The Art of Racing in the Rain is an interesting read for dog-lovers, racing fans, and humans in general.
The Art of Racing in the Rain is a 2008 novel by Garth Stein about a lot of things – among them dogs, auto racing, love, perseverance, wealth and death.
In first-person point of view, it’s narrated by an elderly black and tan dog named Enzo of uncertain parentage (possibly a Labrador/Australian Shepherd/Poodle/Airedale mix), who belongs to an up-and-coming race car driver named Denny Swift.
It is Stein’s third novel, in a creative career that also spans into playwriting, film production, and sports car racing.
Storyline
Enzo was born on a farm in eastern Washington, and adopted by a man from Seattle named Denny, who is aspiring to a career in professional sports car racing. Denny marries a woman named Eve, whom Enzo initially dislikes, though comes to respect and love her as time goes on and she and Denny have a daughter, Zoe, who Enzo pledges to protect at all costs.
Denny’s career gets off to a rough start – on the night Zoe was born, he was set to race in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, the biggest event in American sports car racing, only to the driver before him crash just as it’s Denny’s turn to drive.
Then a couple years later he gets another chance at a top ride at Watkins Glen, where his team wins first place overall, setting him up for a full schedule the next season. Back in Seattle, Eve gets the worst illness of her life and rushes, with Zoe, to her parents’ house for the night, accidentally locking Enzo alone in the house for three days. Hallucinating from the panic, he rips up most of Zoe’s stuffed animals thinking that a demonic zebra was fighting them. Otherwise he’s a very good boy during this incident.
Over the next year, Denny’s rookie season is going well, drawing the attention of important industry figures, though back at home Eve occasionally gets bouts of sickness, while Enzo does his best to comfort her and take away the pain.
A waterslide accident during a summer picnic gives Eve a concussion, and while at the hospital they discover that she has a massive, inoperable brain tumor. Denny immediately abandons his racing in order to take better care of Zoe, while Eve’s rich, disapproving parents, Maxwell and Trish, insist that she move back in with them so they can pay for her medical care.
Unwillingly, Zoe moves in with Maxwell and Trish as well, while Enzo shuffles back and forth, doing the best he can to protect Eve from the demon zebra.
After Eve’s death, Maxwell and Trish use the power and influence of their wealth to manipulate Denny into several uncomfortable legal situations in an attempt to win full custody of Zoe.
These proceedings take about three years to settle, during which time Enzo conquers the demon zebra (which he sees as fear) and gets his revenge on Maxwell and Trish’s poor treatment of him. Denny gets occasional part-time work as a driving instructor, receiving a tryout from a man connected with Ferrari, and does well enough to get a job offer as a test driver.
In less-good news, Enzo develops hip dysplasia and arthritis, and is hit by a car one winter.
Denny eventually regains custody of Zoe and they make plans to move to Italy, while Enzo passes away in the kitchen, dreaming of a bright future for them both.
In an epilogue, set around ten years later, Denny has become a driver for Ferrari’s Formula One team and won the series championship, where he meets a fan and his five-year-old son, Enzo. He promises to keep an eye on the boy’s driving abilities in the future.
Thanks for reading this far into our Dog-Eared Reads pick this week, Garth Stein’s “The Art of Racing in the Rain.”
Our thoughts
The philosophical parts trying to equate racing skills to life’s situations was a good idea, but they don’t quite work, and neither does Enzo’s professorial narration style. When he’s talking about daily things – who his favorite actors are, explaining how his knowledge of courtroom and police procedure comes from Law and Order and The Rockford Files – that stuff is believable and funny.
A dog fervently believing in reincarnation is probably not that farfetched on the West Coast – he does live in Seattle, after all – but it’s a little hard to take seriously his “preparations to become a man.”
The ending wraps up a little too neatly for my taste, the saccharine pleasantness feels out of joint with the reality depicted throughout Enzo’s lifetime, but given his optimism, it sort of fits. Characters can be a little one-dimensional, but a dog, no matter how well-educated he is from watching TV most of the day, would likely see them that way, so it’s allowable.
It’s not the greatest novel ever written, but as a reader who writes about dogs and racing (generally NASCAR for Frontstretch), The Art of Racing in the Rain still makes for an enjoyable read, even though (or perhaps in part because of) how heart-rending it is at times.
I was bothered by Enzo’s depiction on the cover of my copy as a Golden Retriever, since he’s definitively not one in the actual text, but that’s a small annoyance and not relevant to the work itself.
The Art of Racing in the Rain will be adapted into a film set to be released in late September 2019. It will star Kevin Costner (Field of Dreams, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Dances with Wolves) as the voice of Enzo, Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls, Heroes, This is Us) as Denny, and Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Veronica Mars, Letters to Juliet) as Eve.
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