Summer Reading Blog: Marley and Me

Marley and Me

By John Grogan

By I would strongly recommend this book to everyone because it is a simple read, but it is also one of the most emotional provoking books I have read. John Grogan does a great job of telling the story on a personal level allowing you to relate and experience what he’s feeling throughout the different events of the story, happy or sad. This book is all the more personal if you have or have had a dog. For example; during the part of the novel when Grogan and his wife come home to find that their new puppy Marley has torn apart their garage and chewed a hole in the dry wall, you cant help but think back to the time when your dog was a puppy and remembering all the times you came home and it had chewed up your moms favorite leather shoes or rustled through the garbage and some how managed to spread it across the entire garage floor! As well as being able to match Grogan’s thoughts to the look on your mothers face when you had to walk her to the garage and show her what the little innocent, cute new member of your family had done! One last reason to read this book is that, it teaches you the importance of the little things in life and that times can be hard but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter the situation. Sometimes you don’t feel like you deserve the problems that life throws your way, but learning to juggle those challengers is what life is about.

That afternoon John and Jenny’s curiosity could wait no longer and they made there way to the animal shelter to visit Lucky, a dog similar to the one that was so missed in their family. Walking into the shelter they were simply going to look, just to see if Lucky, the dog that was ‘full of zip’ was really Marley’s long last twin after all? But surely enough when they left, they were followed by a large yellow lab, tongue dripping with saliva and tail wagging so fast you could barely see it.

Merely minutes after they drove away from the shelter Lucky had jumped over the back seat and was drooling down John’s neck in an attempt to join him in the front seat. Instantly all the disastrous memories of Marley came rushing back, but what over powered them, were all of the good ones. The times that Marley had been there, a shoulder to cry on when there was no one else that would understand, the times that he played with the kids and the laughed and pointed as we chased his tail. Those were the things that would not be forgotten and the times john was sure Lucky would recreate maybe not with the same spirit as Marley but they were sure to bring love and laughter.

This narrative of the future comes after Jenny shows John an article in the paper of this dog lucky who they both thought was identical looking to Marley and had very similar characteristics as well. The thought of having that fun loving character in there house again was irresistible and at that moment they both decided there was no harm in simply going to look at the dog.