarters of the way through, I really began to care. And the emotional punches began to hit, until somewhere in the last fifty pages I found that I was tearing up that little bit (and I needed to blow my nose: gross, but true).It's still, honestly, a bit thin. The central conceit, Enzo's narration, it really didn't work for me. The story itself is believable, but the choice of narrator nearly killed it for me, before I even picked it up. It's also totally unsurprising, in everything that happens, but the end borders on painfully cliché. I still liked it, in the moment, but it's a flaw. It's not something I'll reread, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but I'm glad I read through to the end.

Yet another book I was reading as a preview to see if I should purchase it as a gift. Sadly, no.Equally disappointing is disliking the work of a local author. I always want to like local authors (and artists of all stripes), but it isn't always possible.First, I don't think automobile racing is a good metaphor for life. Maybe it is, but I have a bias. I hate the automobile. I think the personal automobile is the single most destructive concept we've conceived. To then race them (in circles, no less) seems pointless at the very best, and perhaps even criminal when one considers the environmental costs. As I said, I'm biased.The reason I read this in the first place was the dog-as-narrator. I'm really trying to find a good dog-as-narrator book. This isn't it. The dog-as-narrator in Stein's book is gimmicky. It doesn't add to the story, it doesn't clarify the plot, and it doesn't enhance the narrative. I kept asking, "Why is the dog telling this story?" I still have no satisfactory answer.The narrator was particularly unlikable to me due to his obsession with being reincarnated as a man. It rubbed me the wrong way for several reasons, and seemed to detract from the story whenever it came up. It also underscored my question about why we were listening to the dog in the first place.My final disappointment with this book involved a little deus ex machina action that tied a little bow around the story and robbed it of any emotional truth it had held for me up to that point.Ultimately a discouraging read, but I finished it in the unrealized hope that it would redeem itself.[I should probably read this review after getting some sleep and edit it for clarity and accuracy, but I doubt I will.]