The Art of Racing in the Rain Book Review

William McConico

Mr. Davidson

2nd Period

Contemporay Liteature

10-20-2023

AMDG

Art of Racing in the Rain Book Report

The Art of Racing in the Rain follows the story of Enzo, a dog with thoughts very similar to a human. He is adopted from a dog farm by his owner Denny, who is a car enthusiast and aspiring race car driver. Denny finds a girl named Eve, who quickly moves in and marries him. Not too long after this, she has Denny’s kid, a daughter named Zoë. This story follows the family’s whole life, but through the lens of Enzo, who is the novel’s narrator. He fills the gaps with what he has seen from TV, and compels the reader in a way that many humans could not. The stroy which is part racing novel, part drama, part romance, part court drama, and many many more keeps the audeince engaged in many different ways throughout. This compelling story takes many twists and turns that would be a shame to spoil here, but the drama is definitely worth it, especially with the small and very manageable page count.

The motif of racing is woven brilliantluy throughout the novel, and makes the novel much more three dimensional then just having Enzo narrating the events of the narrative. Enzo is a fabulous narrator that makes the story in many respects, but the addition of the racing metaphors really ties the story together perfectly. There are multiple chapters that serve almost as interludes in the story, that tell short racing stories that perfectly describe a core philosophy of the characters, or one that is directly relating to the story. The audience also gets racing bits from Denny, like how he makes it clear “that which you manifest is before you” (Stein, 41). Yes, Denny was literally talking about racing while it is pouring rain without rain tires, but this quote goes into the fabric of Denny’s character. He is a fighter who manifests his success even when all of the cards are stacked against him. The novel could have just stated this in a boring way, but by alluding to it in a creative racing metaphor, it made the novel feel much more unique and infinitely better.

Emotion is masterfully conveyed in The Art of Racing in the Rain. The first half of the novel seems pretty tame, and just goes through the lives of the main characters. When real life issues begin though, the novel by no means babies its readers. It gets depressing, stressful, and extremely sad. Because the audience gets to truly grow with these characters, they can really feel the tough moments, as they feel built up and human. When Denny is drinking in front of Enzo while dealing with his legal troubles the reader can feel the disgust from Enzo and the despair from Denny. When Enzo and Denny are sitting on the Hill outside of the cemetery, the reader can feel the sadness, even if their isn’t that much narration in the scene. When the audience hears Eve say that she is “not afraid anymore. Because it’s not the end”, it hits like a truck as the bond made with that character feels so genuine and real (Stein, 161). The pacing and fantastic righting by Stein make the emotions in the novel fantastic, again heavily elevating the overall quality of the novel.

This novel is not one I expected to like, as the idea of a dog being a narrator was one I did not see working. This novel kind of blew me out of the water, especially with the hugely mature tonal shifts in the latter half of the novel. Also the ending, which I will not spoil here, was amazing and is a great send off for the remaining characters. It’s personally astounding how much philosophy and general advice on life Stein is able to splice into this novel, but it was by all means an amazing addition.  All in all a solid 4 out of 5 stars.