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Philadelphia Inquirer Reviews Marley & Me
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
As regular readers of this website have figured out, I am a metro columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Because of that, our staff book editor farmed out Marley & Me to a freelance book reviewer so there would be no appearance of a conflict of interest. The freelance review appeared in today's Inquirer along with a 900-word excerpt from the book. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12928216.htm
Running beneath the headline, "The dog years, with Marley the mauler," here's what reviewer Marietta Dunn wrote:
Anyone who has ever loved a dog unconditionally - no matter how balky, how wild, how untrainable - will instantly identify with the trials and travails in Inquirer columnist John Grogan's heartfelt and frequently hilarious Marley & Me.
It's been a long time since a book has made me laugh out loud, but Grogan's wry look at his family's 13 years with Marley, a great galumphing goof of a yellow Labrador retriever, is bursting with wacky anecdotes. So funny were many of them that I found myself reading passages to my husband as we commiserated with the Grogan family's Marley mishaps and congratulated ourselves that the five Scottish terriers we have owned in 30-plus years of marriage weren't really such troublemakers after all.
Grogan and his wife, Jenny, were newlyweds in South Florida when, almost on a whim, they answered a newspaper ad and bought puppy Marley from a backyard breeder. They met his placid mother and were impressed. But, once the deal was done and they were on their way to the car, they were startled to see a manic yellow blur come bounding from the trees, breathing like the hound from hell. Yes, it was Marley's dad. And the Grogans began to wonder uneasily which parent's personality their new pet had inherited.
It didn't take long for them to discover that Marley took after his father. He grew huge, almost 100 pounds of muscle, and he really didn't have a brain in his head. He was energy personified, no matter who tried to hold him back. He got a running start and barreled into people. He crashed through closed screen doors. He once managed to wriggle through the car window in traffic. He was kicked out of obedience school; even the trainer whom Grogan labeled "Miss Dominatrix" couldn't handle Marley. A choke chain didn't faze him, especially when a good-looking little poodle was across the way.
He ate everything in sight, from the ripe mangoes in the yard to the Grogan children's toy soldiers, and he even swallowed Jenny Grogan's 18-karat-gold necklace, leaving John to spend four days following Marley through the yard with a shovel, just waiting for the necklace to reappear.
Worst of all, Marley was terrified of thunderstorms, and in South Florida, where they happen all the time, that was not a good thing. In his terror, Marley tore up whatever space he was in. Grogan says the family could have bought a small yacht for what it cost to repair Marley's damage over the years. Even tranquilizers couldn't completely calm him down.
But the book is so much more than a recitation of Marley's misdeeds. It's also the chronicle of a new marriage and a growing family, and how Marley, for all his rambunctious behavior, became such an integral part of that family. To the children who began arriving, two boys and a girl, Marley was a different dog, a "gentle giant" who watched over them and let them climb all over him and pull his ears. They adored him, and the feeling was mutual, even though, love or no love, he stole the food right off their plates.
Grogan's book reminds me of Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small in the way that it gets at the heart of the animal-human bond, with humor and with pathos, in a deeply personal manner. Like Herriot, Grogan is a born storyteller. He has the ability to let us know Marley as if he were - gulp - our very own. He brings us humor as he describes the many outings-gone-awry with Marley, and he brings us to tears as he recounts the bravery with which Marley faces his declining years.
The Labrador retriever is the number-one dog in America and has been for many years. But you don't have to own a Lab to relish this book. Marley & Me is for every dog owner who has ever managed to let love overcome exasperation, and who realizes that a dog's loyalty far outweighs its flaws. As Grogan writes of Marley:
"Marley had earned his place in our family. Like a quirky but beloved uncle, he was what he was. He would never be Lassie or Benji or Old Yeller; he would never reach Westminster or even the county fair. We knew that now. We accepted him for the dog he was, and loved him all the more for it."
posted by John Grogan at 12:50 PM
 
2 Comments:
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Dear John Grogan,
I just finished "Marley and Me" I was interested in sending you a message, but not knowing what to say that hasn't been repeated a million times by now. Well, my dog's mother was a rottweiler, and his father was black lab-pitbull mix. He is now 9 years old at about 125-130 lbs. He is all lab (with a few rottweiler-brown highlights.) His name- BEAR. Again, he is all bull-in-a-china shop lab. He can't be walked. He chases trucks, anything with a loud muffler, deer, cats, rabbits, etc., etc. If anyone is holding his leash while he feels the urge to "charge" well, they're going with him. He once dragged me about 10 feet, over an iron fence, to chase a deer. I finally just 'let go' of the leash. (I still have the scar.) This is his normal behavior. We've tied him to trees with cables made "for large dogs", they have a "4000 lb test". We have to replace them two or three times a year. Well, it was a great book to read. Thank you for sharing your Marley tales with me and the rest of the world. I enjoyed every bit of it (except for the part where she had to be put down). I've had to put down three dogs and two cats in my life and it never gets any easier. Thank you again for sharing your story with me and the rest of the world and really making me look at what real love is.
For the attention of John Grogan the Philadelphia Inquirer:
I have just finished a long treatment of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant here in the Department of Haemotology in Haifa's Rambam Hospital in Israel. During this time between twilight sleep and feeling unwell 'Marley and Me' was a wonderful distraction, and source of amusement. On my 'off' days friends read it aloud and one couldn't help but smile.
I am home now and have just finished the final chapters. I just cried and cried, the first time since I went through the whole treatment process. I think it helped me deal with my own fear of dying (actually I'm getting better by the day) and it was certainly a therapeutic read. Of course we are also owner's of a most loveable golden retriever, Rosie, who gives and receives a lot of affection from us and the children , and since I've been back home takes it seriously to sit vigil outside my bedroom whilst I'm resting!
Bless you for writing such an endearing book.
Sincerely yours,
Judith Luder