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The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008)

by Garth Stein

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
9,727580721 (4.04)396
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.
  1. 70
    A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron (kaledrina)
    kaledrina: narrated by dog!
  2. 60
    Marley & Me by John Grogan (Trevorlanticism)
  3. 30
    Dog on It by Spencer Quinn (rxtheresa)
    rxtheresa: Written from dog's point of view
  4. 10
    The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst (jbarry)
  5. 21
    Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote (kalpitad)
    kalpitad: Although The Art of Racing in the Rain is fiction and Merle's Door is non-fiction, both provide a narrative about the mind and heart of a dog.
  6. 11
    One Good Dog by Susan Wilson (hokansonh)
  7. 44
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (Graphirus)
    Graphirus: Life-philosophy explained through action, an activity (flight/car racing)
  8. 00
    A Dog's Life by Peter Mayle (Cecilturtle)
  9. 00
    Belka, Why Don't You Bark? by Hideo Furukawa (nsblumenfeld)
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» See also 396 mentions

English (573)  Spanish (2)  German (2)  Dutch (1)  All languages (578)
Showing 1-5 of 573 (next | show all)
Downloaded a Kindle sample. I was charmed by the first chapter but by the seventh I'd had enough. The author is trying too hard. The dog's inner dialogue is too ponderous and preachy. I will probably watch the movie cause I love Milo, but the book is not for me. ( )
  Kim.Sasso | Aug 27, 2023 |
This wasn't really the piece of light reading I thought it would be. There are certainly some fun parts--mostly where Enzo, the narrator, gets to be more of a dog and his owner gets to be more of a race car driver. But to get to these, the reader is forced to endure personal hardships for the humans as well as the dog. I think I get it; I get what the author was striving for-contrast between the good parts of life and the bad. The problem is that the bad parts, and the dog's intellectual ruminations about them, felt forced. They didn't work for me. The dog was thinking, excuse the pun, way over his head. I could have bought the dog narrator much more if he was ever more doggish, intelligent, but doggish-running on instinct, less obsessed with opposable thumbs, more confused about human motives and time, and through these confused observations providing the same commentary that this author makes explicit. I was glad I made it all of the way through this, but I'm not sure I recommend it, even for a dog lover. ( )
  zot79 | Aug 20, 2023 |
view from a dog
  ndfan19 | Aug 17, 2023 |
A sweet but tragic tale of a family told from the point of view of the dog. Way too much auto racing history and a bit too melodramatic for my taste, but overall an enjoyable read. ( )
  kevinkevbo | Jul 14, 2023 |
Thoroughly enjoyable, though you will cry. Manages to be clever and incisive while also being narrated by a dog. Great pacing, great pay off.

Would recommend. ( )
  veewren | Jul 12, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 573 (next | show all)
Fans of Marley & Me, rejoice.
added by cmwilson101 | editEntertainment Weekly
 
If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny's bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama.
added by cmwilson101 | editPublisher's Weekly
 
“I savored Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain for many reasons: a dog who speaks, the thrill of competitive racing, a heart-tugging storyline, and--best of all--the fact that it is a meditation on humility and hope in the face of despair.”
added by cmwilson101 | editAmazon.com, Wally Lamb
 

» Add other authors (9 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Stein, Garthprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Welch, Christopher EvanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
"With your mind power, your determination, your instinct and the experience as well, you can fly very high." - Ayrton Senna
Dedication
For Muggs
First words
Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature.
Quotations
To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. (pg 160; first harper paperback published 2009) ~ Enzo~

She died that night. Her last breath took her soul, I saw it in my dream. I saw her soul leave her body as she exhaled, and then she had no more needs, no more reason; she was released from her body, and, being released, she continued her journey elsewhere, high in the firmament where soul material gathers and plays out all the dreams and joys of which we temporal beings can barely conceive, all the things that are beyond our comprehension, but even so, are not beyond our attainment if we choose to attain them, and believe that we truly can.

In Monglolia, when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog's master whispers into the dog's ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life. Then his tail is cut off and put beneath his head, and a piece of meat or fat is placed in his mouth to sustain his soul on its journey; before he is reincarnated, the dog's soul is freed to travel the land, to run across the high desert plains for as long as it would like.
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Disambiguation notice
Please distinguish among The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008), for general audiences; Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog (2011), "a special adaptation for young people of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling adult novel The Art of Racing in the Rain"; and Enzo Races in the Rain! (2014), for pre-school to third grade readers. Thank you.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.

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Garth Stein is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.

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