Book Nine

The Art of Racing in the Rain
Garth Stein

My book club (mostly full of dog people) chose to read The Art of Racing in the Rain, and I'll confess, I knew nothing about it.  Then I cheated and read a friend's (and fellow book club member) review of the book on her blog. 

Narrated by a dog?!  A dog?!

Clever, but I figured I'd be in for a long read.  (Again, not a dog person here.)  Because I'm (always) in the middle of a few books, and I wasn't sure about this one, I waited and waited to start it.  Finally, last Saturday I started reading--because book club was only five days away.  Imagine my surprise at finding it to be delightful! 

The Art of Racing in the Rain is cleverly written and a very quick read.  I didn't find it gripping necessarily, and I didn't feel too invested in the story line or the characters, but I did find it fun to read each chapter.  The reason behind the "racing in the rain" title is clear from the beginning, though Stein does bring it back around with subtle differences or a bit more explanation through lessons learned by Enzo, the narrating dog, from the car races that he watches on TV.

Stein's use of a dog as the narrator allows his characters to be introduced and developed in a unique way that was more engaging than the plot of the novel.  And, at great surprise to me, the scenes that were the most tender were one-on-one moments between Enzo and the people he loves and is charged to protect.  There were times when I felt that the prose waxed a bit eloquent for a dog, but then I reminded myself that perhaps dogs who hope to be humans one day talk like that.  (And then I reminded myself about the suspension of disbelief and that this is, actually, a novel and dogs don't really talk.)

I'm not sold as a dog person, nor am I sold on this being a "four-star" novel.  I did tear up in a few of those tender moments, and I did have brief flashes of thinking I may be missing out on something by not having a four-legged friend in my life.  If I let one in, though, he better narrate our story.  And bark any time I'm about to make a mistake.