We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.Įveryone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). Please, no sequels! Only the most alarmingly devoted dog lovers should bother with this one. Marley died at age 13, and the book ends with the Grogans thinking of adopting another puppy.

He’s like those people who prattle on about every single blessed thing their kids do-except in this case, it’s a dog. But it feels as if Grogan has mistaken Marley for his first baby. Jenny got pregnant again-maybe it was because Marley sometimes lolled around in bed with the Grogans during their basal-temperature-ovulation-calendar-we-must-have-sex-right-this-second drill-sessions-and ultimately carried two pregnancies to term. (Blessedly, the author only reproduces three-and-a-half of those pages here.) Marley appeared in a movie, The Last Home Run. When the Grogans went on a trip, they left a six-page memo about Marley’s care with the colleague who agreed to dog-sit. He developed a fear of thunder, which the Grogans discussed seriously with a vet. And on it went: Marley got kicked out of obedience class. Jenny got pregnant, but miscarried she embraced not only John but also Marley in her grief. Within a few weeks, the Grogans felt confident about their caretaking ability and tossed their birth control in the trash. John adores the reggae tempo of Marley’s tail-wagging and enjoys playing tug-of-war with him. Hence Marley, a lovable Labrador retriever.

Jenny, who had recently killed a houseplant (a “lovely large dieffenbachia with emerald-and-cream variegated leaves”), thought she needed to brush up on her maternal skills before she tried to have a baby. The author and his wife still qualified as newlyweds-they’d been married just over a year-when they decided to adopt a dog.

Marley & me book