You are well aware this is coming, as the first chapter begins with Enzo ridden with arthritis and planning his own reincarnation. Of course, there is a dog on the cover, and are there any books with a dog on the cover where the dog DOESN'T die? Apparently not. The car goes where your eyes go, so make certain your eyes are in the right place. Always finish the race, because even if you don't like the outcome you have a better result than if you quit. Lessons like-don't get angry when somebody makes a mistake that knocks you out of the race, because it's your fault you were in the way. Denny, amazingly, never gets angry-he applies the lessons of racing to life, and those lessons lead him through the morass of family dysfunction and grief. When Eve dies, her parents fight for custody of Zoe, claiming that Eve wanted them to do so.ĭenny is disadvantaged financially, of course, and the grandparents use every weapon they have, including an alleged sexual assault on a minor-one of Eve's young cousins tried to come onto Denny and got mad when she was rejected. Denny bears this stoically, spending his days with Eve, coming home to Enzo and an otherwise empty house. Eve goes home to her parents' home to die, and Zoe goes with her. Things happen: they buy a house with a yard, Enzo gets accidentally locked indoors over a three day weekend, Denny begins to be noticed in the racing world.Īll is not well, however, as Enzo smells Eve's illness that later turns out to be brain cancer. Then Denny falls in love and so Eve enters their lives, followed soon by their daughter Zoe. Their bachelor nights are spent watching video of famous races as Denny Swift studies the tricks of the masters. The story: Dog 'Enzo' is owned by a young man who is apparently a talented race car driver, and who works at an auto repair shop for his day job. I'm now free to post about it, because we discussed it yesterday. I've seen it prominently displayed in book stores and at Target (which doesn't carry very many books, so each one you see there is pretty popular).

A woman approached my mother at church and insisted she read it so they could talk about it. Maybe it's just oddly ubiquitous in general. For a book 'written' by a dog about NASCAR racing, this book is oddly ubiquitous.

Dog book racing in the rain