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Plot and Narrative Structure

‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ follows the reflection of a mixed bred terrier, Enzo, from its puppy-hood to the eve of its death. Enzo is the loyal pet dog of rookie car race driver, Denny Swift. Denny always leaves the television on for Enzo when he goes out to work, thus one day, Enzo watches a documentary about a popular legend in Mongolia, which states that once a dog dies, it will reincarnate into a human. Enzo is at his last stage of life and is beginning to die, he is happy though and can’t wait to become a human which he can experience racing as his owner is constantly speaking passionately about it. Enzo relates racing to life, therefore learning a lot about humans and the way they live. He also sees this through the life of Denny who goes through a chain of never ending turbulence. The story begins off with Denny and Enzo living together to Denny and Enzo trying to battle out for the custody of Zoe, Denny’s beloved daughter, despite Enzo not being able to talk.

The plot structure of the novel is somewhat chronological ordered, as at the beginning, it is clearly stated that Enzo is dying, thus is reminiscing and reflecting on his life from his birth to his last few seconds of being a dog.

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Denny Swift and Enzo

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Characters

The main characters of the novel are Enzo, Denny, Eve and Zoë, Trish and Maxwell.

  Enzo is the internal monologue of the novel, therefore is developed extremely well – reflecting on all events of its life through meticulous evaluations. Despite being a dog, Enzo is relatively as intelligent as a human. He also believes that he is a human just trapped in the body of a dog. Enzo is an important member of the Swift family, and understands everything before it actually comes around – Eve’s death, Annika’s intentions and Trish and Maxwell’s hatred for him and Denny.

  Denny is the owner of Enzo and is the second-most analysed character in the novel, portraying strong affections to Enzo by not treating him like a pet dog, but rather a human and a friend. In the novel, Denny goes through the most change as he starts off as a single man thrence to a husband, thrence to a father, thrence to a widower.

  Eve (wife of Denny) is a character that is meagrely developed as midway through the novel; she is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Eve goes through depression by herself. This may be the reason as to why she had not organise her will before she departed. Also, Eve had requested to live with her parents for the last few days of her life. Eve and Denny’s courtship was opposed by Eve’s parents, Trish and Maxwell. Despite this, Eve and Denny had got married. Eve’s character does not present enough love to Denny as she allows her parents to do whatever they want with their relationship and child (Zoë).

  Zoë is sufficiently developed in the novel as when being stuck in the middle of the turmoil, Zoe voiced her feelings and sadness to Enzo in spite of Enzo just being a pet dog who can’t talk. Zoë also shows her affections to Denny, despite her grandparents not assenting.

  The characters of Trish and Maxwell, labelled as ‘the Twins’ by Enzo, plays hand in hand through the course of the novel. Trish and Maxwell’s hatred for Denny is portrayed throughout the entire novel, from the beginning, which they opposed to their daughter’s relationship with Denny to Denny’s custody of Zoë (their granddaughter) at the end of the novel. Trish and Maxwell’s despicable behaviour to Denny may have been triggered by their subjectiveness towards Denny’s wealth and background. As described by Enzo, Trish and Maxwell are affluent and Denny is not, having to live in a rented apartment and working at a part time job as a mechanic, repairing cars. The absence of Denny’s parents at the wedding of Denny and Eve as well as holding the wedding ceremony at a close friend of Trish and Maxwell’s house could be reasons why their hatred for Denny developed so largely. Trish and Maxwell also strongly believed that Denny was neglecting both, their granddaughter and daughter as he was absent at the birth of Zoë and was constantly away making money at a low-paid job.

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Themes

The Art of Racing in the Rain revolves around themes of family relations, grief, fear, tragedies, love, loyalty and connection between man and dog.

Denny and Enzo are the main protagonists of the novel, thus showing the most loyalty and connection to each other. Denny and Enzo are always together from happy times to times of woe, yet they are always found together. In the end, Denny frees Enzo, allowing him to run free rather than being euthanized.

Eve’s death causes grief on all characters of the novel.

Denny goes through tough family relations subjected by his in-laws, Trish and Maxwell. It is Trish and Maxwell who wants custody over Zoe after Eve dies. Evidently, they frame Denny for abusing their granddaughter and raping their neice, Annika. In the end, it is justice and love that brings Denny and Zoe together.

Themes of spirituality and facing our fears are also greatly suggested by Enzo several times in the novel. Enzo’s hates the murder of crows that sit outside his backyard and eat all his food, when left outside. Enzo then tries to seek revenge, and does succeed. When Enzo’s and Denny’s life takes a turn of events, Enzo believes it is the zebra plush that is causing it, he then destroys it.

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“I know this much about racing in the rain. I know it is about balance. It is about anticipation and patience... it is also about the mind! It is about owning one's body... It is about believing that you are not you; you are everything. And everything is you.”

The Art of Racing in the Rain

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The Art of Racing in the Rain, movie trailer

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Audience and Purpose

Garth Stein’s audience for The Art of Racing in the Rain are primarily adults. This is because the novel explores through both personal and family problems. Adult audience may relate themselves to the character of Denny as he is shown going through very tough circumstances such as becoming independent – having to work in order to take care of himself at the start of the novel as he is in a financial crisis, having to eat less and rent a small apartment complex.

Stein’s purpose was to use racing as a metaphor to life. Stein had illustrated the hardships of life through protagonist Denny, who is a part time car racing driver. Denny learns a lot of hints and tips to becoming first in a race, which he then tells his dog, Enzo. Enzo then relates the racing tips back to life. He states that it is not speed that you need but other actions. Enzo also acknowledges that when racing you should be aware of your surroundings, and not just yourself. And that living the moment is far more important than anything else.

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Intertextual Connections

    The Art of Racing in the Rain has a connection with film, and autobiography titled Marley and Me. This is because both texts deal with the same themes of family problems, loyalty and love.

The foremost similarity between The Art of Racing in the Rain and Marley and Me is that the text and film have a common subject – a pet dog. In both films, the pet dog brings the family closer together despite being somewhat neglected at the start. In the film Marley and Me, John and Jenny, a newlywed couple, adopts a dog suggested by their co-worker as a substitute for a child, as Jenny had a miscarriage that left her melancholy, thus becoming prone to depression. Unlike The Art of Racing in the Rain, their pet dog, Marley is a troublesome puppy who is untrainable and tends to destroy and eat everything and anything. Jenny comes to strongly dislike Marley and eventually gives Marley away to their co-worker. Jenny then realises how much Marley was a part of the family and takes him back home. During the years together, Marley becomes old and sick. He is then euthanized alongside John.

In The Art of Racing in the Rain, Enzo becomes jealous of Denny’s girlfriend Eve. When Eve then becomes a part of the family through marriage, Enzo begins to like Eve, although Eve does not like him back. Ultimately, Enzo and Eve become very close, with Eve allowing Enzo to sleep besides her in her last few days. Enzo agrees, but does not sleep; Enzo guards Eve while she is sleeping as he believes when her death comes he can drive it away. As it is clearly stated in the beginning, Enzo is old and sick, and eventually dies at the end of the novel, like Marley and Me, with his owner, Denny, by his side.

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Evaluation

I personally found ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ a very emotional and thought provoking novel. The novel made me really think whether a dog is as intelligent and smart as Enzo, whom understands more than we think they do. It shined a new light on dogs in my opinion, as I no longer look at them just as a pet, but an important member of a family that thinks like humans except they can’t orally speak their thoughts and opinions, thus using body language and gestures to illustrate them.  'The Art of Racing in the Rain' is not like any other book I have read before. This is because it is not narrated by a human or monster, but a pet dog. This made me very interested in the novel as I never had read a novel in a perspective of a dog. I also wondered how the author with tackle this novel, having to act and think like a dog. I think the book had left out why Eve, the wife of Denny, had not bothered to help her husband gain custody over their only daughter. As well as that, Eve spends her last weeks with her parents rather than her family. It makes me marvel whether she was content being married to Denny or not. I also wonder why and how Denny’s false rape accusation came perfectly at the right time, when his in-laws were trying to gain custody over Zoe. Everything just happens to go wrong at the correct time, making Denny deemed not appropriate as a father. Personally I think I related more to Enzo than any other characters in the novel… minus the dying part. Like Enzo, I generally enjoy to philosophize my life and believe where I am now is due to my actions, whether good or bad. Furthermore, Enzo unconsciously understands others due to their body language and I somewhat think I do too. Enzo also believes the stuffed zebra plush sitting on Zoe’s bed is evil, despite being a toy. I think that my fears are also not in human figure, and are secretly trying to make me do evil. The Art of Racing in the Rain compares to other texts due to its themes of family problems, loyalty, friendship and philosophy. Teenage fiction as well as adult fiction explores almost same or similiar themes, as a means to illustrate the difficulties one goes through and how it shapes them as a person.