Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog

Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog (2005) is an autobiography by journalist John Grogan. This guide is based on the 2005 first edition. The story was inspired by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Grogan’s obituary for his dog Marley.

The book was adapted into a full-length film in 2008 and has also been adapted into a series of children’s stories about Marley. The title is borrowed from a chapter near the end of the story in which John and Marley share an evening together, just the two of them, unbothered by the expectations or weight of the world around them. Although a seemingly light-hearted topic, the story of this silly and poorly trained dog includes moments of heavy loss, disappointment, and grief.

John Grogan tells this story in the first person as he reflects on the 13 years he spent with Marley, the family’s purebred yellow Labrador retriever. John and Jenny purchase Marley from a backyard breeder without doing much research. Signs that Marley may not be the ideal Labrador appear early, foreshadowing a series of ongoing debacles resulting from Marley’s unending energy and disobedience.

Although Marley constantly tests the Grogans’ patience with his bad behavior, he becomes an established member of the family. He rides along in the car when John and Jenny make a late-night trip to the pharmacy for their first home pregnancy test, and he’s there to celebrate with them when they discover they’re expecting a baby. Marley is later the shoulder Jenny cries upon when her pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, solidifying his role as comforter in the family.

Marley reaches adolescence and it’s clear that he’s not the ideal specimen of purebred Labrador disposition and character, and likely never will be. The Grogans love Marley anyway. John reluctantly agrees to neutering Marley, ending any hope of Marley siring future purebred Labradors.

John and Jenny continue trying to have children. After an anniversary trip to Ireland, Jenny is excited to learn that she’s pregnant again. The Grogan family grows quickly, with Patrick and Conor born within 17 months of one another. John and Jenny aren’t sure how Marley will react to sharing their attention and affection, but Marley and Patrick quickly become best pals. Jenny overcomes a period of postpartum depression during which John works with Marley to improve his obedience. Marley earns a nonpaying role as a family dog in a feature-length film and finally completes obedience school. The family’s neighborhood in Palm Beach, Florida, becomes increasingly dangerous, and the Grogans move to Boca Raton before having Colleen, their third child and only daughter. The family then moves to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where John takes an editing position at a gardening magazine. Marley enjoys the new rural surroundings but his health declines noticeably as his age progresses.

Marley’s health continues to decline. He loses his hearing and sight, his fur falls out in large tufts, arthritis plagues his joints, and he has repeated stomach issues that bring him close to death. Marley makes comeback after comeback, but John recognizes that Marley’s time will be up soon and that each health emergency could easily be his last. John reflects more frequently on the role Marley has played in his life over the past 13 years. A bloated stomach sends Marley to the vet a final time, where John says goodbye to his beloved companion before giving the vet permission to put Marley to sleep. In the months following Marley’s passing, John reflects on the life lessons he and his family learned from the world’s worst-behaved dog.