The Art of Racing in the Rain Showings in Hsuston
The Fine art of Racing in the Rain past Garth Stein
Four-legged philosopherGarth Stein's new novel delivers dog'due south-middle view of a master who messes upward his marriage
Enzo, the narrator of Garth Stein's new novel, is a dog. Non a fussy little barky dog, simply a thoughtful decent-size dog — part Labrador, part anyone's estimate — with a gravitas that suits his avant-garde age. Enzo knows what sets him apart from other canines. "Sure, I'm stuffed into a domestic dog's trunk," he observes, ''simply that's but the beat. It'southward what's inside that's important. The soul. And my soul is very homo."
Contradictory as it sounds, information technology is Enzo's humanity that carries The Art of Racing in the Rain. His musings on the limits of canine expression are so compelling that the early chapters whiz by. If only he had opposable thumbs! If only he had language to supplement his barks and gestures! If simply he could dice and render as a homo, like the Mongolian dogs he learned virtually on the National Geographic Aqueduct!
To be clear, Enzo exhibits none of the cocky-loathing of Kafka'due south lamentable-sack Gregor Samsa, who awakens 1 morning to detect he'south get a cockroach. Sure, Enzo would like to exist human in his adjacent life, but he's not angst-ridden. He'southward been happy as a domestic dog — no major regrets. Nor is Stein co-opting the dense and difficult world of Faulkner, who reinvented point of view in The Audio and the Fury. Enzo is a clear and reliable narrator, every bit warm and trustworthy as i might expect a expert domestic dog to exist.
No, Enzo isn't the problem in Stein'southward novel. People are the problem. And as the plot thickens around Denny Swift, Enzo's possessor, the narrative arc starts to sag.
An up-and-coming race car driver, Denny spends a off-white amount of time abroad from his Seattle home, driving in trials to earn spots in national races. From the day Denny picked Enzo from a litter of pups at a Washington subcontract, Enzo has adored him.
When Denny falls in dearest with Eve, Enzo adjusts. When Eve and Denny have Zoë, Enzo adjusts again, growing to love the 2 human additions to his family. And when Denny stands to lose this family, Enzo does his best to protect and condolement all three, even though he's an onetime domestic dog whose body is powering down.
Enzo is well-schooled in Denny'due south on- and off-track philosophy.
"Racing is doing," Denny explains. "It is being part of a moment and being aware of nil else but that moment. Reflection must come at a later time."
This worldview works well at the track but non then well in a family, especially one with an ailing wife and young daughter.
There's no question that Denny loves his wife and child, but when Eve refuses to become to a medico for her blinding headaches, he doesn't press her. When Denny's wealthy in-laws inquire if Eve and Zoë tin can movement in with them for the duration of Eve's illness, Denny consents. And when Denny doesn't meet trouble in the grade of an adoring fifteen-year-old daughter, something happens that could modify the class of his life.
The carper in me says that Denny'south story could be narrated only by his doting domestic dog because Enzo is the only animal able to recount Denny'southward actions — or inactions — with so much compassion. What's more, Denny's deer-in-the-headlights inertia regarding Eve's illness merely doesn't square with his aggressiveness at the racetrack.
The mechanical failure of the volume is caused by one of two things: a anticipated plot that erodes grapheme, or a poorly conceived character ill-equipped to drive a plot.
Denny's passivity in the offset half of the novel sets upwardly a concatenation of events from which Denny spends the second half of the novel extricating himself, all the while affirming his love for his family unit. But the reader isn't fooled. When things with the in-laws get ugly, Denny is surprised but the reader isn't. We saw that train coming. There's no question that the precocious teenage girl will reappear; information technology's just a matter of when. And by the fourth dimension policemen and lawyers arrive in the afterward chapters, readers may experience that they've stumbled into another novel altogether.
The Art of Racing in the Rain has enjoyed weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Information technology's the only book that my local Starbucks, a mini-stand up in an indoor mall, is selling out front, next to the gift cards and ceramic cups. In other words, plenty of people are ownership this book and, presumably, enjoying it.
Certainly, it is a decent read, requiring just as much concentration equally 1 is able to muster in the summer months. The ending, though anticipated, is charming.
However the narrative inventiveness, introduced so beautifully in the early pages, led me to expect a more sophisticated story, peopled with characters as compelling as the canis familiaris who faithfully records their actions. Simply it was not to be.
To be certain, Stein is an able driver; he keeps his characters on track and steers the plot to a satisfying conclusion. Just in this novel, anyway, he lacks that magic fusion of intuition, skill and grace needed to drive a truly great story home.
maggie.galehouse@chron.com
Source: https://www.chron.com/life/books/article/The-Art-of-Racing-in-the-Rain-by-Garth-Stein-1772661.php
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