The Art of Racing In The Rain

OK, I’ve gone ahead and read another book.  Go me!  This little gem was suggested to me by my mother-in-law.  I have to say, I really did enjoy this book.  It was upsetting at times, but isn’t that what a book that pulls you in should be able to do?  So I was pulled into it.  Let’s dish:

The story is about a dog named Enzo and his owner Denny Swift.  The book starts off with Enzo knowing his days alive are dwindling and he is looking forward to moving on to his next life as a human.  As the book moves on, we discover that Enzo is obsessed with becoming a human.  He longs for opposable thumbs and a life of thinking and speaking.  He knows race car driving because his owner Denny, is a race car driver.  Enzo takes us all the way back to the beginning of his life when Denny picked him up from a farm and took him home.  We move along from there to Denny having a girlfriend, to their marriage and then their having a little girl.  The dog is filled with both accurate observations of humanity as well as some pretty funny misinterpretations of events and situations.

“So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is compromised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.”

I really enjoyed this book.  It deals with several really ugly human topics like cancer, statutory rape and child custody but, therein lies the humanity of the story.  I really, really liked this story.  At times, I was horrified by the series of events.  But then again, humans can be terrible to each other, and in this book the lines of who is your alley and who isn’t is not drawn along family lines.  And not only the bad guys die.  This book was a keen observation of humanity told through the eyes of a dog – a good, faithful & loyal dog.

Do I recommend this book to you?  Yes, by all means – but if you cry a little, keep reading – I promise, you’ll appreciate the end.  Go Enzo!