I'm not sure what I was expecting of a tale told from a dog's point
of view, but I certainly wasn't expecting something this wonderful,
moving, tender, or bittersweet.
This is the story of Enzo, a dog owned by Denny Swift during the
pivotal years of Denny's life. Denny is a gifted car racer with a
wife and child, and Enzo is a dog educated by television and his
powerful intuitions on the world around him. Enzo relates to the
world in deft metaphors about car racing, scents, and using his
limited expressive abilities (if he only had a tongue that worked
to make words!), and he tells the tale of Denny's life, and Enzo's
own, in a beautiful, loving way that will grab you along for the
ride.
The only criticism I can say has nothing to do with the writing,
but with the publisher's choice of cover - very early on, Enzo
describes himself, and the dog on the cover is not that
"brown-black" dog with "wiry fur." Could it have been that hard to
find a cover that was representative? It seems like such a small
thing...
Enzo longs for an opposable thumb, an expressive voice, and a
little bit of dignity, and to help. The story, which left me
absolutely choked up, is told well, and I couldn't stop reading
from start to finish in two days, at every available quiet moment.