“If there’s any advice I have, it’s ‘Don’t do what I did’,” said John Grogan, columnist for the Inquirer and author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog (HarperCollins). “I don’t hold myself in any way to be an expert.”
Surprisingly, people seem to be heeding his advice and yet, somehow, the experience is drawing them closer together. People are coming to Grogan with their dog stories; confessionals, funny tales, touching tales and weepy-eye tales. Apparently Grogan’s outlook on the playful Marley has sent him flying up to the top of best-seller lists and made him a sort of local hero or, as Grogan calls himself, the “unofficial chairman and spiritual leader of the dysfunctional dog owners of America.”
The book, an entertainingly intimate memoir, was a huge Christmas seller and is already into its 17th printing, but there is so much more than just the book at play here. Readers happily post pictures of their own dysfunctional dogs on Amazon.com and the Marley & Me web site, as well as sharing their own dog tales. Apparently, the world is all too happy to embrace a less-than-perfect dog owner and sympathize with the blunders that come from being a novice pet parent.
No time to read? Snag a copy of Marley & Me on audio CD!
