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| The Art of Racing in the Rain | 
 enlarge | Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $13.45
You Save: $10.50 (44%)
New (43) Used (21) Collectible (2) from $12.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  203 reviews
Sales Rank: 193
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 0061537934
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780061537936
ASIN: 0061537934
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very Depressing Story May 18, 2008
14 out of 64 found this review helpful
I purchased this book at Starbucks with no clue from the cover reviews and story synopsis that the story would be so depressing. This story is not about a dog--it's about a man (the author) who speaks through a dog to tell a very depressing story about the highly anticipated death of a woman and the custody fight over her child. The side story regarding the husband/father's car racing provides an interesting perspective, but it does not overcome the main story. The reader can see the wife's brain cancer coming long before the wife is finally forced to see a doctor. Considering how long the story characters wait before seeing a doctor, despite the symptoms of extremely painful headaches accompanied by dizziness and vomiting, it's no wonder the wife/mother did not have a chance of surviving. Regarding the child, who in their right mind would allow a small child to live in her grandparents' household that is set up to care for the child's dying mother, when the loving, healthy husband/father who lives near by and visits his dying wife on a regular basis would prefer that his child stay with him. What environment would be healthier for the child!?! In addition, the dog man narrator is prone to gratuitous sexual observations that are just gross. NOT A BOOK FOR DOG LOVERS! NOT A BOOK FOR CHILDREN OR YOUNG ADULTS! Advertising for this book should have been clearer!
 Darned near perfect read May 18, 2008
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I stopped at Starbucks on my way to jury duty, for coffee and something sweet to get me through. I saw this book and, being a dog lover, the cover caught my eye. I read the flyleaf and had to have it. This is as close to a perfect story as I've read in a long time. Yes, the narrator is a dog who is wiser than most of us; yes, Denny is a zen-type race car driver (and I'm bored silly by the entire "sport" of car racing); yes, all sorts of bad luck is heaped upon Denny. With all that I was caught up in the story and believed every word as true and in the very realest sense it is. I've recommended it to all my friends and I recommend it to you too.
 Another canine narrator! May 17, 2008
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
Another canine narrator!
Having just finished J.F. Englert's A Dog About Town and A Dog Among Diplomats, my interest was piqued by the prospect of another canine narrator.
In The Art of Racing In The Rain, Enzo, a lab who never knew his father, has learned to understand speech (and form whole paragraphs in his mind) from watching TV. In this book as well as in Englert's novels, the lab narrators are fortunate to have owners who are constantly thinking out loud, recounting their lives, days and thoughts to their animals--which, admittedly, is probably necessary for the dog-as-narrator idea to work at all.
Personally, I prefer Randolph as a narrator and also the overall whimsicality, intelligence and fun of Englert's books, but there's room for Enzo in the world of dog narrators--especially for people who believe dogs have many insights for us non-dogs.
 Sentimental dog story with a lot of human cliches June 13, 2008
11 out of 28 found this review helpful
Anyone who knows me knows that I am an off-the-deep-end animal lover and I cry even at benign "animal" films like Babe ("That'll do pig, that'll do...) let alone anything tear-jerky or involving the death of pet. And "Racing" puts its message way up front, in a forward that makes it clear from page one that the charming narrator is gonna die, putting all the cards on the table (so I am not really giving any spoilers).
I noticed here on Amazon a video from the publisher, one so elaborate it is like a mini-movie/commercial for the book -- it had to have cost a fortune, including all the music and editing. That's very disheartening -- it underlines what I was only going to imply, which is that this book was probably written with the moneymaking potential of a sentimental movie (and the big money advances that entales) firmly in mind.
Books (and films) about sentient animals (not just dogs, but obviously pigs, cats, horses, occasionally parrots and let's not forget the detective sheep in "Three Bags Full") are so ubiquitous now that it's not merely a sub-genre but practically an entire industry.
It is in the "dog story" that "Art of Racing in Rain" is most successful. Enzo is a mixed breed mutt (though oddly depicted on the book jacket as a pure bred yellow lab) owned by a young man, Denny Swift, who is crazy about auto racing. (Hint to author: if you are writing about a racer, it is overselling your hand to name him "Swift" -- it's like having your protagonist being an author and naming him "Typewriter".)
Enzo, a ridiculously smart and literate dog (he's been educated by 24 hours a day of PBS TV) with the intellectual equivalent of a PhD. His observations about life can be amusing, and he wants more than anything to be reincarnated in his next life as a human with opposable thumbs. Again, these are the best parts of the book, even though Enzo often doesn't seem very doglike (unlike all dogs I know, he doesn't seem to care much about food) and though he can't read, he has a complex understanding of things like dogs being color-blind. (This mystified me: as a human, I can see far fewer colors than a prey bird, like an eagle -- but unlike Enzo, I can't NAME the colors that I am not capable of SEEING.)
The book is far less convincing as the story of down and out dog owner, Denny. Has there ever been a protagonist with WORSE luck? He struggles as a young married parent (maybe because he deliberately impregnates his 20 year old girlfriend on their first date), has lousy jobs, dreams of racing cars but bungles every race he is in. His beautiful wife gets BRAIN CANCER (cue the theme from "Love Story"), his monstrous in-laws try and steal his adorable little daughter by manipulating the legal system. Heck, a previously UNKNOWN and never mentioned teenage cousin appears from NOWHERE, accuses him falsely of statutory rape and causes him to lose custody of his beloved child. His life seques from one tragedy to another, a constant tsunami of lousy luck, until....
Well, I guess you have to read it. It's a short book and probably a good beach read for this summer. You can't be overly critical or take a book like this TOO seriously; after all, dogs really don't watch TV and they probably don't get reincarnated WITH THE SAME EXACT NAME. (Hint #2: if your reincarnated dog is named Fluffernutter or Tinkerbell, does that mean when he reappears as a human child he will be called by that name?) Oh, and you can gain some comfort from the fact that most dogs -- especially healthy mixed breed mutts -- tend to live longer than Enzo and hip dysplasia (while painful and terrible) is a disease of INBRED PURE-BREEDS and not mutts. And dogs do not, to my knowledge, have the power to "will themselves to death" conveniently when you want to take a job in Italy.
The book is loaded with gaffes like this, interspersed with Denny's simply awful tragedies (until suddenly at the end when his wildest dreams come true, interestly just like his tragedies they are solely the products of Deux Ex Machinas). Supporting characters like his too-cute daughter, rotten in-laws, dying wife and even the late arrivals of his estranged (and BLIND!) parents are cut straight from a big sheet of cardboard. Someone should tell Mr. Stein that weepers about young widowers with cute kids have been done and overdone as movies-of-the-week and add nothing here.
But the world can easily absorb yet another good dog story. So if you love dogs, slog through the trite parts for the doggy bits, and bring a big box of kleenex for the inevitable weepy heartstring-plucking ending.
In conclusion: coming to a theatre near you VERY SOON.
I didn't want to like this book... but I really did. August 6, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I first saw this book at Starbucks and picked it up to find out what it was all about. A book about car racing, told from the perspective of a dog? Now, I like car racing a lot and I like dogs a lot, but that just sounded far too hokey to me; after all, I read serious stuff, right?
Then, my mother told me she read the book and that she thought I might enjoy it. That was the final straw. I had to read the book just to prove to myself that it couldn't possibly be good. (An admittedly odd reason to read a book, but given the result, one I may pursue again).
I loved it.
Garth Stein obviously knows dogs and racing. The whole book is filled with details about both that show his understanding of his subjects on a fairly deep level. Further, he knows something about life, and that's where this book really shines. Stein has - in a completely non-hokey way - used car racing metaphors to illustrate truisms about life. As a fan of racing, I particularly enjoyed the analogies, but I think the metaphors are just as accessible to non-fans. Stein keeps the ideas simple and explains them well, there isn't any jargon that would cause non-fans to lose anything in translation.
Stein also uses the unique access of a "stupid dog" to situations his human characters don't get to witness as a great story-telling hook. Our canine narrator, Enzo, gets to go places his master, Denny, doesn't, hearing and seeing things for the reader that move the story along quite nicely. Again, it's an aspect of the book that could have gone over the top, but is instead used effectively by Stein and turned into a really good book.
Take it from a skeptic turned believer. This is a book with some really good insights into life that is also a very enjoyable read. Highly recommended.
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