Sunday, April 12, 2009

Weekly Book Pick

This week's book pick is Marley and me by John Grogan. As you all probably know, this is also a recent movie that has come out on DVD. I finally just got around to seeing the movie this weekend (it was in my Easter basket!), but I'd read the book a few weeks ago. 

Synopsis:
John and Jenny were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy—and their life would never be the same. Marley quickly grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound steamroller of a Labrador retriever who crashed through screen doors, flung drool on guests, stole women's undergarments, devoured couches and fine jewelry, and was expelled from obedience school. Yet Marley's heart was pure, and he remained a steadfast model of love and devotion for a growing family through pregnancy, birth, heartbreak, and joy, right to the inevitable goodbye.

Review:
I figured that this would be a pretty predictable story: puppy comes home, puppy chews things, family grows to love puppy, puppy dies. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how hilarious the writing was and how much family background the author contained in the narrative. It is a true story and I fell in love with both the irresistible puppy (Marley) and the family. I laughed when Marley ate through the drywall, cried when Jenny had her miscarriage, laughed harder at Marley at the dog beach, cried when Marley got sick, and was so emotionally invested in the story of this beautiful family that I couldn't bring myself to see the movie until now, knowing that I would bawl through the whole thing. And bawl I did, but in a good, happy, loving way. 

Bonus Features:

I found this "I Can Read" book for Harry at Target, so he got this in his Easter basket yesterday as well. He was super excited, as it has pictures from the movie, so he got to follow along in his book while we watched it.


This book is hilarious, and another spinoff. We've actually had this book for a few years, Harry was first learning to talk when we got it, and would follow along as we read it saying, "no, NO, puppy!" It was sooo cute and lovable. 


And of course, the movie. We bought it, but I'm sure you could rent/blockbuster/netflix your way to seeing it as well. Enjoy and stay close to the tissues. :)



3 comments:

Kim said...

I saw the movie and LOVED it! I laughed and cried. I really liked how realistic it was. The perfect, clean, cute house to the messy, destroyed, filled with kids house. I even liked how they actually fought and about stupid things just becasue she was TIRED! Now I want to watch it all over again!

Marty, Rhenda and Anna said...

I'll have to check out the book. I bought the movie too thinking it would be cute to watch with Anna. Way tooo long for her. We all laughed and cried too (me more than others). I hate when animals die!

Tiffany said...

So now that you have seen the movie and read the book, you can understand what I mean when I say that our golden/lab mix is Marley's brother. He pulled up and ate the linoleum in our pantry a few days ago. Brad wasn't too pleased and actually said we we're getting rid of Kiko (they were cuddling a few hours later of course!) But I cried during the movie too. :)