If you can understand that sentiment then you will love this book. If you can't imagine how anyone could love an animal that frequently causes trouble and often causes damage, then you've never loved a dog before. At least not a bad dog.
While the antics of Marley are what makes the book, the relationship between Marley and John and to a lesser extent Jenny, and eventually with their three kids, is what makes this book great.
But what makes this book one of my favorites ever, is the parallels between my life and the life of the author.
He's got Marley, I've got Diesel.
Marley's a lab, Diesel's a lab.
Marley's a bad dog, Diesel's a bad dog (though thankfully nowhere close to as bad as Marley).
And in both cases we love our dogs, in spite of, or maybe because of the mischief they cause.
When the book begins John just got married and moved into a house with his new wife, when they decided to get a dog, to prepare them to one day have kids.
But having kids isn't so easy, as we both learned. Jenny had a miscarriage, Mrs. Poop had a miscarriage. Jenny cried on Marley, Mrs. Poop cried on Diesel.
And this was the point in my life where I read the book for the very first time, making it a little more meaningful.
But two years later, we have even more things in common, we both had a little boy, and like Patrick and Marley, Chase is constantly giving Diesel food from his tray.
And despite their wildness around others, both Marley and Diesel display an amazing calm around their little brothers.
And someday, we'll probably have even more in common, dogs, not even Diesel, don't live forever.
But even more than the story he tells, what makes this book special, is the way Grogan tells it.
The book is funny, of course because of Marley's antics, but also because of Grogan's humor. When Marley got a job on a movie set, Grogan said "next time, we're hoping for a barking part."
I guess that's what makes this such a great book, is that through the first 270 pages you can't help but laugh, and in the last 30 pages, you can't help but cry.
1 comment:
My parents didn't know what to get me for my birthday so I told them books are always a good option. When my mother asked me what type of book I told her to get me something they made a movie into because the book must have been good for Hollywood to make a film out of it. I found it ironic since you've been blogging about it a lot that she got me Marley and Me. I'm psyched to read it since you gave it a strong review, however I am disappointed that it's got a big pic of Jen Anisten's mug on the front. I'll feel a little feminine reading it on campus during breaks but oh well. Haha
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