What is the author's style in The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein?

The majority of the novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain, is told from the perspective of Enzo, Denny Swift's golden Labrador retriever. And while this might seem somewhat unorthodox, it is a successful literary convention which has been employed numerous times. To begin, by choosing to let Enzo narrate the story, the author complicates the narrator's position. That is to say, when an omniscient narrator is used, the reader has no cause to doubt the narrator's reliability. However, since Enzo is narrating, it becomes the reader's responsibility to decode Enzo's impressions so that they fit into a human paradigm. An intelligent dog who watches television is still a dog. That being said, Enzo does prove to be a reliable narrator. The narrator's position is further challenged when considering the fact that since the narrator is a finite character in the story, there are things the reader never learns. In the case of this narrative, Eve's maiden name is not revealed; Mr. and Mrs. Smith's first names are never mentioned. When Enzo ceases to live, however, the narration shifts to the omniscient perspective once again.

The final section of the novel, "Imola, Italy" is narrated by an omniscient narrator. This section is especially interesting because it reinforces Enzo's closeness with his family. The omniscient narrator does not know Denny and his daughter the way Enzo does. As a result, "Denny" and "Zoë" are reduced to their identifying pronouns. In this case, the omniscient narrator's perspective distances the reader from Denny and Zoë as well as from Enzo and his emotional attachment to the other characters in the story.