Autobiographical

I was given this as a Hanukkah present years ago because my family knows that I read and presumably this was on the new releases or popular books table in Borders or Barnes and Nobles. Now at the time I read it my grandmother had just passed away and I'm terrible at dealing with grief so honestly I think whatever I loved about this book was mainly through the lens of that grief (don't ask me how I translated Marley to my grandmother; they were in no way similar, but the climax was heart-wrenching enough that this apparently allowed me to process that). Few books have ever made me cry, and I think it was that grief that got this one to make me cry. My family also had a labrador retriever when I was born - she passed away shortly after we moved, long before I read this book - and we have very fond memories of her. Unlike Marley, she was, as my father says, one of the best dogs. She was well-trained, friendly, loving, and survived two babies growing into their pre-teens (and older, for my sister) and even essentially adopted our cat, whom she used to groom when my parents were still married and the animals lived together.

I loved it back then. I recommended it to my mother, who also enjoyed it. We actually ended up seeing the film in theaters. As life would have it, that same day one of our cats passed away quite suddenly from a genetic illness that you can't do anything about. Despite that I bought the film for my mother for some holiday present and I own the soundtrack because it's a pleasant soundtrack - the ending tracks still bring me to tears. I cried during both theater viewings of the film - I also saw this with my father - and both of my parents were, if not in tears, emotionally struck by it, I guess.

But the last and only time I read this was in middle school. My tastes have changed - I've been through high school, college, and now I'm in grad school. The book was sitting on my shelf all these years and I figured it was time I reread it to see if I still liked it. It started off okay, I guess. Grogan's wife had issues but I figured "this book is meant to be funny and its characters are zany! Obviously this will improve" and then well... no. Besides the idiocy behind how they picked a dog and picked a "breeder" (we've had one bad run-in with breeding programs and learned our lesson but it certainly wasn't even fractionally as bad as Grogan's case) and the stupidity of how they raise Marley, Grogan's sexist voice came through and I decided nope. I am done with this. So it gets two stars for allowing me to process my grief for both my grandmother and Goldie and childhood nostalgia because once upon a time I loved this book. Other than that well... Read other things.

I wouldn't recommend the film, either. It's not that great of a film. The soundtrack is still great. But the film... eh. Wilson is less irritating than he is in most films because his acting style just WORKS for the story they're trying to tell but no. Not a great story. Too much is changed and cut out and doesn't make sense and feels random (due to cuts - you'd only understand what's going on if you've read the book or have an understanding of Hollywood film archetypes). ( )

The writing is just a bit too flat, and this guy's life is just a bit too white bread for me. The book was recommended by a colleague, and I love dogs, so I gave it a go, but I didn't much care what happened to any of the characters; Marley is one of those annoying out-of-control dogs that I don't find charming at all; the writer and his wife are very focused on having a family.

Maybe all that would be fine if the writing was a bit classier and had a bit more edge to it. "You don't give birth to your first child every day." Really? Is that what you've got for me? Sorry, I'm not buying it. I gave up after page 70ish. ( )

408

a sad yet well written story about a man and his beloved dog, really good read and also a good movie ( )