Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein 5/5






Yes, its true another dog book, but not at all like “Marley and Me” which is what I expected. This book is about life, love and friendship (of course it is, its about a dog’s life). I guess I had no idea what to expect and I was splendidly surprised. Of course like any book about an animal and my emotions rolled, and I cried. Here are two of my favorite passages.

“The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles-preferably of his own making-in order to triumph. A hero without a flaw is of no interest to an audience or to the universe, which, after all is based on conflict and opposition, the irresistible force meeting the unmovable object.”

“Inside each of us resides the truth, I began, the absolute truth. But sometimes the truth is hidden in a hall of mirrors. Sometimes we believe we are viewing the real thing, when in fact we are viewing a facsimile, a distortion.”

The story is written in the voice of the dog Enzo, of the life he shares with his humans Denny, Eve and Zoe their daughter.

There is a documentary on the belief of Mongolians, that dogs when they die they are reincarnated into the humans, and they are closer in fact to humans that monkeys which are dumb. What a waste of an opposable thumb.

No comments:

Post a Comment