Enzo looks like the typical dog on the outside, but when you start reading this book and all of his thoughts you come to realize that he has a lot of stuff going on in his mind. He narrates the story of his owner and his family, along with a lot of theories about every situation. He’s a listener and an observer, which are the only things he really can do because he is a dog and cannot speak. The book goes through a lot of different themes and Enzo always compares a lot of things to racing which is both Enzo’s and Denny’s passion. The fact that he is a dog changes the whole perspective on all the themes because you do not know what the humans are thinking, you only know what they tell Enzo or what he sees or over hears. A big chunk of the book is everything that Enzo sees and short snippets of phone conversations he overhears to be able to tell the story.
Enzo, like any other dog, would give anything he could to protect Denny and make sure he is happy. Even if that means just sitting next to him on the couch watching old racing videos or even the weather channel. Denny has a way of controlling his life in a certain way that it makes it seem like he doesn’t have any problems in the world. Denny always tries to see the happier side of things, and always tries his best to make the most of things. Enzo admires him so much because Denny controls his life as if he’s in a race car trying to win a race. Apart from that, Enzo also really admires Denny because of all the love he has for his family and how much he takes care of them.
Family is a big topic in this book there are a couple different families that are talked about, but it’s mostly Denny, Eve, Zoe and Enzo. A lot of times families aren’t happy, but this book shows that bumps in the road are okay. Sometimes we’ll argue with our siblings, our parents, or even our significant others, but that’s what a family is. The topic of love goes hand in hand with family because even though you love your family a lot, you won’t always agree with them or their decisions. Love is a strong bond you have towards another person, or animal, and if you were to ever lose them you’d feel very sad and heartbroken. Denny had to go through a loss when Eve died, but he kept fighting for the love of his daughter. When Eve’s parents tried to take Zoe away from him he never gave up on her no matter how hard it got or what situation in put him in. Love makes people do crazy things for others, like when Denny sold their house in order to be able to pay lawyers for Zoe’s custody battle.
I personally have never cried at the end of a book; The Art of Racing in the Rain was the very first book to create such an attachment to the characters and I really felt like I was right there with them in the middle of all the problems. The ending made me feel really warm inside. I am so happy with the ending. Reading about the little Italian boy and Denny years later made me feel like I was Denny, and I had just won a race and met this little boy. It gave me such a sigh of relief that Enzo got his life wish, and it made me so happy that Denny ended up with a great life because he truly deserved it after everything he went through.
Apart from that, what I got out of this book was the message to never give up. Just like Denny says, “the car goes where the eyes go.” I cannot express enough how hard I fell in love with this book; the point of view was genius. I love dogs myself and to read a book where a dog is telling the story instead of a human is quite a change, but Enzo’s thoughts were so well put it felt like he was just another person. Of course, he did have his normal dog instincts that he talked about and his normal dog habits, but his point of view made me want to find some way to make him able to speak to everyone and express himself. This book has amazing imagery, the whole time I was reading I felt like I was watching a movie in my head because of how detailed everything is.