|
| Art of Racing in the Rain | 
 enlarge | Author: Garth Stein
Publisher: Harper Collins Omes
Category: Book
Buy New: $17.36
New (4) from $17.36
Avg. Customer Rating:  265 reviews
Sales Rank: 499004
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0007284764
EAN: 9780007284764
ASIN: 0007284764
Publication Date: 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships on next working day. Delivery time for USA and outside Europe usually 7-10 days. Within Europe 2-5 days.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Darned near perfect read May 18, 2008
13 out of 14 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.
 Doggone good dog dawged by dog of a plot July 18, 2008
13 out of 26 found this review helpful
There is a lot to love about author Garth Stein's charismatic canine novel narrator. Enzo, a mixture of Labrador on his mother's side, and, terrier, he speculates, on his father's. He is intelligent, throwing around (in his mind at least) phrases like, (p 4) "Life imitating art," waxing poetic, (p 46) "That which you manifest is before you," and "The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles...in order to triumph," handing out advice, (p 102) "Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories," and sharing his philosophy on life, (p 160) "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live." A fan of TV, film and especially car racing, he disdains one thing above all others; crows, (p 69) "They are scum, creatures of cluster, they call them a murder when they are in a group. A good word, because when they are together, you want to kill them," Enzo steals the show, but can't carry the novel alone. And the author seems to have used up all of his imagination and creativity on man's best friend, leaving nothing for the remaining cast. There is Seattle-based racecar driver Dennis "Denny" Swift. Though likeable, he never seems to be in control of anything except the cars he drives. Daughter Zoee does little more than exist and be cared for by others. And Eve, Denny's love interest and later wife, is suspected (by Enzo) early on to have a life-threatening medical problem, so readers spend most of their time worrying about her health.
The plot is even weaker than the characters. We are expected to believe that: a young newlywed mother would ignore obvious signs of ill health, a new father would allow those he loves most to be away for an extended period of time, and a young teen would put herself in a compromising position (the most obvious scene setup in the story). And, oddly, Enzo believes both in reincarnation, based on a National Geographic special on Mongolia, and divine intervention. When he survives an injury, he thinks, (p 257) "...I was not killed. Because I was not finished. I still had work to do." Every dog has its day, which is true, eventually, even for long-suffering Denny. And in spite of the dull human characters and thin plot, dog-lovers will likely love Enzo enough to suffer through it. Fans of the four-legged might also enjoy: Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, The Tale of Desperaux by Kate Dicamillo, and Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand.
 Sentimental dog story with a lot of human cliches June 13, 2008
12 out of 26 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.
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.
Dear lucky reader: this one's special May 28, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
In Mongolia, many believe dogs can return as humans in a future incarnation, but only after they've lived enough times to accumulate the right amount of cosmic grace.
Enzo doesn't live in Mongolia, but if ever there's been a dog who is ready, Enzo is the one. Already, he's practically human; he knows the world (from watching cable documentaries and news shows), and has learned how to be honorable by watching his owner Denny, whose dream is to become a top race car driver, turn away from choices that would advance his dream in order to support his family. Enzo believes in Denny, who like Enzo himself, only needs a chance to show just how exceptional he is.
But Enzo has also learned that racing isn't only about driving on dry, flat tracks. Nor does the next corner always reveal what we expect. Sometimes it rains, and things go badly wrong. When it rains, only the very best manage to stay on the track and win their way through.
That's why when rain begins to fall into Denny's world, Enzo never doubts his master for a moment. He's there, and he will do his part to help Denny make it through.
As you would expect, Enzo's observations tend to be simple, and the underlying theme and moral of his viewpoint remain visible just below the surface. Sometimes we tend to over-express when putting into words the principles we strive to live by. All the better for us because this is a mistake Enzo doesn't make. His conclusions are more powerful and poignant for their simplicity and as the overall theme is drawn toward the inevitable end point, the fact that we had a pretty good idea where things were going and were afraid for both Enzo and Denny while hoping and praying for the best, makes what happens all that much more satisfying.
The Art of Racing in the Rain is an enthralling, uplifting, and beautifully imagined story. Five stars for all readers.
Art Tirrell is the author of the 2007 adventure The Secret Ever Keeps.
"Simpy put...the best underwater scenes I've ever read." - reviewer Meg Westley
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
