The Art of Racing in the Rain Chapters 16-20 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Denny is a champion, and there is much rejoicing.
  • Enzo gets introduced to a lot of famous racing names, including Luca Pantoni, who comes to Denny's house for dinner one evening.
  • Luca Pantoni, remember that name.
  • Eve thinks about having another child, and she and Denny connect emotionally again.
  • This involves going through the expected routines that couples do when one spouse is away for a great deal of time.
  • The family makes a pilgrimage to Denny Creek, but not because it was named after Denny. It could have been, but it probably wasn't.
  • Eve falls and hits her head while at the creek, and Denny finally, finally, finally convinces her that she needs to go to the one place she hates more than anywhere else: the hospital.
  • Maybe this entire thing is a blessing in disguise, because if Eve hadn't got this badly hurt, she never would have agreed to go to the doctor's.
  • Calling Doctor McDreamy? We have a patient who smells like mushrooms.
  • Enzo breaks again from narrating to tell us about a documentary he saw on National Geographic about a tribe in Mongolia that buries dogs high on a hill so people can't walk on their graves.
  • For someone who's narrating a story, Enzo sure likes non-sequiturs.
  • Enzo talks about this burial process, telling us that dogs' bodies go through some rituals so that the dogs' souls can be reincarnated as humans in the next life.
  • Enzo hopes this will happen to him, and he feels ready.
  • Enzo's love of this tradition stays with him for the rest of his life, so keep this in mind for later. #spoileralert
  • Eve's diagnosis is less than stellar: they find out she has a mass that's causing her mood swings, headaches, and nausea.
  • So Eve's not just growing mushrooms in her brain? Oh, dear.
  • Denny tries to grapple with this news while his friend, Mike, consoles him.
  • Mike takes Enzo home to take care of him while Denny stays at the hospital.
  • Mike gets Enzo home safely, and he and his husband Tony feed Enzo. Tony even washes Enzo's stuffed dog for him.
  • What an awesome couple. #relationshipgoals
  • Enzo bemoans the fact that, as a dog, he is not privy to all of the information regarding Eve's diagnosis, or her time at the hospital.
  • Yes, this is Stein getting a little meta with the audience, but we're rolling with it.
  • But it does make sense; otherwise Enzo would be the next Colombo.