The Art of Racing in the Rain Book Review (FINAL)

The Art of Racing in the Rain Book Review

            The Art of Racing in the Rain was written by Garth Stein. Enzo, the main character that is a dog, narrates his life as it happens. From being born on a farm and remembering when he was adopted by Denny as a pet to helping Denny with Eve when she ends up getting sick. Maxwell and Trish, known as the Twins to Enzo, are Eve’s parents. After Eve gets sick, the Twins decide to have Zoë, Eve and Denny’s child, stay at their house with them since Eve is also staying there as she recuperates. This at first seems like a very warm and loving gesture, but as the story goes on the true intentions of the Twins begin to come to light. Was it a loving gesture? Or was it something entirely different? What makes this book even more interesting the besides the fact that it is told from a dog’s point of view is that, the dog has human qualities. It can think just like a human so the story has the quality of language similarly to that of a person. From riding along in an actual racecar to just sitting in next to Denny watching old racing tapes, Enzo’s life as a dog is nothing short of a roller-coaster ride as he goes from attacking a zebra, to riding in an actual racecar, and then getting hit by an actual car. Stein’s work will have the reader crying and laughing at the same time.

            Setting was very interesting in this book. It really helped to create suspense where it was needed in the book as well as make the book more enjoyable to read. Stein’s vivid description of the courthouse really shows the power of setting. Even though most of that certain part of the book was fabricated in Enzo’s head, it still shows the complexity of the setting. As narrated by Enzo, “The new Seattle courthouse: glass walls and metal beams” (294). From this description of the courthouse, the reader understands that there are many important decisions that happen in that building as well as it being a big part in Denny’s life. It is where Denny goes along with Mr. Lawrence, to help argue for Denny’s case in getting custody of Zoë back. While this description of the courtroom might be a little brief, the reader can visualize what the courtroom looks like. This is really just one example in the book where Stein’s writing really tends to encapsulate the reader with the description of various places in the book. It is with these very intricate details about various settings in The Art of Racing in the Rain that the reader is able to feel like they are actually in the book especially regarding places like the old house that Denny used to live in, as well as inside the racecar when Enzo is riding along with Denny. This shows how important setting is in general, especially in this book.

            Another element to The Art of Racing in the Rain that really helped to make the story interesting to read and follow were the characters and how the characters were really quite complex throughout the story. There are many different types of characters throughout the book. There is Denny who is a car mechanic and a race car driver. There is Eve who is Denny’s wife and has an art degree. Then at the same time, there is also the Twins who have a lot of money and want to make sure that Zoë does not necessarily follow down the path that Denny and Eve had gone down. This “path” could pretty much be referred to, by them as the “bad” path, since it was not in line with what the Twins wanted for Eve or Zoë. The characters that have been listed are the main characters; however, there are some minor characters that really do play a big role in the story. Mike and Tony are there for Denny in his time of need. Denny goes to them for support and insight and they in return watch Enzo when Denny is unable to. They are also there to fill in the necessarily silence with laughter which happens quite a lot. A perfect example of this is when Enzo tells Denny not to sign the release of custody papers and instead grabs them and jumps out the window. This is followed my Mike saying: “If we had a videotape of that, we could win ten thousand dollars on America’s Funniest Home Videos” (266.) There is Mike adding laughter into a situation that is a little too tense and gets Denny to lighten up considerably. Stein does a tremendous job of giving minor characters a really big part in this book. Normally, these characters would be left out and not really considered a big role in the book, Stein does the opposite. If it was not for the minor characters in the novel, such as Mike and Tony, a few major things would not have happened. The novel would not have been as funny and Denny would never have been at their house for support, he would have instead signed the custody papers and the story would be over. This is how important the minor characters are as well as just the variety of characters in The Art of Racing in the Rain and just how important of roles they fill.

            The writing style of Stein is something that really helps make the overall book flow really well. From the insight into the mind of Enzo, to just the overall story, the writing style of Stein is impeccable. The part of The Art of Racing in the Rain that really shows off his true writing style is when, Enzo is talking about what happened in court as well as the part where Enzo is “testifying” on Denny’s innocence with a device, similar to Stephen Hawking’s device, that makes Enzo’s voice audible to everybody present. As Mr. Lawrence explains to the judge, “We’ve borrowed a special voice synthesizer that was developed for Stephen Hawking… [It] reads the electrical pulses of the inner brain—” (300). This is an interesting concept and it is just one of the examples throughout the book that really exhibits Stein’s unique writing style. To come up with such a genius idea of having Enzo somehow talk to the people in the audience since Enzo was present during the alleged crime, is pure literary genius. Even though this interaction with Enzo in front of the judge did not actually happen since it was a dream; Stein still wrote about it and added some really interesting literary elements for something that in the broad range of the novel, really did not matter since it did not happen. This just shows how dedicated Stein was to this novel as well as how unique and interesting his writing style is as well. This is why in The Art of Racing in the Rain, Stein’s writing style does a very good job of portraying what the various characters are thinking and feeling.

            I would recommend this novel. All in all this was a decent novel. I normally do not necessarily like novels about animals because they can be all “mushy” and the animal normally doesn’t do anything that I would consider “impressive” in the novel. The Art of Racing in the Rain was different in a few ways. First, Enzo (the dog) was able to actually do many different things that were “impressive” such as helping Denny with his problems in court and simply just being there for Denny. Also, it wasn’t exactly “mushy.” Sure, there were times throughout the novel where it could have been, but Stein did a really good job of keeping the novel moving so that it did not become stagnate. In that aspect, I did enjoy the novel. It is for people that like to read stories about animals and for people that are open to new ideas about life as there are some philosophical elements to the novel as well. (3 stars out of 5.)