The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

This book is the making of a Hallmark movie, yet I didn’t find it cheesy. Unrealistic at times? Yes. But what’s the point of writing fiction if you can’t get liberal with it.

The story sped by like the racecar-driving protagonist, Dennis Swift. This book had the perfect recipe to pull me in: a devoted husband to his wife & father to his daughter, a tragic love affair, good underdog vs. the evil upper hand, and a dog named Enzo. Man, I wish my dog could be as well-behaved.

Anyway, the heart of the story is in the narrator, the family dog, Enzo. Enzo is not just a dog but a being that can understand us humans even though he only has his tail & gestures with which to respond. This twist pushes this story past the cheesiness it could have easily become. Through Enzo’s eyes, we see the world as an emotionally-interested outsider. We rejoice with every triumph; we wait in trepidation at setbacks; and we revel in the revenge that only a dog can level.

It allows all of us dog owners to live through that particular fantasy where our dogs really do understand us. That is sometimes why I stare in my dog’s eyes to seek the answer to that question, “Can you understand me?” We all have our stories to support the realism of this fantasy. Every time I’ve cried, my dog Roxie raises in alarm. Every time I’ve been scared, she sounds her protection. But then there are the many times when she doesn’t even respond to her name… go figure. Does she understand me? Who knows? But in The Art of Racing in the Rain, I get to pretend that she & Enzo do.

Great, light read. Gets a little too mushy at a pivotal closing scene and everything seems to wrap up just a little bit too nice and neat. It made me wonder if this book was written with the intent of becoming a movie. There was also some dabbling in spirituality but it left no deep impression.


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3.5 stars
“Borrow from a friend/library or Buy on sale”