Grogan’s ‘Marley’ is a fetching tale of love

By TRACY GRANT

“Marley: A Dog Like No Other” by John Grogan (Harper Collins, 196 pages, with photographs). Ages 8 and older.

The story of Marley, the lovable, laughable Labrador retriever, started as a series of columns in a newspaper. It then became a best-selling book for adults called “Marley and Me,” followed by a movie of the same name. Now, that dog-owning newspaper columnist, John Grogan, has created a kids version of his family’s life with “man’s best friend.”

It is the perfect book to start off our nonfiction summer book club because it proves that real stories can be as funny, exciting, adventurous and sad as any work of fiction.

“Marley” is a biography, a book that tells about a life. Usually that’s the life of a person, but not always. “Marley” is a special type of biography called a memoir, which is written by someone close to the subject of the book.

The story of Marley is one of unconditional love: the kind of slobbering, messy love that an incredibly loyal dog shares with his family and the love the family gives back.

Unconditional love is hard. Marley’s family loved him even as he tore apart sofas, howled at thunderstorms and ate precious jewelry. But as Grogan writes toward the end of the book, “Sometimes it takes a dog with stinky breath and bad manners to help us see what really counts in life.”

You’ll laugh at Marley’s antics. Maybe some of them will remind you of your own pet. There might be parts of this story that make you want to cry. But that’s okay, because as Grogan writes, “When you have love, most of the other pieces fall into place.”