Marley & Me by John Grogan

 

            What’s so good about reading a memoir about a dog?  That’s the only thing I could think of when friends told me to read “Marley & Me.”  I have a golden retriever, and I know how crazy the labs and retrievers can be.  Well, here’s where being part of a book club has its advantages.  I don’t pick all the books we read, and that forces me to read books I would not normally read and halleluiah to that.

 

            “Marley & Me” is a good choice for book club because we all, in some form or another have had pets – and its fun to share pet stories about them.  Not all book club meetings have to be labor intensive with all of society’s ills – they should be fun too! 

 

            I laughed out loud at some parts of the book and cried at the end.  Marley was a real dog living with real people, and I believe that makes this book so much more endearing.  Also, the author John Grogan is a journalist and knows how to tell a tale – well. 

 

             Grogan, a trained observer, credits Marley with teaching him about the joy of every moment in life with his big tail flapping and his unbridled enthusiasm.  If we all felt the way a lab did about life (with the exceptions of thunder storms), maybe we would live happier lives.  These observances are excellent discussions for book club. Grogan wanted to say goodbye in the only way a writer can and that is to write.  He tries to explain the affect Marley had on his life and he sums up what he learned with a beautiful and heartfelt column for his newspaper (p. 279 in paperback).   The column received so many responses that Grogan realized he had touched a nerve, and the book eventually followed. 

 

            Movie:  If you go to see the movie and haven’t read the book – the story would seem like a sweet memoir of a favorite pet.  The emphasis in the movie seems to be on John Grogan (Owen Wilson).  The book is clearly a story about Marley, this wild, absolutely-crazy dog, and told through Grogan as the observer – not the observed.  The facts in the movie are very different from the book.  The movie lacks the depth of the book, turning the story into a simple comedy with a sad ending.  Grogan wrote what he felt and what he learned, and that didn’t translate well on film. 

 

Rating: 7.5 (book)     Movie:  6