Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Share your thoughts: “Marley & Me”

Marley & Me

For John and Jenny Grogan, Marley began as a fluffy yellow experiment. As a newlywed couple, they chose the Labrador retriever puppy to test their nurturing skills — a dry run for a future baby.

Marley ended up being a metaphor for their married life for the next 15 years.

The dog, which the title dubs as “the world’s worst,” prompts a young-marrieds fight over his name. He interferes with the process of creating the first Grogan baby in a hilarious way, and his influence is felt during the birth of the following two siblings as well.

The incorrigible nature of Marley makes the book engaging from start to finish. He is happily misbehaved, responding to transgressions with a wag that begins at his tail and takes over his entire body.

Grogan neatly weaves in the dog’s tales with the family’s. Marley’s growth and eventual aging reminds Grogan of our own passage through life. It’s hard not to cry when the couple have to make the difficult decision all dog owners face when their companion’s health fails. By that time, it feels personal.

As many writers do, Grogan processes his grief through his words. He writes about Marley for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he is a metro columnist, and in the process he defines Marley’s place in his family’s life.

“It was an amazing concept that I was only now, in the wake of his death, fully absorbing: Marley as mentor. As teacher and role model. Was it possible for a dog — any dog, but especially a nutty, wildly uncontrollable one like ours — to point humans to the things that really mattered in life?”

As readers find out in this book that followed the column, the answer is yes.

Have you read the book? Leave your thoughts in the comments area below.

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