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A review by ashugirl
Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper
3.0
I would normally never buy a book with this title and only got it because it was on sale for one euro at work and it had a kitty on the cover. (The edition I have is the Bantam paperback with the cat in the window of a record store.) I expected it to be a contrived love story, and that the cat element would be cloyingly cutesy. There were two things I didn't count on: that Gwen Cooper GETS cats, and that this book would kick my ass, emotionally speaking.
Granted, I had some issues with the chapters written from Prudence's point of view. Some poetic license was taken with what she, as a cat, would know about human objects/events. She recognized and named objects that she would likely never have encountered before (a microphone in a photograph) but called the albums she was surrounded by every day "black disks". But the author's description of cat behavior were spot on and anyone who has spent time with kitties will recognize a lot of them.
As for the emotional thrust of the book, it's not a love story, but rather a story about loss. From the beginning you're confronted with loss and it's clear pretty early on that the narrative is leading you to the description of a traumatic event. I was on edge through the whole book waiting for heartbreak, and I got it. This book had me crying in public a few times (on the train and in a coffee shop). So if, like me, you have issues around loss, be prepared going in.
Granted, I had some issues with the chapters written from Prudence's point of view. Some poetic license was taken with what she, as a cat, would know about human objects/events. She recognized and named objects that she would likely never have encountered before (a microphone in a photograph) but called the albums she was surrounded by every day "black disks". But the author's description of cat behavior were spot on and anyone who has spent time with kitties will recognize a lot of them.
As for the emotional thrust of the book, it's not a love story, but rather a story about loss. From the beginning you're confronted with loss and it's clear pretty early on that the narrative is leading you to the description of a traumatic event. I was on edge through the whole book waiting for heartbreak, and I got it. This book had me crying in public a few times (on the train and in a coffee shop). So if, like me, you have issues around loss, be prepared going in.