Lessons from Lucy
Written and Narrated By: Dave Barry
Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
Good, but it’s mostly about Barry’s character flaws with just a touch of Lucy thrown in
I gotta say it: Dave Barry looks amazing for being 70-years old!
He looks young, but when you listen to Lessons from Lucy, and you hear about aaaaaall of his character flaws, nope. The man is every single one of those 70 years. And mostly he comes across as a crotchety, funny, yes, but crotchety, old guy.
I get it, though! I’m not that heavy-duty into mankind myself, and Barry has to look to his aging dog, Lucy, for guidance. EVERYbody should be blessed enough to be around an animal to guide them through life. Cuz Lucy really comes through for him.
There’s the standard lesson of: Make New Friends, and Don’t Stop Having Fun, which dogs are sooooo good at living. But my favorite was: Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover as Lucy shows Barry the beauty in even the most appallingly ugly dog—a dear friend of hers! The nicest dog! Really a precious being! (But ugly as SIN)!
I guess my biggest problem was the lesson of: Let Go of Your Anger because Barry REALLY goes to town on how much he haaaaates people. They don’t just anger him, he wishes all sorts of baaaad things to happen to them, and it’s kinda a downer in what could be a sweet book. Especially as Lucy, as he shows, is such a sweetheart and is so forgiving. As a matter of fact, his anger crops up in pretty much each lesson that Lucy could teach him.
Lessons from Lucy shows Barry as a humorous, tho’ not Laugh Out Loud funny, kinda guy: The odd duck who is lucky to have gotten a girl kinda guy. And I still look forward to listening to his Peter and the Starcatchers series (ESPECIALLY since Jim Dale narrates!!!), but if you’re looking for a really touching book about what you can learn from a dog, I recommend Dean Koontz’s A Big Little Life about his dog Trixie. That audiobook has Life Lessons in action in real time, plus it made me cry big ol’ whonking sobs.
Plus there’s the fact that the epilogue has nothing to do with Lucy but is a heartfelt Thank You to those in his life who got him through his daughter’s sudden traumatic illness that happened after the book was written. Like I said, it’s heartfelt, but even that has some anger in it as he says what NOT to say to people who are dealing with trauma. He intimates that he did NOT take the words of some people well.
A decent enough audiobook which he narrates with warmth and humor, but for me, there was a touch too much Barry, a touch tooooo much anger. And definitely: Not enough Lucy!
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