''Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog'' is an autobiographical book by journalist

John Grogan John Joseph Grogan ( ; born March 20, 1957) is an American journalist and non-fiction writer. His memoir ''Marley & Me'' (2005), was a very best selling book, about his family's dog, Marley, in real life. Early life Grogan was born to a Catholi ...

, published in 2005, about the 13 years he and his family spent with their yellow Labrador Retriever, Marley. The dog is poorly behaved and destructive, and the book covers the issues this causes in the family as they learn to accept him in addition to their grief following Marley's death. It was subsequently adapted by the author into three separate books, as well as into a

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

released in 2008.

Story

Told in

first-person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, ...

, the book portrays Grogan and his family's life during the 13 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 high-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; at one point, mental illness is suggested as 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. Marley was filmed for a two-minute credited appearance in the 1996 movie ''

The Last Home Run ''The Last Home Run'' is a 1996 film directed by Bob Gosse. It tells the story of Jonathan Lyle, an elderly man in a nursing home (played by Seymour Cassel) who is transformed by a mystic, for five days, into a 12-year-old boy (played by Thomas G ...

''. 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 from

gastric dilatation volvulus Gastric dilatation volvulus (GDV), also known as gastric dilation, twisted stomach, or gastric torsion, is a medical condition that affects dogs in which the stomach becomes overstretched and rotated by excessive gas content. The word bloat is o ...

(a stomach torsion condition) in old age, form the backdrop for the biographical material of the story. In the autobiography, the author states that the eulogy he wrote in his

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

following the death of his dog received 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: * ''Marley: A Dog Like No Other'', for younger readers who would enjoy reading about Marley's story, without the sexual content in the original * ''Bad Dog, Marley!'', a picture book for readers learning to read in lower grade levels * ''A Very Marley Christmas'' In 2008, the novel was adapted into a family comedy-drama motion picture, also titled ''

Marley & Me ''Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog'' is an autobiographical book by journalist John Grogan, published in 2005, about the 13 years he and his family spent with their yellow Labrador Retriever, Marley. The dog is poorly be ...

''. Released on December 25, 2008, the film stars

Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for '' Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and ''The Royal ...

and

Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since her career ...

and is directed by

David Frankel David Frankel (born April 2, 1959) is an American filmmaker. Most known as the director of 2006 film, '' The Devil Wears Prada'', he is an executive producer and the director of the first and fourth episodes of the Netflix miniseries ''Inventing ...

. A prequel followed in 2011, '' Marley & Me: The Puppy Years''.

Author's comments

In a discussion on his website devoted to the book, Grogan looks back on his family's time with Marley, and the lessons learned, and concludes that: " mmitment matters. That 'in good times and bad, in sickness and in health' really means something. We didn't give up on Marley when it would have been easy to, and in the end he came through and proved himself a great and memorable pet."

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marley and Me 2005 American novels American autobiographical novels Animals and humans American novels adapted into films American memoirs HarperCollins books