Good stores play the heart strings like a violin.
The New York Times nonfiction bestseller, Marley and Me, is a genuine Stradivarius. Its only emotional peer: The Yearling.
The book, written by newspaper and magazine journalist John Grogan, traces a family’s 13-year experiences with “the world’s worst dog.”
Marley was a yellow Labrador retriever with boundless energy and affection from puppyhood to elderhood.
Grogan, his wife and their three children take Marley’s eyebrow-raising antics in comedic stride.
Marley’s victims are countless door screens, sheetrock walls, leashes and other devices poorly designed to contain a determined 100-pound slobber machine.
He flunks obedience school, uses his tongue to open crate latches and even drags an outdoor table through an upscale dining area in pursuit of a pampered poodle.
Marley’s soulful expressions never fail to melt the coldest heart in this 292-page read. (9 APRIL 2006)
