I had been seeing too many posts on my timeline about this book – The art of racing in the rain, that I just had to pick it up. Moreover the cute little dog on the cover was hard to resist.
I have read this book in response to the WriteTribe reading challenge prompt: An animal on the cover.
Title: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Genre: Fiction
Author: Garth Stein
Garth Stein is based out of Seattle, Washington and has four published books to his credit. The Art of Racing in the Rain is one of most popular works.
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Synopsis:
Our story narrator is Enzo – a Labrador canine who secretly wishes for opposable thumbs. He has garnered much of his wisdom and beliefs from watching TV, particularly sports channel. His owner Denny works as a car salesman but it a car racer at heart. He leaves the TV on for Enzo to help him while his time away when he is away at work.
The story weaves through Enzo and Denny’s lives from the day they met to when Denny met his wife, has a daughter and other ups and downs of life.
Denny gets his chance to impress on the racing track but is foiled by ill luck. More bad luck follows in his personal life and everything changes for the worse.
All throughout the tale, Enzo’s philosophical voice keeps up the tempo of positive outlook while empathizing with Denny.
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Lasting Impression on me:
In a nutshell the story is about a dog and his owner who are crazy about car racing. The dog is fond of watching TV and bases his entire philosophy via it.
I was very excited to pick this book up as I am HUGE fan of Marley & Me. Both the books have a lab and that’s where the similarity ended.
Try as much, I just didn’t dig this book too much. True the dog was adorable and his bond with Denny was heart warming. But the story didn’t hold out much credence for me with the whole car racing thing. Plus Denny’s personal ups and downs were just too much drama added to the mix. There were times when I almost put the book down.
The best bit in the book for me was when Denny straps Enzo to the front seat of the racing car and the entire experience is narrated from the doggy point of view. Other than that the nuggets of car racing were lost on me.
The writing style of the author is good but not enough to make me want to pick up his other published works.
My rating:
I couldn’t think beyond a 3 star rating for this book as it just failed to live up to the expectations that I had. Pick it up if you are crazy about dogs and their antics.
If you liked reading this review, perhaps you would be interested in reading this one about cats – The Wildings
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I’m sad to hear you didn’t enjoy reading this book. I know when I read it (years ago, before I actually started blogging), I really enjoyed it. But I also know not every book is for everyone too.
I read it years ago and I enjoyed the book. IT felt like there were lots of life lessons in it 🙂 Having said that, I haven’t read Marley and Me though I have watched the movie
I know Sanch but I couldnt relate to it; it just didnt gel with me. I guess the over expectation did me in on this one. You must read Marley & Me. Its fabulous, movie barely scratched the surface!!
Some books pull you in make you part of their story while others don’t strike a chord. Maybe this book was the latter kind for you. I haven’t read it yet but would like to because I love fur babies and any book with them gets my attention. Liked your review of the book. Thanks.
Thanks Sulekha! I guess I was expecting too much from it! 🙂
Nice review. A dogs world view is probably not for me, no matter how adorable the dog is.
Thanks Anhijit – I loved Marley & Me and the Wildings- both have animals as the protagonists and were superbly written. This one was a huge fail for me!