Synopsis from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marley_and_me:
Marley & Me is a The New York Times best seller autobiographical book by the journalist John Grogan. It portrays his and his family's life during the thirteen years that they lived with their Labrador Retriever, Marley, and the relationships and lessons from this period.
Marley himself is portrayed, in line with his American Labrador lineage, as a highly strung, boisterous, and somewhat uncontrolled dog. He is strong, powerful, endlessly hungry and eager to be active, often destructive of their property (completely without malice) or otherwise embarrasses them, and routinely fails to "get the idea" of what humans expect of him. At one point the comment is made, perhaps partly in jest, that mental illness might be a plausible explanation for his behavior. However his acts and behaviors are forgiven since it is clear that he has a heart of gold and is merely living within his nature.
The strong contrast between the problems and tensions caused by his neuroses and behavior, and the undying devotion, love and trust shown towards the human family as they themselves have children and grow up to accept him for what he is, and their grief when he finally dies in old age, form the backdrop for the biographical material of the story.
Excerpt:
In the days immediately after we buried Marley, the whole family went silent. The animal that was the amusing target of so many hours of conversation and stories over the years had become a taboo topic. We were trying to return our lives to normal, and speaking t of him only made it harder. Collen in particular could not bear to hear his name or see his photos. Tears would well in her eyes and she would clench her fists and say angrily, "I don't want to talk about him!"...
It was an amazing concept that I was only now, in the wake of his death, fully absorbing: Marley as mentor. As teacher and role model . Was it possible for a dog- any dog, but especially a nutty, wildly uncontrollable one like ours - to point humans to the things that really mattered in life? I believed it was. Loyalty. Courage. Devotion. Simplicity. Joy. And the things that did not matter, too. A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbol mean nothing to him. A water logged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their colour or creed or class but by who they are inside., A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not. As I wrote that farewell column to Marley, I realized it was all right there in front of us., if only we opened our eyes, Sometimes,m it took a dog with bad breath,m worse manners, and pure intentions to help us see.
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