Monday, January 25, 2010

Angie's Book Review Corner


The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein

One of my goals this year is to try and read a book a month. Since there is an abundance of material on my nightstand, meeting this goal shouldn't be a problem! First up this year is a book that falls into a genre I refer to as "Canine Lit". Canine Lit are books that center around a dog as the main character.

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" is a novel written from the perspective of Enzo, a labrador mix who has the soul of a human. Enzo takes us through the highs and lows of relationships, nature, and life, all the while relating the human/dog experience with many metaphors of car racing.

I had a hard time getting into this book, despite the fact that our main characters hit the ground running very early on. I was expecting to learn background about our characters and explore the reasons for them coming together, rather than just jump in to a marriage and all the drama that surrounds an event like that. However, once I was about a third of the way through the book, I was hooked on seeing where this story was going and what kind of resolution would occur.

For dog lovers out there, Enzo is an easy character to connect with. I've always felt that dogs have a deep soul and are capable of understanding complex emotions more than they could ever express to us. Enzo easily navigates us through a relatable story for this day & age and proves that the family dog is more than just an pet.

My overall grade is 3 out of 5 paws. And it's a relatively quick read at just over 300 pages!

6 comments:

Heather said...

Have you ever read "Watchers" by Dean Koontz? Now that is a great dog book! Totally convinces you of the ability of your dog to be a genius!

Jane In The Jungle said...

Sounds interesting as a fellow doggie person!!

Love your doing book reviews.....I'm gonna try...someday, sigh.

Andrea said...

Thanks for the recommendation.
Blessings,
andrea

Melissa said...

Thank you for your review. I'm reading Israel, My Beloved at the moment. It's good, but has been slow starting out.

Reillybug said...

I loved this book!! It was a gift, I didn't think I would like it, but I really did.

Michelle said...

Hmmm, I don't think I ever would have picked this up without having your heads up on it. It still might take me awhile, but I'll have to addd this one to the list!

 

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