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Chapter 32
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Art of Racing in the Rain, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
What It Means to Be Human
Language and Storytelling
Love and Family
Illness and Death
Destiny and Spirituality
Summary
Analysis
Enzo explains to the reader that what happened to Denny concerning the custody suit and the criminal rape charges weren't witnessed by Enzo directly. He says the events took almost three years, as Maxwell and Trish wanted to deplete Denny's bank account and destroy his desire to win. Enzo says he only attended a few meetings with Mark Fein, and only when they occurred at Mark's favorite coffee shop. He admits that much of the story that follows is reconstructed from the knowledge that Enzo was able to compile from overheard conversations and the legal and courtroom procedures he's aware of thanks to watching Law and Order and its many spinoffs on TV, as well as The Rockford Files, Columbo, The Verdict, and 12 Angry Men. Finally, he says his intent is to relate the story in a dramatically truthful way, and while the facts may not be accurate, the emotion and intent are true, and dramatically speaking, intention is everything.
Enzo makes it very clear that he's a narrator who's more interested in intention and drama than the actual facts of what happened. This turns him into an unreliable narrator and forces the reader to question how much of the following story, as well as the events leading up to this point, are true. Further, Enzo is upfront about how he goes about reconstructing his story, and television again influences how he interprets the snippets of information he hears. The reader is encouraged, however, to take the described emotions as truthful and not fabricated. Emotion, then, and love by extension, are indicated to be more important than the truth of the story.
Themes
