Don't get me wrong: I love dogs and I love the idea of telling a story from the perspective of a dog. (Not a new idea, but a good one.) I'm not particularly interested in racing cars - but... if a story is well told, I can get interested in just about anything. I bought this book based on the raving reviews on amazon.com. I know a lot of people seem to get very enthusiastic about this story. Many find the perspective well rendered and the book full of humor.
I disagree. I find Enzo, the dog narrator, is really a bit of a bore. I understand that he is an old dog as he is telling the story, but he tells it in retrospect so that he was young when he was experiencing it.
He is so concerned with behaving like a human that he forgets his dogginess... there is no goofiness about him, he never has fun with other dogs, does not get as happily excited as dogs do nor as upset as they can...
Also, I find his perspective is not credible. If you choose to write from a dog's perspective, you really need to imagine the different sensory perception that dogs have. For dogs, the world is full of exciting smells and sounds. The dog in this novel only sees and thinks and describes.
As to the human characters - where is their development? There seems to be clear cut good (Denny, who really behaves very irresponsibly towards his wife and daughter) and bad (Eve's, the wife's, parents). And not much change inbetween.
If the book gets much better in the second half, please forgive me - I managed to finish a little more than half of it and then decided to give up. I decided to write this review for people who want to hear a different opinion - I'm glad so many people love it, but I was disappointed. Three stars because the style and general composition are clear and convincing.
I find the following authors do a much more convincing job of rendering a dog's perspective: Melvin Burgess in "Lady - My Life As a Bitch" and Alexander McCall Smith in the 44 Scotland Street series (Angus's dog Cyril).