The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel
by Garth Stein
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.42 You Save: $8.57 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.24 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel
Book Review: An inspiring meditation on life from a four-legged perspective
Summary: 4 Stars
Garth Stein's "The Art of Racing in the Rain" is a paean to man's best friend, the loyal, (unwittingly) quiet, loving and wise dog. Anyone who is an animal lover, and, in all likelihood, anyone with a heart, will be touched by this moving and funny book. Stein joins three unlikely topical bedfellows seamlessly: Formula 1 auto racing, a sentient dog, through whom the story is narrated, and a tug-at-the-heartstrings story of a family torn apart. Through Enzo the dog's sympathetic and observant eyes, the reader also watches helplessly, as certain events unfold in the story that are infuriating and unfair to the point of becoming enraging. Stein is a sensitive and yet pragmatic storyteller as the reader becomes engulfed with the same feelings of helplessness and frustration that Enzo feels as he watches the family around him fragment and separate. Anyone who has ever owned a pet has had the distinct belief that he/she understands exactly what we are saying, and that any behavioral response or anomaly is an attempt on his/her part to bridge the interspecies communication barrier ("I've been waiting patiently for you ALL day long! And since you couldn't even think about what it feels like to sit, alone, in the dark for hours with no bathroom access, see how YOU like finding a special treat in the middle of your bed when you collapse, exhausted, into it!"). Enzo as a narrator is so lucid, so believable in his thought processes and frustration at his intrinsic inability to effectively communicate to his humans, due to his damned "dogness," that while devouring this book in the span of one day, I felt alternating urges to pull my cats onto my lap as I read, followed by attempting to engage in a real, heart-to-heart conversation with them beyond the usual kitty-cooing babble nonsense.
Even more than provoking questions about the sentience of the domestic animals that we live with, Stein successfully offers poignant metaphors for the struggles and strains of life as well as inspiring meditations on how to approach them; e.g., in life, as in racing, "the car goes where the eyes go." Never stop racing, never give up - as Enzo would "say:" "Faster! Faster!"
Book Review: A Champion Will Emerge
Summary: 5 Stars
What do you get when you mix Formula 1 racing, with philosophy for living, man's best friend, tragedy, conflict, and a happy ending? The great American novel. At least for a man. I'm not sure what a women would think of this book, but I give it 5-Stars.
Garth Stein's novel, "The Art of Racing in the Rain", is a fabulous encounter with Enzo, or man's best friend in this story, and, as it turns out, it's narrator. Enzo tells the story of his master's life, or as he calls him, the alpha-human, and is revealed completely through his eyes during his life with him. Enzo turns out to be an observer of things and quite a philosopher as well. That is what makes him, as a dog, a truly compelling character. Enzo's philosophy is within reach of a dog, perhaps, while still sophisticated enough to appeal to a human's higher intellect. For instance, Enzo is certain that dog's enjoy a higher intellect than other primates such as chimpanzees. The only restrictions to their social advance is their inability to speak and their lack of an opposable thumb. He further believes there is a active conspiracy a foot that prevents the evolution of a dog with an opposable thumb through the evidence of the dew claw and the very human (or in humane) practice of removing the dew claw from their pets. Further, he believes that the dog is fundamentally closer evolutionarily speaking to a human based on the evidence of the existence of the man-dog or werewolf as it were. This is brilliant deductive reasoning and establishes Enzo as one of the great thinkers in the whole of literary fiction.
He is also the know-er and witness to great human tragedy and faces these heretofore very human understandings with great compassion. "The Art of Racing in the Rain" much like the great manual for living "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", is not about racing or motorcycle maintenance for that matter. It is about living life and in this case living a life into which not a little, but a lot of rain must fall, and racing into that rain. When done correctly, at the finish-line, a champion will emerge.
Book Review: Sentimental but not saccharine
Summary: 4 Stars
From the back cover:
Have you ever looked at a dog and wondered whether there might be more to him than meets the eye? Well, Enzo knows he's different from other dogs. True, he hasn't got opposable thumbs, and yes, he still thinks you can't beat chasing birds once in a while, but Enzo is almost human. Through listening to the words of his master, race driver Denny Swift, Enzo has gained a real insight into the complex world of people. With its unexpected twists and turns, he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his beloved family have been through. He remembers the sacrifices that Denny has made, the painful loss of Denny's wife Eve, and the trauma of the battle to retain custody of their daughter Zoe from her manipulative grandparents. As Enzo heads into the light, hoping fervently to return as a smooth-skinned man, he knows that for him at least, the race to save his family has been won.
Review:
If you've ever been loved by a dog, you'll know that Enzo's narration is spot on. Garth Stein seems to have some kind of preternatural ability to take the looks, groans, grunts, growls, snorts, huffs, whines, pushes, nudges and snuggles that dogs do and turn them into exactly what you think your dog is thinking. There are some really heavy themes covered in this story, denial of signs and symptoms of a terrible disease, false accusations of sexual assault, the loss of a child to manipulative grandparents and the inability to achieve dreams because of responsibilities. But viewed through the eyes of Enzo, they are easier to read about and are seen through a veil of compassion and steadfast loyalty.
At times the story telling becomes a little bit sentimental, but it manages to avoid becoming a kind of saccharine Disney tale.
And yes, I cried at the end.
I recommend this book as a gentle read, one that will leave some part of your superstitious mind looking around for traces of your best four legged friends who've passed over.
Book Review: Simple narrative, profound emotional impact
Summary: 5 Stars
I admit that I am a sucker for dog stories. I write them myself. But The Art of Racing in the Rain is one of those things I wish I had written because it goes so far beyond the ordinary. It is really not a story about dogs, although its narrator is a dog named Enzo. It is also really not about auto racing, although the dog's owner and personal hero is a young professional auto racer. It is about mastering human life and who better to take that on than a dog that believes with all his heart that he is on the cosmic path to eventually becoming human himself in a future life.
Enzo's observations are filled with the kind of verity only a third party observer, not caught up in the "reality" of human life, can offer. The life of his human role model,driver Denny Swift, is caught up in a web of unexpected and tormenting events. All he has to work with is the set of basic principles that govern his life as a racer, which becomes an exciting metaphor for traveling the course of life itself with its horrendous surprises,twists and turns, and often horrendous, crashing outcomes.
Yet this is not a moralistic book, it's classic entertainment that you can identify with, even if you don't happen to be a dog yourself.Denny hopes, dreams, relationships, triumphs, and dilemmas are like yours and mine. That's why I've recommended it far and wide to dozens of people I know. I've now read it three times and am now reading it in its Italian language edition, "L'arte di correrre sotto la piogia." Despite my labored reading it Italian, its just as marvelous as when I first read it.
The Art of Racing in the Rain is a story of constancy, loyalty, persistence, focus, love and friendship. If it does not seize your heart, you'd better visit your cardiologist to confirm that you have one. Superb storytelling with a stunning ending.
Dick Paetzke, author of Postcards. Little Letters From Life
Book Review: Shouldn't Work, But Darn Sure Does
Summary: 5 Stars
Worthy is the author who employs a literary device--a gimmick, if you will--as the engine of his/her novel, and subsequently pulls it off in spades. Usually such devices are used sparingly in a story; and if they work, they work only nominally. Such is not the case with Garth Stein's THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN--a novel told from the point of view of Enzo, an aged and crippled lab mix. Such a farfetched device certainly registered on my skepticism scale, so I picked up this novel fully prepared to malign it; instead I found myself quickly lost in the story of Enzo, and his special relationship to Denny, his master. My skepticism faded like scattering clouds above Seattle's Space Needle, as Enzo narrated his story with warmth, humor, depth, and unbounded love.
Denny is a part-time Formula One race car driver, so because he watches hours of tapes of himself in the cockpit--or of other famous Le Mans or Grand Prix classics--Enzo watches the same. Accordingly Enzo becomes a student of racing--particularly racing in the rain, a gift Denny is fortunate enough to possess. So the novel is full of observations about racing. Look, I don't know beans about Formula One racing, but Enzo's metaphorical comparisons to racing and life are absolutely mesmerizing. ("The car goes where your eyes go.") They are yet another enjoyable aspect to this most heartwarming story.
As Enzo reflects on his life, from his puppyhood when Denny adopted him to Denny's tragic marriage to Eve and the birth of their daughter to Denny's subsequent pain and hardships, his narrative is poignant, tender, humorous, and inspiring. And because Enzo spends so much time watching TV, his narrative also is a reflection of the culture, which will leave a smile on your face. The ending is moving, Stein's prose simple yet elegant, and THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN utilizes its literary device like a champion taking a hairpin curve. Truly marvelous.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning