Get the Kleenex out and put away your pride! Dog lover or not, this book conjures up many human emotions, cleanses the tear ducts and refills the soul. This Seattle story is told from the unique perspective of Enzo, the dog. It reinforces all those humanoid projections we place on our pets and is 100% effective in delivering the heart of the book. The author reportedly drew from three buckets of inspiration: a documentary film called “State of Dogs” about the Mongolian belief that the next incarnation for a dog will be a man; the poem, The Revenant by B. Collins, about a euthanized dog who reminisced about his dislike for his master and the last element, the part about racing, derived from a friends personal trials and interest in racing. The author’s website is informative and even has recipes (charred broccoli!), Enzo fan paraphernalia etc. Check it out here. The story is not all tears though. There is a particularly vivid but dark scene yet in hindsight humorous involving hallucinations and zebras…. “Somewhere the zebra is dancing”. That is the hook….

But beyond a great read about the tough decisions, staying the course, doing the right thing and all the subsequent cascades of said decisions, it is brimming with nuggets of wisdom in the form of notable quotables.

There is at least one for every situation or moment you may be swirling in. Some favorites as I couldn’t chose just one…

Attitude:

“Your car goes where your eyes go. Simply another way of saying that which you manifest is before you. I know it’s true; racing doesn’t lie.”

“That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me.”

Life skills:

“Here’s why I will be a good person. Because I listen. I cannot speak, so I listen very well. I will never interrupt, I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own. People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another’s conversation constantly.

Keen Observations:

“The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.”

“So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is comprised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.”

Courage:

“There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.”

“To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live… to say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to.”

There are many a great blog review about this book that I encourage you to check out either before or after you read it. Let me know if you want to borrow my copy!

• http://kagreenstone.blogspot.com/2010/08/zebra-in-art-of-racing-in-rain-by-garth.html
• http://maebookblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/art-of-racing-in-rain-by-garth-stein.html
• http://annotationnation.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain/
• http://digitalcrowsnest.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/where-d0-you-find-resilience-in-garth-steins-the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain/
• You Tube reading of The Revenant
• http://thebaochi.com/2011/10/21/the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-is-an-endearing-tail/#more-1521
• A Prezi Book Review (likely a homework assignment though)