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The Art of Racing in the Rain

Past Garth Stein, A tearjerker nearly a race car commuter and his dog

By on Jul 24th, 2019 (Last Updated )

Brief Summary
Detailed Summary
Read it or Skip It?

I always program on reading books before the pic comes out, but this fourth dimension I actually did it, yay! The picture show adaptation of Garth Stein'due south The Art of Racing n the Rain is being released on August 9th.

I beloved Marley & Me, another movie about dogs and life (plus Jennifer Aniston is awesome in it), so I'chiliad planning on seeing this one also. This isn't by and large the type of volume I like, but I thought I'd give this a shot anyway.

Plot Summary

For the Detailed Plot Summary, click here or coil all the way downward.

The Art of Racing in the Pelting is narrated by Enzo. Enzo is a dog who was adopted by a race car driver, Denny. When the book opens, Enzo is near the end of his life. He narrates the story about his life with Denny, plus Denny's married woman Eve and daughter Zoe, and everything that's happened in their time together.

Information technology'due south a story about love, loss, triumphs, grief, family unit, hardships and of course racing.

See The Fine art of Racing in the Rain on Amazon.

Volume Review

From the very first chapter, the book sets forth the unproblematic, dizzying love Enzo (the canis familiaris) has for Denny and the uncomplicated, boundless dearest that Denny has for Enzo. You likewise find out that Eve, Denny's wife, has passed away, so that should give you some sense of where there story is going.

I went into this knowing it would exist a little sappy and the dog-narrator matter was besides gimmicky for my tastes and mentally prepared myself to just allow information technology go and savour the story. Only the questionable aspects of this book went beyond all that, and they but kept piling upward.

For starters, this volume shot and so far by just existence sappy that it started to edge into seeming emotionally manipulative.

From the sentimentality of a domestic dog-narrated story, to the dead wife (this is not a spoiler, we notice this out in the first few pages), to the patently unfair and outrageous situation that Denny finds himself in, to the 2-dimensional villains in the story, to the helpless little daughter whose only want is to see her canis familiaris and her father, to the highs and lows of car racing. The book isn't so much trying to tug at your heartstrings as it is desperately yanking at them in a deranged fervor.

I also would've enjoyed the parts most racing more, except in information technology insists on transforming most of those parts into metaphors for extremely trite life lessons and platitudes. Learning to anticipate movements in the car is turned into a truism about embracing your own destiny, that sort of thing. Or when the book (or rather, a philosophizing dog) makes the point that in racing you take to continue going even when things get tough, simply like in life, it'due south all so overwhelmingly obvious.

Instead of having any blazon of character growth or depth (they're all ii-dimensional static characters), the book but offers up platitude afterward cliche in terms of the characters, the plot and whatsoever type of insight it has to offer.

The plot contrivances in this book are numerous too. For example, in that location's two fortuitous occurrences, both of which occur as nakedly Deus Ex Machina-esque events. In both instances, it's an overly convenient way for Denny to deal with certain problems. (If y'all've read the volume, I'm referring to Lucca and the scene with the begetter.)

Likewise, I didn't go the point of the whole dog-narrator gimmick or why it was used for the story. At that place'due south a number of parts where information technology made no sense for him to narrate, like scenes in a hospital or a courtroom. And, for a dog, he seems very concerned with women's breasts. Shouldn't he accept an equal interest in male person reproductive parts? Funny how that works.

At that place's also some extremely problematic problems involving one of the plotlines. Most notably it perpetuates thought that women constantly prevarication near sexual attack. I won't become into information technology, since I don't desire to spoil anything, but that's probably what sealed this book's fate for me.

Anyway, I told myself I'd say at least one nice thing, so I'll add that the book is not without information technology's charms. Even knowing I wasn't into it, in that location were a few parts that fabricated me smile. When Enzo makes his stance clear by peeing all over a set of papers, I had to admit that was a pretty good scene. I'm betting that (or some variation of it) ends upwardly in the movie.

If Enzo had spent more fourth dimension doing stuff similar that and less time spouting truisms and ogling women'southward breasts, I probably would have had more enthusiasm for this book.

The Fine art of Racing In the Rain Movie Accommodation

Every bit mentioned to a higher place, The Art of Racing In the Pelting will exist released in theaters on Baronial ix, 2019. Milo Ventimiglia stars as Denny with Amanda Seyfried as Eve. You can follow its reviews on Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.

When it comes to the movie, the thing I'm most curious well-nigh is the girl who lies about existence assaulted. I'chiliad curious if this ends upwardly in the movie, since in a post-#metoo world this narrative may not be received well. I estimate we'll find out presently enough.

art of racing in the rain

Read it or Skip it?

Clearly, I wasn't all that into The Art of Racing in the Rain. Function of it was that I wasn't the correct reader for this book, merely I also retrieve many of the issues run deeper than that.

Still, if you similar somewhat sentimental tearjerker-type books, yous'll probably be able to see past a lot of the things that bugged me near this story.

For everyone else, I'd suggest simply watching the movie. My estimate is that the movie is going to exist charming and round out a lot of things that I didn't like near the volume. And then, fifty-fifty though I didn't dearest the volume, I know I'll be watching the moving picture at some point. Marley & Me is a moving-picture show that I adore, so I'k inclined to give this movie a chance too.

Are y'all guys going to be watching this pic, reading this book or none of the above? See The Art of Racing in the Rain on Amazon.

Detailed Book Summary (Spoilers)