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A review by meguniqueuser
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.5
What in the world did I just read??
3/4th of this book were boring, philosophical meanderings, or were not impacted by the dog narrator.
The second quarter of this book was interesting and made good use of Enzo as a dog narrator. He had thoughts about how him being a dogged impacted his life. And his view actually impacted the story and was interesting.
Other than that, I think the book would be more cohesive with a third person narrator. For most of the book the dog narrator had no impact at all and it was almost forgotten except for jarring mentions of it. At some points the author ignores it completely and still has Enzo describe what happened in places he was not present by having him say that he’s just summarizing other people’s accounts.
The ending is very Dues Ex Machina with Denny’s parents appearing out of the blue to offer money and a driver offering him a job. Furthermore, Denny just happens to randomly bump into an accuser and emotionally guilts them into telling the truth.
A lot of the book is spent philosophizing, some of which is interesting or impactful to the story. Most is just meandering and veering toward nonsensical.
The main lesson that was inadvertently emphasized was that sometimes parents are evil. Full stop. Eve’s parents are diabolical, selfish, and unnecessarily mean.
3/4th of this book were boring, philosophical meanderings, or were not impacted by the dog narrator.
The second quarter of this book was interesting and made good use of Enzo as a dog narrator. He had thoughts about how him being a dogged impacted his life. And his view actually impacted the story and was interesting.
Other than that, I think the book would be more cohesive with a third person narrator. For most of the book the dog narrator had no impact at all and it was almost forgotten except for jarring mentions of it. At some points the author ignores it completely and still has Enzo describe what happened in places he was not present by having him say that he’s just summarizing other people’s accounts.
The ending is very Dues Ex Machina with Denny’s parents appearing out of the blue to offer money and a driver offering him a job. Furthermore, Denny just happens to randomly bump into an accuser and emotionally guilts them into telling the truth.
A lot of the book is spent philosophizing, some of which is interesting or impactful to the story. Most is just meandering and veering toward nonsensical.
The main lesson that was inadvertently emphasized was that sometimes parents are evil. Full stop. Eve’s parents are diabolical, selfish, and unnecessarily mean.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship