Marley & Me

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
By John Grogan
HarperCollins Publishing, 2005

When I spotted the title on this book, my first reaction was "Pardon me, Johnny, but I beg to differ. There is NO way your Marley could be worse than our JJ." Seriously -- I loved our old Australian shepherd/blue heeler mix, but he was definitely a bad dog. Any dog who attacks the vacuum cleaner, nips your heels wherever you go, rips off the kids' shoes as they board the bus, swallows pancakes whole, eats Ziplock bags, and wages an ongoing war with the UPS man cannot be honestly called "Good Dog."

Having completed Marley & Me, I must now concede that Marley could have given JJ a decent run for his money.

Marley & Me chronicles the life of Marley, a Labrador retriever adopted by John and Jenny Grogan as a puppy. Like most puppies, Marley starts out as a lovable ball of fluff. However, like all puppies, he grows up... and becomes a holy terror. He swipes valuables (combs, chess pieces, used Kleenex, paychecks, and on one memorable occasion a gold necklace) and hides them in his mouth, occasionally swallowing them. He shamelessly swipes food, sometimes right off of children's plates. He crashes through screen doors. He tears through solid wood doors when locked inside during a thunderstorm. Once he arrives home carrying a pair of women's panties in his mouth. He is a walking disaster, a ball of endless energy, an obedience school expellee, a movie star (in a straight-to-video release, granted, but still...), a financial black hole... and a beloved member of the family.

Having had several dogs in my family, I found myself laughing fondly and nodding in agreement many times throughout the course of Marley & Me. I'm sure anyone who has ever befriended "man's best friend" can identify with John Grogan's trials and escapades as he first tries (unsuccessfully) to control Marley's exuberant nature and (quite successfully) integrates this precocious animal into his family. Grogan's writing style is easily accessible, witty, and fun (though this is only natural, as he was originally a newspaper columnist).

Highly recommended for dog lovers, breeders, or anyone who's ever known a dog.

The Last Unicorn

NOTE: This entry was originally posted on February 3, but for some reason never showed up on the blog. Here is the entry.

And yes, I have been reading, don't worry. Just haven't found anything decent enough to warrant a review yet...

The Last Unicorn
By Peter S. Beagle
ROC, a division of Penguin Books, 1968, reprinted 1991

When the last eagle flies
Over the last crumbling mountain
And the last lion roars
At the last dusty fountain
In the shadows of the forest
Though she may be old and worn
They will stare, unbelieving
At the last unicorn...

Despite my obvious passion for Star Wars, one movie remains close to my heart, closer even than my favorite space saga. Animated by the same folks who brought us the old "Lord of the Rings" movies, "The Last Unicorn" was a mainstay of my childhood. Even today I can almost quote the movie by heart word for word; singing or hearing the theme song performed by America (the "Horse With No Name" folks) still moves me almost to tears; hearing Christopher Lee's voice in "Attack of the Clones" will forever remind me of the pitifully twisted King Haggard. And my joy knew no bounds when, years after the rental store that carried "The Last Unicorn" closed down, a family member tracked down the DVD version for me.

But when I learned the movie was based on a book, I decided to check out the source. After all, as the title of my blog suggests, few books-turned-to-movies are even comparable to their source material. If my childhood movie was good, then the book had to be better, right?

I'm happy to say that the book was indeed better... and yet the movie was so faithful to the book that it was almost a novelization rather than source material, and the film remains a classic in my mind.

When the first breath of winter
Through the flowers is icing
And you look to the north
And a pale moon is rising
And it seems like all is dying
And will leave the world to mourn
In the distance, hear the laughter
Of the last unicorn
I'm alive... I'm alive...

A single unicorn, guardian of a lilac wood, overhears a hunter describing her as the last unicorn. Unwilling to believe this, she leaves her enchanted home to find out the truth. Along the way, she is joined by Shmendrick, a magician whose magic is unpredictable at best, and Molly Grue, a cynical woman who is nonetheless willing to believe in the unicorn. Together, they seek out the fearsome Red Bull, which is said to serve a tyrannical king in a blighted kingdom and has chased all the unicorns to some fearsome fate. And in the course of her travels, the unicorn will taste, for the first time, the wonders of sorrow, fear, mortality... and love.

Beagle's prose is sheer poetry from beginning to end. Unlike most authors, who may have a dozen or so outstanding lines in a work, Beagle fills The Last Unicorn with so many such lines that it's impossible to pick out one or two I think are exemplary. His work is gentle and beautiful, his characters are delightful to know, and his landscape is so vividly painted that it's almost readily visible in the mind. He has created a fairy tale, no mean feat in a day and age that generally dismisses fairy tales.

As a child, I loved "The Last Unicorn" as a visual treat. Now, in my adulthood, I love The Last Unicorn as a last hurrah to the art of the fairy tale.

When the last moon is cast
Over the last star of morning
And the future is past
Without even a last desperate warning
Then you look into the sky
Where through the clouds a path is torn
Look and see her, how she sparkles
She's the last unicorn
I'm alive... I'm alive... I'm alive!!!