Dog novels are dangerous for anyone who has loved and lost a pet. Typically, they involve many tears and can be an overall bittersweet experience because of that. The Art of Racing in the Rain does involve crying, but the tears that fall are good ones, shed in joy as much as in sadness. Enzo, with his unwavering faith in Denny, his skill as a driver, and his ability to be the best dad ever,Christopher Evan Welch does a superb job narrating Enzo. He has an earnestness to his performance that makes it so easy to envision him as a dog sharing his insights of the human world. His voice is neither too old nor too young, and his delivery is forthright but with that sense of enthusiasm that every dog owner knows never disappears. One gets a greater appreciation for Enzo’s (and Mr. Stein’s) dry wit through the audio version that would be all too easy to ignore in print. While it would be all too easy to get bogged down in an overwhelming sense of sadness as Enzo shares his final thoughts, Mr. Welch’s straightforward performance allows a reader to focus on the sense of levity and unconditional love that Enzo has for Denny and Zoe.The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautiful story of unconditional love and success against the most formidable of odds. Enzo makes for the best kind of narrator – honest and loving and thoroughly canine. Though it does reduce a reader to tears, the entire story ends on a note of hope rather than despair that is as heartwarming as it is endearing. All dog owners will have a greater appreciation of the underlying wisdom and faith of their beloved pet after reading Enzo’s philosophy about life.
