Hello, fellow booklovers!  This is my first time posting here, and I want to thank you for checking out this book review.  I'm honored A Book for All Seasons asked me to submit it.

I can't exactly say I stumbled upon this wonderful novel by accident.  Garth Stein, the author of THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, is a good friend, and we've been in the same writers group for several years now.  One night about two years ago, the third member of our group canceled, so Garth and I went out for a drink.  At the time, Garth had two published, extremely well-received novels to his credit (RAVEN STOLE THE MOON and HOW EVAN BROKE HIS HEAD & OTHER SECRETS), and my serial-killer thrillers were finally making The New York Times Bestseller list.  Garth was writing a very compelling sequel to RAVEN.  Sitting at the bar, Garth told me he wanted to put his sequel on the back burner and focus all his attention on a new story.  It was a novel narrated by a dog.  I told him he was absolutely nuts.

Thank God Garth didn't listen to me--or to his agent at the time.  He was passionate about the story, followed his gut instincts and started writing.  When he read the first chapter to our group, it knocked my socks off.  "This is going to be a bestseller," I murmured, awestruck.  This time I was right.  THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN earned a huge advance and was translated into 26 languages (including New and Old Chinese, for God's sake).  Upon its release in May, the book immediately climbed up the New York Times Bestseller charts--and stayed there all summer.

As THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN opens, Enzo, the wise, articulate, almost human, mixed-breed narrator, is on his deathbed.  He's looking back on his years with Denny Swift, his master and an up-and-coming race car driver.  Denny always switched on the TV to keep Enzo entertained whenever he stepped out of their Seattle home.  From a TV documentary about Mongolia, Enzo learned about the belief that "when a dog is finished living his lifetime as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man."  Enzo couldn't be more excited about this prospect.  He's tired of the limitations of a dog's life.  He wants thumbs, and a tongue that would allow him to talk.  A perfect, heart-wrenching example of this dilemma comes when Enzo detects with his keen sense of smell that Denny's wife, Eve, is gravely ill.  No one else is aware of this, not even Eve; and Enzo can't communicate it to anyone.  Peope say and do all sorts of things in front of him, because he's only a dog.  But Enzo sees and understands everything.  Later, he watches as Denny becomes involved in a bitter custody battle with his in-laws over his toddler daughter, Zoe.  Garth could have easily lapsed into high-melodrama with this volatile subject matter--just as he could have resorted to some too-cute-to-stomach animal antics with his narrator, but he doesn't let that happen. His writing is always intelligent, accomplished and real.  And Enzo, who offers up perceptive life-lessons, based on what he has learned about race car driving, is winning and altogether unforgetable.  I loved this book.

Kevin O'Brien