The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein was one of my follower book picks and so, as with all of these books, I went into this with a lot of hope.
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It follows the tale of Enzo and Denny through Enzo’s eyes. Enzo is a dog. It’s a really interesting take, and early on, the rule is set out that Enzo can understand humans; he just doesn’t have a mouth that allows him to respond to them (answering the question of how we’re going to be able to understand humans through the eyes of a dog).
Denny is a racecar driver who works his way up through the ranks with the support of Enzo and other people around him. The book simply focuses on the highs and lows of their lives through the eyes and opinions of a dog.
The Art of Racing in the Rain plot – 4.25/5
The plot for The Art of Racing in the Rain feels like the story of an actual human, despite it being told through the perspective of a dog. It’s got a really unique look into some of the odd ways humans interact with one another and how our animals might both be able to perceive and not understand at all some of the actions we make.
I felt like there was a lot of heart to this book – Enzo desperately wants the best for his owners (as all dogs do), so this makes for a book where, when negative things happen (and oh do they happen), Enzo is always trying to look for the positive, hoping things will get better.
I felt like the plot as an entirety, though, didn’t quite reach the peak that it could. At moments where I knew I was supposed to feel emotional and invested, I just didn’t quite find myself drawn in quite like I feel I should have.
I am however a fan of cars and thus enjoyed the aspects of driving we get to read about throughout the book.
The Art of Racing in the Rain characters – 4/5
The thing that consistently let me down slightly throughout the book was the characters. Enzo, our main protagonist, is a dog, so this adds some limitations to how much he can be involved – he’s more of an observer who narrates the story. This also brings limitations to how much can be described about how the other characters are feeling.
Enzo can visually see their emotions coming through via their actions, but as is often the case with a great character-led book, the emotions the characters are feeling aren’t often the same as what they visualise. Therefore, despite the emotional moments I referenced above often happening, there’s just not enough depth to the characters for it to feel real.
I did appreciate, however, that Denny is very much a flawed character. Despite Enzo having this dog-like bias where he thinks everything Denny does is perfect (Labrador behaviour), we as the reader understand that Denny does make poor decisions sometimes, loses his temper sometimes and is essentially a flawed person.
The Art of Racing in the Rain final rating – 4.25/5
I enjoyed The Art of Racing in the Rain. I enjoyed the driving, I enjoyed that we got to read the book through the innocent eyes of a dog and I enjoyed that there was a lot of heart here – Garth Stein tries to pull on your heartstrings a fair few times. The limitations of reading through a dog’s eyes on the ability to actually have deep characters, though, was a big drawback and inevitably led to me not feeling that invested in the characters or these emotional moments. Therefore, despite a generally really enjoyable story about the life of a racing driver, going from the bottom to the top, all told from the point of view of a canine, it didn’t quite ever draw me in like I hoped it would.
Buy The Art of Racing in the Rain
