The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.
My Thoughts: Someone recommended this book to me and gave me their copy to read so I felt obliged, specially as I'd already seen the film and figured the book would probably be better. Oh how wrong I was.
John Grogan comes across as arrogant and abrupt in this book and I didn't find him particularly likeable. It seems that he was a pretty bad dog owner too. He found an amount of amusement in strangling Marley on a choker-chain as one example, never had time for the dog as both he and his wife worked all day, left him in a metal cage completely terrified when thunderstorms passed over, bundled him onto an airplane in a crate that was too small for him, went on holiday whilst the dog was in medical care on his last legs... and none of this is anything to rave about. I don't quite understand how anyone could find this kind of behaviour endearing.
By the same token, Marley actually didn't come across very well either and I didn't get a warm feeling for this dog as much as I expected to. I love dogs, but I thought that there would be something amazing about him that would make a brilliant read. Marley just seemed hungry, destructive, scared and boisterous with no particularly admirable or special qualities at all.
In short; a normal dog in a normal house being looked after by normal people. Not the kind of stuff great biographies are made of. Quite disappointing.
I'd recommend leaving the book to gather dust.
I RATED THIS 2/10
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