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Marley & Me

By admin • Jan 10th, 2009 • Category: Movies Reviews

Overview

Told in first-person narrative, the book portrays Grogan and his family’s life during the thirteen years that they lived with their dog Marley, and the relationships and lessons from this period. Marley, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is described as a highly strung, boisterous, and somewhat uncontrolled dog. He is strong, powerful, endlessly hungry, eager to be active, and often destructive of their property (but completely without malice). Marley routinely fails to “get the idea” of what humans expect of him and at one point the comment is made that mental illness might be a plausible explanation for his behavior. His acts and behaviors are forgiven, however, 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.

Reception

The eulogy written by the author in his newspaper following the death of their dog is described as receiving more responses than any other column he had written in his professional life up until that point.

Adaptations

Marley & Me has been rewritten into three different books. One being for younger readers who would enjoy reading about Marley’s story, minus the sexual content in the original book. The book is called Marley: A Dog Like No Other. The second book is a picture book for readers learning to read in lower grade levels called Bad Dog, Marley!. The third book is called A Very Marley Christmas.

In 2008, the novel was adapted into a family-dramedy, also titled Marley & Me. Released on December 25, 2008, the film stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston and is directed by David Frankel.