Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

The Story: It has to be kind of weird to be a dog, right?  They see so much and can say literally nothing.  You have to wonder what goes through their heads.

In this book, that is explored.  On the day before he is going to be taken to the vet to be put to sleep, Enzo kind of does a look back over his life with his family.  His master is Denny, a race car driver/mechanic.  Through Denny’s life and love for racing, Enzo has developed this really incredible philosophy on life.  He’s seen Denny go through bachelorhood, dating, marriage, fatherhood, widowhood, and a custody battle.  He’s watched his career start to rise.  He’s been there through all these life changes and just has a really unique perspective.

What I Thought: When this book first came out, I remember it being frigging everywhere.  It was one of those books that was even on the little book rack at the grocery store.  I remember reading the back and just knowing that this was not a book that I’d like at all.  I am not really a pet person.  We had a great dog while I was growing up, but I was never one to dress her up or dote over her or anything.  Call me heartless, I don’t know, it’s just not my thing.  I also am not into car racing.  My mom is very much a pet person and very much into car racing, so when she was gushing over this book I assumed it was just because she is into all that.

I was wrong.

This book was pretty much incredible.  I loved Enzo.  He made me want a dog.  The only other thing that makes me want a dog that much is the clever dog halloween costumes, but that’s a whole other post.  I loved how witty he was.  His voice was different enough to remember he was a dog but human enough to really feel for him and fall in love with him.

The parts that really got me were the parts that made me want to hug Lucy, the dog we had while I was growing up (and that my Mom still has).  When Denny’s wife first gets sick, Denny goes to the hospital with her and doesn’t come back for a few days.  Enzo gets delirious from hunger and starts hallucinating.  He gets freaked out by a stuffed zebra and destroys some toys in Denny’s daughter’s room.  When they get home, they are mad about him destroying stuff but all Enzo can think about is how evil that zebra was and what would have happened had it been allowed to live.  It makes me wonder what Lucy was thinking when she, say,  ate a whole pile of CDs in my room.  :)

The part that really shocked me is how convincing his voice was. While I was reading this book, Shaun and I were driving along and I turned to him and said, “Did you know that dogs can smell disease before humans can detect it?  It seems like scientists would figure out a way to use that, you know?  Like drug sniffing dogs, only disease sniffing dogs.”  He kind of looked at me funny and asked where I had heard that.  I had to think about it for a minute and then I had to admit to him it was from a novel written from a dog’s point of view.  He cracked up at me.  I was so into it that I forgot that it wasn’t real.  Crazy, right?

Good work, Garth Stein.

Conclusion: Don’t write this off just because it is different.  I was pleasantly surprised and I would recommend it without reservation.