Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain was published early in 2008, but I didn’t hear about the book until early in 2009 when Garth Stein came to Changing Hands for an author event. I can’t recall if I went to the bookstore for the event specifically, or if I was there on a book buying binge and decided to stay for the event, but I remember how engaging Stein was, and I added it to my To Read list. I told my Dad about the book, and for the first time I can recall, my father mustered up his inner bookworm and beat me to reading a book, and he was a fan.

The plot of The Art of Racing in the Rain is perfectly fine as far as stories go, but it is the narrative perspective that is the true treat: the narrator is a dog. The entire story is told by Enzo, a dog named after a legendary racecar driver and owned by a talented driver who struggles to balance his dream of racing with his familial duties and hardships. Garth Stein created an intriguing dog and smartly called attention to the fact that Enzo is an unusual dog in his powers of perception and human-like will power, that, as a reader, it becomes easy to buy into Enzo as a trustworthy narrator. Everyone is inclined to think that their dog is special: that their dog almost knows what they are thinking. Well, Enzo’s loyalty and insight into his person’s life helps to confirm this thought in us all and makes is possible to entertain the notions of what is going on in our own pet’s mind.

This is a heart-warming, heartstring-pulling, and heartfelt story. It is a sweet read with a unique charm. While it has its literary moments, its biggest appeal is Ezno. What could be less cliché than a third person narrator who is, in fact, man’s best friend? Especially one who so elegantly articulates thoughts like, “I will often admire a beautiful sunrise, but I will never consider the sun as a champion for having risen.”

Stein, Garth. The Art of Racing in the Rain. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.

Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man: A Novel

So, a major impetus behind the creation of this blog was to have a means to make public what I consider to be valid and thoughtful opinions on books. I see my book posts occurring in two ways: 1) converting written records of books previously read to this online format and 2) conveying my thoughts of books I have recently finished.

This first book post is dedicated to the novel I last finished: Zadie Smith's The Autograph Man. Ms. Smith is a highly talented author. I delighted in her prose and found her descriptions both unique and imaginative. I also appreciated the topic of her novel. The quirky protagonist, Alex-Li Tandem, deals in the autograph trade and is a well-developed character. Some of his bumbling cluelessness reminded me of Ignatius J. Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces, though I cannot put my finger on why, and the books are nothing alike. While I loathed some of Alex-Li's more unsavory decisions, I came to appreciate his good intentions and became invested in his struggle to deal with his reality--a reality he clearly tries to escape through his preoccupation with Hollywood and the movies he watches over and over again that star his favorite actress.

Ms. Smith is most noted for her first novel White Teeth, for which she won several awards and accolades. You may wonder why I did not read that work, and the explanation is quite simple. I stumbled across The Autograph Man at Changing Hands, the wonderful bookstore I frequent. It was a hardcover book for $7.50 and I couldn't resist! Such a fantastic author cannot just have her book abandoned on the sale shelf! The book needed to have a home! (I have a book buying problem so serious I refer to it as book rescuing . . . but more on that later.)

RECOMMENDED: Yes

NEXT READ: Gail Carriger's Soulless

REREAD: Roald Dahl's Matilda


Smith, Zadie. The Autograph Man: A Novel. New York: 
     Random House, 2002.