I cried like a baby at the end of John Grogan's Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog[Morrow, Nov.]. We've been passing this galley around, and everyone loves it so much that we've started calling it Tuesdays with Marley. I have a feeling that it will appeal to people looking for a good, simple story with honest emotions. Some books today are so complicated that we forget the power of a good story well told, and that's what this book is all about. The book is actually created from a decade's worth of essays that Grogan wrote for a newspaper column. It begins with Grogan and his wife buying a loving but destructive puppy, Marley, who can't be trained and is literally tearing their home and lives apart. The book spans Marley's life from puppyhood to debilitating old age. It's a fairly simple and straightforward structure, but it holds together. It's not something I would have normally picked up, but Grogan's funny and moving story grabbed me. Good books evoke an emotion from you, and this one certainly does that.
Galley Talk
Amanda Snook, marketing manager, Schuler Books, Lansing, Mich.
Sep 16, 2005
A version of this article appeared in the 09/19/2005 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: