The Art of Racing in the Rain ended for me in the same way that it started, with my aging Boston Terrier laying on my lap sleeping soundly, while tears spilled down my cheeks.  I am struggling with what to write this week, not only because of the mix of emotion in these last few chapters, but also because of the story I share with this little dog who has been with me for so long.  It is easy to love this book because it gives us permission to believe that all of the conversations we have with our pets may be true and for the faith it provides that our animal companions really do understand us and love us as much as we think they do.  I cherished this book because I love dogs and cars, but beyond that, I appreciated this book because of the genuine life wisdom that it shares.

This book made me:

• Think about what I am giving my attention to:  The car goes where the eyes go.
• Stop to consider the zebra that resides within all of us:  The zebra is something inside of us.  Our fears.  Our own self-destructive nature.
• Consider my priorities and what I am choosing to think about:  People are generally not satisfied with what they have; they are very concerned with what they are going to have. 
• Challenge myself to take more responsibility for my life:  Any problems that may occur have ultimately been caused by you, because you are responsible for where you are and what you are doing there. 

As we’ve blogged our way through this book, you have all been very generous in sharing your personal thoughts and feelings about what you found most moving in this story.  I look forward to reading your final comments on how this book impacted your life.

• What are your main takeaways from The Art of Racing in the Rain? 
• Were you challenged in any way?
• Do you look at life differently?
• Do you have a favorite quote or passage from the book?

P.S.  We would all like to extend a special thank you to Garth Stein for dropping in to our book club!  While we are all looking forward to the movie, I think it is agreed that it will not completely capture the magic you created on the pages of the book.  We look forward to reading your next novel!

—Seraphina Ashe
Director of Guest Experience Programming
Glen Ivy Hot Springs

In this week’s reading we see the return of the zebra – a seemingly harmless toy that reminds us that light is always balanced with dark, and that no matter how much humanity fills us it is equaled with a wild, animalistic nature. However, in this second encounter with the zebra, Enzo has gained wisdom from experience. This time around, Enzo chooses not to deny his destructive animal nature but instead to embrace it and use it to his advantage. I found this passage humorous not only in relation to the storyline of the book but also because I’ve had similar experiences with my own animal companions. In particular, my beloved cat Brian has a certain way of letting me know if I am working too much or otherwise not spending enough time with him; the little darling leaves me a special “present” on my pillow if I’ve been away from home too much. Our pets may not be able to talk, but they certainly strive to find ways to communicate with us. Have you experienced this with your pets?

This week’s passage ends on a sad note, both for Enzo and Denny. It struck me that Denny did not break down, did not give up, until faced with Enzo’s crisis. It was Enzo’s injury and Denny’s inability to fully provide for his dog that finally broke his spirit. These chapters caused me to pause and consider the many times I have relied on the absolute and unquestioning love of my pets when faced with life stresses and challenges. As Debbie said in last week’s discussion, “They love us unconditionally. Giving care, love and devotion to our animals is minute compared to what our animals give back to us. They are always happy to see us and are faithful and devoted. It never fails to lighten my day when I walk into the house greeted by one of my dogs. They are, and have always been the highlight in my days.” Enzo’s unconditional love and devotion for Denny was, perhaps, what kept him going. When faced with Enzo’s mortality Denny lost all hope. I agree with Debbie that the time and effort we spend caring for our animal companions pales in comparison to what they give back to us.

Please be sure to share your thoughts and reflections on this chapter with a comment below. I look forward to reading your insights and interpretations and thank you for reading along with us.

Happy Reading!

There’s so much good in this book that I often have difficulty choosing what to write about each week.  Even though the chapters we’re covering this week recounted a dark and difficult time for Denny and his dog, I was so enthralled by the expression of Enzo’s deep wisdom for human affairs that I could not wait to turn to the next page.  Enzo’s account of Denny’s arrest, which was based on knowledge he gained from Law & Order and other TV shows, was humorous but might also raise the question as to what the real Denny might look like outside of Enzo’s admiring gaze.  The Denny that Enzo depicts is nearly flawless — a hero in nearly every respect.

The depths of Enzo’s devotion to Denny become very clear at the conclusion of chapter 36 when Enzo speaks only of “we,” as if he and Denny are an inseparable unit.

Do you think that Denny really fulfilled Enzo’s portrayal of him?

Do you find that your pets sense when you are going through a life challenge? 

If so, do you sense greater devotion from them during difficult times?

One of my favorite passages in this week’s reading is in chapter 34:  being alone is not the same as being lonely…loneliness…is something that exists only in the mind, not in the world, and, like a virus, is unable to survive without a willing host.  And, one of my favorite lines from the entire book:  That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me.  I realize this book is a work of fiction, but I still found myself wondering if Enzo spent at least some of his TV time watching Wayne Dyer on PBS.  There is a tremendous amount of life-wisdom in the pages of this book!

Please be sure to share your comments on these chapters, I always look forward to reading what you found in the story. Happy Reading!

The chapters we’re discussing this week really captured the dark heaviness of Eve’s illness and the impact it was having on Denny, Enzo and Zoe.  I thought it was interesting that Enzo, like all of us, began questioning his ability to respond to the complex emotions that arise in these types of experiences.  In chapter 23 Enzo struggles to know what to do or how to react to a gravely ill Eve, “All I could do was move to her bedside and lie down before her like a rug.”  So many times in life I’ve been confronted with the emotional or physical pain of someone close to me, and all that there is to be done is to sit with them; words, actions, responses or any kind of “doing” somehow seem out of place.  While Enzo interpreted his conflicting feelings as meaning that he was perhaps not yet ready to be human, I thought that the emotions he expressed in these chapters were very human and exactly like what each of us experience in similar situations.  Even Enzo’s reaction to Eve’s death, although presented as a reversion to his animal-nature, was so human in so many ways.  “I couldn’t be human anymore and feel the pain that humans feel.”  I think that everyone has had at least one life experience in which they feel a thread of this – a pain so intense that an escape from it must be found – an adrenaline-filled, heart-pounding physical release is sometimes the only way to deal with the frenzied jumble of emotions that are swarming within.  Sometimes I wonder if the theme of this book is not so much how human Enzo and other animals can be, but that we may be much closer to our animalistic nature than we realize or care to admit.

What do you think?
As always, I look forward to reading your comments on these chapters and anything leading up to this point.

Welcome to the second discussion of our Winter Book Club.  This week’s reading opens with Enzo struggling to maintain control over the innate animal instincts for which he feels such disdain.  Upon finding himself locked in the house for three days without food or water, Enzo’s strategy for survival forces him to acknowledge his “genetic background;” his innate dog-nature that he normally strives to distance himself from.  While his animal instincts allow him to survive the ordeal, they also cause him to lose his humanity for a brief moment.  I saw the dancing zebra that destroyed Zoe’s toys as Enzo’s shadow side – his true animal nature.  Unable to embrace his darkness, Enzo convinced himself that the Zebra – itself a striped mixture of light and dark – caused the damage.  I thought it interesting that Enzo was not able to admit to himself that he would be capable of causing such destruction and pain.  In reading this section of the book, it’s initially easy to assign this incident as Enzo just being Enzo – a dog, no matter how evolved in his thoughts and perceptions of life.   However within a few pages we see Denny falling prey to his reactive, animalistic nature, just as Enzo did.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we have all done this at some time in our lives; we are all dancing zebras, moving between our stripes of light and dark.

While revealing his animal nature, these chapters also contain some of my favorite bits of Enzo’s wisdom and life philosophy:

Suppressing the symptom does nothing but force the true problem to express itself on a deeper level at some other time.  (p. 63)

…the poor driver crashes.  The average driver gives up.  The great drivers drive through the problem.  (p. 64)

It makes one realize that the physicality of our world is a boundary to us only if our will is weak… (p. 65)

But I am a racer at heart, and a racer will never let something that has already happened affect what is happening now.  (p. 74-75)

Know who is driving next to you.  Any problems that may occur have ultimately been caused by you, because you are responsible for where you are and what you are doing there.  (p. 91)

What are your thoughts? What made you think, what were the highlights for you in this part of the story?

I hope you’re enjoying this book as much as I am.  Please share what you found meaningful in these chapters, I look forward to hearing from you!

As I read the first few chapters of our Winter Book Club selection, my 14 ½ year old Boston Terrier was splayed over my lap snoring loudly as tears made their way down my cheeks to dampen the pages of the book.  I had to wonder if my Fiona, now struggling with arthritis and cataracts, ever had thoughts like those of Enzo, the narrator of our story; I swear that she has understood at least some of the conversations I have had with her over our years together.  And I wondered how she viewed our time together and how she would tell the story of her life with me.  I have to believe that she views me with the same reverence that Enzo ascribes to Denny, for as far as I can tell she has not only forgiven but perhaps even refused to acknowledge every annoying personality trait, mistake or major life screw-up that falls under my possession.  Or, perhaps she, like Enzo, embodies the same wisdom of forgiveness that most consciously driven humans strive for, “…memory is time folding back on itself.  To remember is to disengage from the present.”  In other words, perhaps our pets judge us based only on who we are in the moment, practicing the definitive act of forgiveness:  when the moment of transgression is gone, so is the transgression.

“…that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny.  Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”  Enzo gleans this life lesson from listening to Denny talk about racing and then puts the philosophy into practice.  In a scene that could be taken from new thought movies like What the Bleep or The Secret, Enzo realized that by changing his mood and energy he could effect a change in his relationship with Eve.  Like a race car driver, Enzo possessed a deep knowing that we are each masters of all that surrounds us.  Do you hold the knowing that your perceptions and thoughts create your life story and are you able to live from this knowing?  Did reading these first few chapters of Enzo’s story inspire you to embrace this philosophy?  Have you ever tried mindfully changing how you show up in life to see how life will then show up for you?  What other aspects of Enzo’s story in these first few chapters did you find meaningful?

I look forward to reading your thoughts and perceptions on these first few chapters.

Happy Reading,

Seraphina

We are eager to start the New Year with the New York Times best selling novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, (click title to purchase now at amazon.com)

We look forward to hearing your thoughts each week via comments. The reading/blog schedule is as follows:

January 9:     Chapters 1 – 10
January 16:   Chapters 11 – 19
January 23:   Chapters 20-28
January 30:   Chapters 29-36
February 6:    Chapters 37-48
February 13:  Chapters 49-58

Garth Stein is the author of the New York Times best selling novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper, 2008). Now published in 30 languages, The Art of Racing in the Rain was the #1 BookSense selection for June, 2008, the Starbucks spring/summer 2008 book selection, and has been on the IndieBound bestseller list since its publication. Stein’s previous novel, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets (Soho Press, 2005) won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and was a BookSense Pick in both hardcover and paperback. Raven Stole the Moon (Harper, 2010) was Stein’s first novel. He has also written a full-length play, Brother Jones, and produced a number of award-winning documentaries.

Garth is the co-founder of Seattle7Writers, a non-profit organization comprised of 42 prominent Northwest authors dedicated to creating connections between readers, writers, booksellers, and librarians to foster and support a passion for the written word.  Born in Los Angeles and raised in Seattle, Garth’s ancestry is diverse: his mother, a native of Alaska, is of Tlingit Indian and Irish descent; his father, a Brooklyn native, is the child of Jewish emigrants from Austria. After spending his childhood in Seattle and then living in New York City for 18 years, Garth returned to Seattle, where he currently lives with his wife, three sons, and their dog, Comet.

For more information, please visit garthstein.com.