Let's Bust a Recap : The Art of Racing in the Rain

Ugh. Y'all. This has been kindof a rough year for my reading life. With the exception of the Sisterchicks book I read by Robin Jones Gunn (who never lets me down, thank goodness!), everything I've read has been slow and/or had depressing elements, and some of it was just plain bad (looking at you Harlow Giles Unger). This isn't to say I haven't read some great books this year—I have—but overall I'm about ready to throw in the towel on my 2019 list and re-read the entire Christy Miller series.

And speaking of the great books I've read this year: The Art of Racing in the Rain wasn't one of them. After seeing this trailer for the upcoming film adaptation, reading nothing but positive reviews on the internet, and learning that the novel had held a steady spot on the New York Times Bestseller list for 156 weeks, I ordered the book and took it with me on our little weekend getaway to North Carolina last week thinking I'd fly through it, probably cry a lot, and be even more pumped to see the movie. 

Moral of the story: bad books sell and you can't trust the opinions of strangers on the internet. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein was published in 2008. In this novel, Enzo the dog who believes he will be reincarnated as a human in his next life tells us the story of his master Denny Swift, an aspiring Formula One driver, husband to Eve, and father to Zoë. We learn at the beginning of the book that Denny has already lost his wife Eve to brain cancer, and as Enzo looks back on their life together and recounts their struggles after Eve is diagnosed, we see that Denny's life goes from bad to worse to freaking miserable. 

The tone of the book was crass overall. The story was littered with profanity and certain adult situations that I have no idea how they will make palatable for a PG movie from Disney. And while I understand that Enzo the dog is looking forward to being reincarnated as a human being, his voice in this book was too human. While there were moments of brilliance throughout the book, I wasn't convinced that a dog was telling me his story. 

I understand that not every book is for every person. There are people out there who don't care about profanity or rude humor, and there are obviously a LOT of people who loved this book. I'm just not one of them. This book didn't work for me, and I personally wouldn't recommend it. I still may end up seeing the movie, and this may possibly be the first time I watch a movie and declare its superiority over the book that inspired it. But I won't be revisiting the novel.

Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? What popular books have you wanted to like but just couldn't get into?