** spoiler alert ** 
 What sentimental nonsense. And let it be known that I'm not just saying this because the book is narrated from the point of view of a heavily and in the end (view spoiler)[literally anthropomorphized animal. Yes, the dog is reincarnated as a human in the end. (hide spoiler)]. I mean, I loved this popular New Yorker short story narrated by an elementary class's pet hamster http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/si..., for example. No, this book is nonsense because it features flimsy, delusionally irrational people as its heroes, and a dog who (this is important) is never convincing as an anthropomorphized animal; that is to say, it's not Stein's cutesy conceit, it's his execution. 
 I've never found something so intent on being positive and uplifting so entirely hateful. I can see why enough Americans loved it to make it a bestseller - people here get crazy about humanized pet narratives. A lot of the reviews are clearly from that special type of pet owner who gets unsatirically teary-eyed imagining their beloved Spot or Fido thinking about identity, existence, happiness and love. You know which type of person I'm talking about: the ones who, when asked whether they would save a stranger or their dog from a sinking ship, would unhesitatingly choose their dog and not be deeply embarrassed to say so. 
 This book, to me, was a male version of "Twilight" - not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm all about wish-fulfillment through art; but why is it treated by critics and the media as anything more than the fairy-tale tripe that it is? In any case, read this book if you think that dogs are exactly like miniature people, like cloying cliches about changing reality with the mystical powers of your mind, have a spiritual connection with race cars, believe doctors are inherently evil, and think that women are the source of all men's unhappiness.