Not everyone thought The Art of Racing in the Rain -- a story about a family, narrated by a wise and witty dog who yearns to be human -- was a great concept. When author Garth Stein sent his manuscript to his agent, the agent promptly called him and said, "This is not a good idea; it's a gimmick. It's not even a good gimmick. Nobody writes a book narrated by a dog. Sorry. Write something I can sell."
To which Stein, confident in his work, replied, "I have an idea. How about you're fired."
"The Art of Racing in the Rain was very straightforward," says Stein, meeting with the Connection at a small cafe near Seattle. "It came almost in a magical way. I wrote the first draft in four months."
At the time he was writing the book, he had rented space from a pizzeria near his home in Seattle. "I just had a desk and it was open to the public, and in the afternoons I'd be working on a scene and crying and listening to music on my earphones. [The owners would] be having a meeting with vendors and the vendors would be looking over ... and they'd say, 'What's with that guy?'" he recalls. "The owners would say, 'He's a writer; dont pay attention to him.'"
Stein observes, "I think a writer has to be emotionally moved by the work; otherwise, how do you expect a reader to get emotionally [involved]?"
The Art of Racing in the Rain went on to spend more than three years on the New York Times best-seller list, selling more than 4 million copies in 32 languages, and has spawned a major motion picture opening this month.
Asked why he thinks the book has been so successful, Stein says, "I think the voice of Enzo is very compelling. It's a relatively common story of a family where there's tragedy that happens, and how do we work our way out of that? But the fact that it's being told from Enzo's point of view makes people want to hear what he has to say. There's wisdom in there -- Enzo's wisdom. If a person were to say some of those things, I'm sure people would roll their eyes a lot and say, 'Oh, it's a self-help book.' So in a weird way, it's a self-help book in disguise, maybe."
In the movie, Enzo is a golden retriever, but his breed was not actually identified in the book. "I deliberately left it vague, because I knew people wanted to picture their own dog," explains Stein. "So in the book he says, 'I'm half water dog on my mother's side,' and he's not quite sure who his sire is."
One of the driving factors in Enzo's narrative is his desire to be reincarnated as a human. Stein got that idea from a documentary he watched on dogs in Mongolia, who are vital, important members of the family. He says, "Those people were so intimately involved with dogs as part of their lives, they believe that that dog's going to be born tomorrow in your family. That next kid is going to be your dog's spirit come back to be with you."
The Art of Racing in the Rain is more than a book; it's a cathartic experience. You'll laugh and you'll cry -- a lot -- but in the end they will be tears of joy for a life-affirming experience.
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A dog speaks
The Art of Racing in the Rain will make you laugh and cry
by Steve Fisher
-- This article appeared in the August 2019 Costco Connection. Alas, that issue is no longer available online, so I typed it in.
