#Fiction The Art of Racing in the Rain
#GoMax “…Keep pushing!!”
JANUARY
20. 
by 
Garth Stein
Finish date: 22 January 2022
Genre: Fiction
Rating: B+
Review:
Bad news: Push through the first chapters….sentimental as flowers pressed between the pages of a diary.
Good news: A beloved philosopher dog named Enzo is the one who teaches us everything we need to know about being human. Let the story embrace you…every reader will find a moment to connect at some level. I mean a dog is the narrator…what’s not to love?
Good news: My first impression was wrong. This turned out to be a great book…I loved it! Title The Art of Racing in the Rain was just perfect…captures the essence of the book! Drivers are afraid of the rain. Rain amplifies your mistakes.
Good news: I love the sport of Formula 1 so all the references to great champions of the past Emmo (Fittipaldi), Schumi, Senna etc were wonderful. I didn’t realize so many life lessons can be learned in the paddock and on the grid. My life lesson? No race has ever been won in the first corner…but plenty of races have been lost there.
Personal: New rule…never write the book review on the same day you finished the book! Sleep on it. After a few chapters of sugar-spin sentimentality I hoped the book would get better…and it did. Apart from the ‘tear-jerker’ content (dying dog, newlyweds, baby, dying wife and in-laws from hell) the book had a larger message for me. The Art of Racing in the Rain was a metaphor teaching me (us) how to overcome obstacles in the long race we call life (pg 314). We all race in the rain at some point. Remember the motto in the book:
The visible becomes inevitable.
The car goes where the eyes go (ch 37)
With fresh tires and a full load of fuel he would prove a formidable force.
NancyElin 
Nancy, waiting a while, at least a day or two, to write a review, is a very good idea. I am never that fast, to get one out so soon anyway. But I often find myself rethinking my initial impression while writing a review.
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I never thought it would work…but it does!
I used to read the book and start the review post immediately. But how can one
think after at times an exhausting read?
It is so much easier if I’m well-rested. In addition to this, “sleeping on something” allows me to separate myself from the book… to examine it more objectively at a later time.
This is an “Eureka!” moment. (…thank you, Archimedes)
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