Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. Now with photos and new material … Product details and pricing info |
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1361 Customer Reviews Posted
- Marley and Me
- Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
It is a good book - but certainly not a great book as portrayed by some.
You can love your pet, but this is above and beyond. Even past the realm of truth. - 2008-09-07, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A Heartwarming 5 Hanky Read
- The one moral to this story is that you should always listen to Connie Brockway. (As much as it pains me to admit it!) She warned me that if I read this book, I would be crying for WEEKS. Then my Uncle Buddy, a 6' 2" bastion of male machismo confessed that he had bawled like a baby when reading the end of the book. But I thought, "Hey, I watch ER every week! I'm tough! I can handle this!"
So I picked up the book and started crying during the PREFACE. Okay, I'm lying, I actually started sniveling when I was looking at the puppy pictures of Marley on the inside front cover. Perhaps Kevin Bacon said it best in MY DOG SKIP--"A dog is just a heartbreak waiting to happen." Until they invent dogs with the 90-year life spans of parrots, we all know there can be only one ending to a great dog story. And MARLEY AND ME is truly a great dog story.
But MARLEY AND ME won't just make you cry. It will make you smile and it will make you laugh out loud and it will make you wonder why you didn't think to write a book about your ill-behaved monster of a dog so you could warm the cockles of America and make a bazillion dollars. It will also make you remember all of those fine dogs who have blessed your own life through the years. Those with spirits so sweet they seemed almost human and those who ate your throw rugs, swallowed your diamond necklace, and dragged your Tampax out of the garbage for the neighbors to see.
MARLEY AND ME is more than a story about a dog. It's a story about the young marriage of John and Jenny and the changes they go through as they add not only Marley, but three precious children to their lives. John Grogan is a columnist and former editor of Rodale's ORGANIC GARDENING magazine. His prose is fine and spare and made me reluctant to put the book down. I read it in two lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons and yes, I read the ending with a box of Kleenex sitting on my chest and Connie's number on my speed dial.
The true moral of Marley's story is that there is something fine and beautiful about loving something (and someone) who is imperfect. That perhaps more joy and delight can be found in embracing someone's flaws than in trying to "fix" them. And if nothing else, reading about Marley--a dog who was diagnosed as certifiably insane even by doggie standards--may make you appreciate your own dog (or especially your cat!) even more. - 2008-09-07, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- is a bad dog ever a bad dog?
- good book. not exactly a "dog book"...more about life's experience's/family/pregnancy/children and Marley is there too. Truly from beginning to end, adoption to old age. Best chapter is authors reflection on dog ownership. 13 years of coming home to a wagging tail etc.. touching
- 2008-09-07, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- AFun Book
- My Daughter gave me this book to read and was it fun. I was reading it on the plane and started laughing out loud as I could relate to some of Marley's antics. It is easy to read and very enjoyable. He may have been a bad boy but loveable and loyal to the very end.
- 2008-09-07, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Meh
- Having raised several Labradors from puppyhood to senescence, I was quite taken by Marley's hilarious and ultimately tragic tale. Grogan perfectly describes the incredible stubbornness and insanity of a Labrador's temperament. As for the rest of the book: I'm sure in the author's mind, the story of the his marriage/family/career is inseparable from the story of his dog, but... it was totally self-absorbed and utterly banal. His thoughts on mortality and the legacy of 9/11 were one of the most trite, sentimental, unoriginal things I have ever read. He'd do well writing for the NYPost.
- 2008-09-06, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
