Marley and Me
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Marley Meets England
Today, the Sunday Telegraph of London published a really great piece on Marley & Me. The writer, Philip Sherwell, who is the Telegraph's Washington bureau chief, came to my house with a photographer a couple weeks ago -- and, of course, got totally slimed by Gracie, our new Labrador retriever. Despite the saliva showers, Philip wrote a positive piece, calling Marley & Me "the surprise publishing phenomenon of 2006 in America."
Sherwell continued: "Grogan's memoir tops the New York Times non-fiction list, with 1.2 million copies in print. The film rights have just been sold to an arm of 20th Century Fox and the book will be published in Britain in July by Hodder. It is an astonishing achievement for a book about a dog. But then this is not the standard animal-lover's portrayal of their pet. Rather, with a mixture of slapstick hilarity and searing honesty, Grogan, a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, interweaves the antics of a rambunctious hound with his touching narrative of a young couple's life together."
Since Sherwell filed his story, Marley went into its 26th printing, taking the total number of copies in print up to 1.37 million. It's now in its sixth straight week at #1 on The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, and in its eighth straight week at #1 on the Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly lists. It's also #1 on the Washington Post, Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times lists. I guess I need to stop saying, "Bad dog, Marley!"
To read the entire Sunday Telegraph story, here's the link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/12/wlabrador12.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/12/ixworld.html
If that doesn't work (I had some trouble), simply go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ and type my name into the search field.
In other news, I just returned last night from five days on the road, doing book readings/signings and media appearances. On Tuesday, I was in Atlanta. Wednesday, Connecticut. Thursday, Brooklyn. Friday, Long Island. Saturday, Clifton, NJ. It was fun and I met a lot of really wonderful people. One of them even gave me a life-sized Labrador retriever doll to take home to my daughter, Colleen, who was totally thrilled. Thank goodness I wasn't flying!
To read one Marley lover's description of my New Jersey appearance, complete with photos, check out this thread on my message boards:
http://www.marleyandme.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000034-9.html
posted by John Grogan at 7:32 PM
 
3 Comments:
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Hi John,
I just got done reading Marley and Me, well I should say I cried my way through the last chapters. What a wonderful life and adventure this beautiful boy had! Thanks to Marley I laughed (out loud) and fell in love with him even more as I went through the book. Thank you for writing his wonderful story I am sure he couldn't have told it any better if he had done it himself.
Allyson Duggan
Florida
John:
Allyson is right. I made such a fool of myself laughing out loud at Marley and Me. But when I got to your toboggan ride, I knew the laughter was about to end and the tears were about to begin.
Your writing really makes the reader feel as if he or she is right there with you and Marley. As a fellow dog-lover and lab owner, I can totally identify with Marley and his antics. I have had two labs rolled into a Marley. One named Jessie looked exactly like Marley, even weighed the same, but she was mellow and her worst antics were eating "cat crunchies" and waiting for my car to be out of her sight when leaving the house without her, so she could help herself to a snack of the catbox, and then snooze it off on my bed (off limits to her, supposedly anyway). When I lost her, I was so heart-broken, I right away replaced her with a puppy who would occupy enough of my attention to get my mind off of my grief. I got a yellow Lab named Heidi who does not look like Marley but she, too is this endless ball of energy who crashes her way in everything and every one and seems to get herself into the most unusual predicaments. I know all about drywall eating right down to the studs, and dumping over paint buckets and then somehow getting the bucket wedged onto her head. I thought she was the original food thief until I got to know Marley. Her worst antic so far was getting her paw stuck in the back of a plastic patio chair which entailed me calling 911 because I was too panicky to help her out. She is now three years old, at that gangly time you mention, and she hasn't stopped yet.
And I have yet to figure out the attraction to it, but unfortunately, she and my mellow German Shepherd share Jessie's delight in wolfing down droppings out of the catbox.
Thank you for writing such a heartwarming story, you did Marley proud.
Melissa
Turlock
Sorry I missed you in Ann Arbor, Michigan. You are much like but better than James Herriot - we just would like to hear about your day as we did his. But you are better as I am on my second Lab...