Garth Stein
Author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
About the Author
Garth Stein is the author of Raven Stole the Moon, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets, The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Sudden Light. The Art of Racing in the Rain has sold more than 4 million copies in 35 languages, and spent more than three years on the New York Times bestseller list. show more It has inspired a Young Reader edition as well as a children's picture book adaptation (2014) and is currently in development with Universal Studios for a major motion picture. A sudden light made the New York Times bestseller list in 2014. Before turning to writing full-time, Garth was a documentary filmmaker, directing, editing, and/or producing several award-winning films, including The Lunch Date, winner of the Academy award for live action short in 1990, and The Last Party, starring Robert Downey, Jr. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Andrea Stein
Series
Works by Garth Stein
Associated Works
Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 (2020) — Foreword — 68 copies, 7 reviews
Chasing Darkness (R. Crais) | Rainwater (S. Brown) | Nowhere to Run (C. J. Box) | The Art of Racing in the Rain (G. Stein) (2011) — Author — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Stein, Garth
- Birthdate
- 1964-12-06
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Columbia University (BA|1987)
- Occupations
- producer
documentary filmmaker
playwright
teacher
author - Short biography
- Garth Stein is an American author and film producer from Seattle, Washington. Widely known as the author of the novel The Art of Racing in the Rain, Stein is also a documentary film maker, playwright, teacher, and amateur racer.
Stein has worked as a director, producer and/or writer of documentary films, several of which won awards. In 1991, he co-produced an Academy Award winning short film, The Lunch Date. He then co-produced The Last Party, a film commentating on the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Stein also produced and directed a documentary about his sister's brain surgery, entitled When Your Head's Not a Head, It's a Nut.
After films, Stein took up creative writing. At one time, he taught creative writing at Tacoma School of the Arts. His published works include three books and two plays. Brother Jones, his first play, was produced in Los Angeles, California in 2005. Garth wrote another play (No One Calls Me Mutt Anymore, 2010) for the theatrical department at his alma mater, Shorewood High School in Shoreline, WA.
Stein's third novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper, 2008) became a New York Times bestseller, a #1 BookSense Pick., and winner of a 2009 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award.
The novel follows the story of Enzo, a race car-obsessed dog who believes he will be reincarnated as a human. While his owner, race car driver Denny Swift, teaches him about the art of racing, most of Enzo's ideas and knowledge— including the Mongolian legend that a dog who is prepared will be reincarnated in its next life as a human— come from watching television.
Stein was inspired to write the book after viewing a documentary on Mongolia called State of Dogs and after hearing a reading of the Billy Collins poem "The Revenant," told from a dog's point of view.
The racing experience and insights of the novel's protagonist, Enzo, and his owner Denny are based on Stein's own experience racing cars. Stein moved from New York City to Seattle in 2001 and became involved in "high performance driver education," received his racing license with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), won the points championship in the Northwest Region Spec Miata class in 2004, and left racing after a serious crash — while racing in the rain. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Los Angeles, California, USA
- Places of residence
- Seattle, Washington, USA
Los Angeles, California, USA (birth) - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
The one star is for the initially intriguing conceit that this is a story narrated by a dog, peppered with philosophy gleaned from professional race car driving. With such a loveable, thoughtful narrator, covering hard-hitting topics like death, cancer, and ugly court cases, I was crossing my fingers that the author could handle this skillfully and somehow come up with a winner. Like "Room", only instead of a child, we have a dog.
But as I read on, I started to dislike the voice of the show more author, who I visualized as an unskilled ventriloquist trying to project his hackneyed Hallmark lines into the mouth of a flimsy hand puppet. I felt talked down to, and I can almost detect the dramatic pauses after particularly philosophical (melodramatic) lines, as if allowing us time to appreciate how wise and human this dog is. What a waste of a great idea. Instead of a character that is insightful but childlike (as I imagine a dog would be), we end up with someone who sounds like a middle-aged man with occasional delusions that he is a dog. Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are flat, and seem like mere props in this moralizing story.
In short: Nice try, but it didn't fly. show less
But as I read on, I started to dislike the voice of the show more author, who I visualized as an unskilled ventriloquist trying to project his hackneyed Hallmark lines into the mouth of a flimsy hand puppet. I felt talked down to, and I can almost detect the dramatic pauses after particularly philosophical (melodramatic) lines, as if allowing us time to appreciate how wise and human this dog is. What a waste of a great idea. Instead of a character that is insightful but childlike (as I imagine a dog would be), we end up with someone who sounds like a middle-aged man with occasional delusions that he is a dog. Meanwhile, the rest of the characters are flat, and seem like mere props in this moralizing story.
In short: Nice try, but it didn't fly. show less
"Touching, Clever Story Narrated by Enzo the Dog"The only thing that prevented me from giving this poignant novel 5 stars was the emphasis on car racing. I hate car racing. The fact that Garth Stein held my interest for ANY discussion of car racing is a testament to his storytelling skills, but sometimes I thought he went on a bit long about the finer points of speeding down a track.What I loved is the relationship between man and dog so beautifully portrayed in this story. Denny Swift is show more Enzo's master, and if a master ever deserves unadulterated loyalty, Denny is the one. He's full of integrity and full of love for his dog. Denny's family tragedies are heartbreaking and infuriating, but he and Enzo stick together no matter what. The lawsuit surrounding the family situation is quite suspenseful, and Enzo makes you crave justice for Denny.Telling the story from a lab/terrier's point of view is ingenious, and I really appreciated Enzo's little insights like reading a man's character from the smell of his hands or his maliciousness in feeding a dog a hot pepper. The hallucination with the stuffed zebra was hilarious! This dog is one of the smartest narrators I've ever met.Enzo seems like such a cool dude. I would love to be his friend one day. It would be an honor. show less
Yes, as other reviewers have pointed out, this is a book about a dog and about car racing, but it is so much more. Enzo (narrator of the story, and the dog in question) is a self-proclaimed human soul in a dog’s body who firmly believes that, when the time is right, he will return to the world in human form. Until then, while lamenting his long, flat and loose tongue, and lack of opposable thumbs, he uses knowledge gleaned from his interactions with his race-car-driving master (Denny) and show more countless hours of watching car racing on the Speed Channel, to make sense of his world and plan for his eventual reincarnation.
As he recounts the story of his life, Enzo bears witness to the events that have shaped his master’s life, both past and present. The subject matter dealt with in this story is predominantly serious - grief and loss, and the horrible things people can do to each other under the guise of supposedly “doing the right thing”. But interspersed throughout the book are moments of pure delight. The vision of a deliriously happy Enzo strapped to the car seat by a bedsheet, doing hotlaps of California’s Thunderhill Raceway Park with Denny, will stay with me for ever. And I will certainly never look at stuffed toys – particularly zebras - in quite the same way again!
From the context set at the beginning of the book you know exactly what is coming at the end … so could someone please explain to me why I chose to read the last couple of chapters in the train on my way to work (ie. where I had to subvert both tears and laughter – and all emotions in between – in order to maintain a sense of public dignity)!! If you have any sense at all, as you are nearing the end of this book please find yourself a quiet corner where you can savour those last moments with Enzo. One of the most touching reflections is when, as the story nears its end, he wonders to himself: “Have I squandered my dogness? Have I forsaken my nature for my desires? Have I made a mistake by anticipating my future and shunning my present?” This is perhaps one of Enzo’s most “human” moments – for how often do we, too, wish away today in anticipation of what may happen tomorrow. show less
As he recounts the story of his life, Enzo bears witness to the events that have shaped his master’s life, both past and present. The subject matter dealt with in this story is predominantly serious - grief and loss, and the horrible things people can do to each other under the guise of supposedly “doing the right thing”. But interspersed throughout the book are moments of pure delight. The vision of a deliriously happy Enzo strapped to the car seat by a bedsheet, doing hotlaps of California’s Thunderhill Raceway Park with Denny, will stay with me for ever. And I will certainly never look at stuffed toys – particularly zebras - in quite the same way again!
From the context set at the beginning of the book you know exactly what is coming at the end … so could someone please explain to me why I chose to read the last couple of chapters in the train on my way to work (ie. where I had to subvert both tears and laughter – and all emotions in between – in order to maintain a sense of public dignity)!! If you have any sense at all, as you are nearing the end of this book please find yourself a quiet corner where you can savour those last moments with Enzo. One of the most touching reflections is when, as the story nears its end, he wonders to himself: “Have I squandered my dogness? Have I forsaken my nature for my desires? Have I made a mistake by anticipating my future and shunning my present?” This is perhaps one of Enzo’s most “human” moments – for how often do we, too, wish away today in anticipation of what may happen tomorrow. show less
We can never live up to what our dogs think of us. They are never disappointed in us, never ashamed of us. We never fail in their eyes. And the only thing they really ask of us is the bond between them and us.
This is a story told by a dog, Enzo, who wants to become human, and about his human, Denny. Denny is a race car driver, earning his own way up through the ranks. He'll have to earn his way through more than just the dangers and competitions of racing, though -- he'll have to persevere show more through the illness of his wife, Eve, and through the consequences of that for their daughter, Zoe.
Enzo longs to be human, not in a Pinocchio sort of a way, but in the way of someone schooled in beliefs of reincarnation, a dog wanting to earn his way to reincarnation as a human. He wishes he had thumbs, and he wishes his tongue were short and dexterous instead of long and slobbery. Otherwise, he has the mind of a human, and the kind of understanding of human aspirations and relationships that any of us would love to have. He believes that by conquering his dog-ness he can, by the end of his life, earn his way to what he regards as the next step up, to become human.
Denny and Enzo help each other along the way. Enzo studies and admires Denny. Racing is everything to Enzo. He doesn't just enjoy it, he learns the lessons of life in the lessons of racing, drawn from what he sees in Denny's driving and in what Denny tells him. Mostly, he learns, "The car goes where the eyes go." Achievement follows hope. Enzo's aspiration to be human is his compass. Sometimes Denny leads the way, but sometimes Enzo leads the way for Denny.
Enzo wants more than anything else to stand with Denny, on two feet, shaking Denny's hand and introducing himself. He wants it so badly that in death, there's no real sting, only the promise of following and living in Denny's footsteps. show less
This is a story told by a dog, Enzo, who wants to become human, and about his human, Denny. Denny is a race car driver, earning his own way up through the ranks. He'll have to earn his way through more than just the dangers and competitions of racing, though -- he'll have to persevere show more through the illness of his wife, Eve, and through the consequences of that for their daughter, Zoe.
Enzo longs to be human, not in a Pinocchio sort of a way, but in the way of someone schooled in beliefs of reincarnation, a dog wanting to earn his way to reincarnation as a human. He wishes he had thumbs, and he wishes his tongue were short and dexterous instead of long and slobbery. Otherwise, he has the mind of a human, and the kind of understanding of human aspirations and relationships that any of us would love to have. He believes that by conquering his dog-ness he can, by the end of his life, earn his way to what he regards as the next step up, to become human.
Denny and Enzo help each other along the way. Enzo studies and admires Denny. Racing is everything to Enzo. He doesn't just enjoy it, he learns the lessons of life in the lessons of racing, drawn from what he sees in Denny's driving and in what Denny tells him. Mostly, he learns, "The car goes where the eyes go." Achievement follows hope. Enzo's aspiration to be human is his compass. Sometimes Denny leads the way, but sometimes Enzo leads the way for Denny.
Enzo wants more than anything else to stand with Denny, on two feet, shaking Denny's hand and introducing himself. He wants it so badly that in death, there's no real sting, only the promise of following and living in Denny's footsteps. show less
Lists
Carole's List (2)
Great Audiobooks (1)
Family Dynamics (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Cars and Racing (1)
Ghosts (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 14
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 13,913
- Popularity
- #1,656
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 752
- ISBNs
- 162
- Languages
- 17
- Favorited
- 15
