“A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope- a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life…as only a dog could tell it.” I am skeptical of narratives told from a dog’s perspective because of the assumptions and inclination to anthropomorphize, so I approached this book with some hesitation.  But with passages like this: “Here’s why I will be a good person.  Because I listen.  I cannot speak, so I listen very well.  I never interrupt, I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own.  People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another’s conversations constantly.  It’s like having a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street.  For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor’s yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words “soccer” and “neighbor” in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pelé, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn’t he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Três Corações with Pelé and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length.  So my initial conversational gambit—that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor’s dog—would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pelé.  Learn to listen!  I beg of you.  Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.” and “So much of language is unspoken.  So much of language is comprised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words.  People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.  Trish’s robotic repeating of the single word “until” revealed everything about her state of mind.” and “I marveled at them both, how difficult it must be to be a person.  To constantly subvert your desires.  To worry about doing the right thing, rather than doing what is most expedient.  At that moment, honestly, I had grave doubts about as to my ability to interact on such a level.  I wondered if I could ever become the human I hoped to be.” and “Who is Achilles without his tendon? Who is Samson without Delilah? Who is Oedipus without his clubfoot?  Mute by design, I have been able to study the art of rhetoric unfettered by ego and self-interest, and so I know the answers to these questions.  The true hero is flawed.  The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles-preferably of his own making-in order to triumph.  A hero without flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which after all is based on conflict and opposition, the irresistible force meeting the unmovable object.” In this way, Garth Stein uses the dog’s position in the family, as a silent observer, to comment on the human condition.  The author is less attempting to attribute human like qualities to the dog as he is revealing insights from a perspective the reader trusts as neutral because he is a dog.  Stein introduces the dog, Enzo, early on with: “I’ve always felt almost human.  I’ve always known that there’s something about me that’s different than other dogs.  Sure, I’m stuffed into a dog’s body, but that’s just the shell.  It’s what’s inside that’s important.  The soul.  And my soul is very human.”  Enzo has seen a documentary on Mongolia which explains that when a dog is finished living his lifetime as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man and this ignites a dream of shedding his dog form and adopting a human one, so he can fully participate in the family he loves.   So I know, it might sound a little crazy, dogs are not human!  But, I looked at my own two dogs after reading this book and wondered even more what they could be thinking.  Unfortunately, they are not as cooperative and responsive as Enzo is, but still, I wonder if there isn’t a soul in there who is struggling as much as I am to figure this life out?  And that query inspires compassion in me.  So although I think it can be confusing and frustrating for humans (and dogs) to think dogs can understand English and be human, I found The Art of Racing in the Rain to successfully illustrate why we are lucky to share our lives with these creatures.  You just never know!

“A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope- a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life…as only a dog could tell it.”

I am skeptical of narratives told from a dog’s perspective because of the assumptions and inclination to anthropomorphize, so I approached this book with some hesitation. 

But with passages like this:

“Here’s why I will be a good person.  Because I listen.  I cannot speak, so I listen very well.  I never interrupt, I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own.  People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another’s conversations constantly.  It’s like having a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street.  For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor’s yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words “soccer” and “neighbor” in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pelé, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn’t he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Três Corações with Pelé and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length.  So my initial conversational gambit—that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor’s dog—would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pelé.  Learn to listen!  I beg of you.  Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.”

and

“So much of language is unspoken.  So much of language is comprised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words.  People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.  Trish’s robotic repeating of the single word “until” revealed everything about her state of mind.”

and

“I marveled at them both, how difficult it must be to be a person.  To constantly subvert your desires.  To worry about doing the right thing, rather than doing what is most expedient.  At that moment, honestly, I had grave doubts about as to my ability to interact on such a level.  I wondered if I could ever become the human I hoped to be.”

and

“Who is Achilles without his tendon? Who is Samson without Delilah? Who is Oedipus without his clubfoot?  Mute by design, I have been able to study the art of rhetoric unfettered by ego and self-interest, and so I know the answers to these questions. 

The true hero is flawed.  The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles-preferably of his own making-in order to triumph.  A hero without flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which after all is based on conflict and opposition, the irresistible force meeting the unmovable object.”

In this way, Garth Stein uses the dog’s position in the family, as a silent observer, to comment on the human condition.  The author is less attempting to attribute human like qualities to the dog as he is revealing insights from a perspective the reader trusts as neutral because he is a dog. 

Stein introduces the dog, Enzo, early on with:

“I’ve always felt almost human.  I’ve always known that there’s something about me that’s different than other dogs.  Sure, I’m stuffed into a dog’s body, but that’s just the shell.  It’s what’s inside that’s important.  The soul.  And my soul is very human.” 

Enzo has seen a documentary on Mongolia which explains that when a dog is finished living his lifetime as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man and this ignites a dream of shedding his dog form and adopting a human one, so he can fully participate in the family he loves.  

So I know, it might sound a little crazy, dogs are not human!  But, I looked at my own two dogs after reading this book and wondered even more what they could be thinking.  Unfortunately, they are not as cooperative and responsive as Enzo is, but still, I wonder if there isn’t a soul in there who is struggling as much as I am to figure this life out?  And that query inspires compassion in me. 

So although I think it can be confusing and frustrating for humans (and dogs) to think dogs can understand English and be human, I found The Art of Racing in the Rain to successfully illustrate why we are lucky to share our lives with these creatures. 

You just never know!