Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper

Reviewed by Jeanne

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  I’d like to add, “or its title” to that saying.  The case in point is Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper.  Just looking at the cover, with its adorable cat, seemingly gazing up at the reader and a star-lit city in the background, I figured I could write out the plot without even reading the book.  Lonely single person with cat meets another single, for some reason they bond over cat, fall in love and promise to love, honor, cherish and scoop litter boxes for the rest of their lives.

Only that’s not what the book is about.

The book opens with Prudence the cat waiting for her person, Sarah, to come home.  She’s been gone longer than usual, and Prudence is a bit put out.  Then Sarah’s daughter, Laura, and Laura’s husband Josh show up and start taking Sarah’s things away.  Prudence is upset by this; and by the fact that Laura and Josh have no idea of proper behavior or the correct way to do things. Prudence is as prim and proper as her name suggests, but she’s also an acute observer of human nature and body language.  She’s especially adept at realizing when someone is saying something not true, though Prudence has distinctions for that:  saying that Prudence has socks on when talking about her white feet is an obvious untruth but humans also say other untrue things, sometimes for no reason Prudence can discern.  The reader quickly realizes that Sarah and Laura had become estranged, but Prudence doesn’t mediate on this puzzle.  That’s not something a cat would do. Instead, she’s trying to deal with the here and now, especially all these changes she doesn’t understand.  Just when she’s starting to become less uncomfortable, other new changes threaten what little stability Prudence knows.

So what is the book about? It’s about the relationship between a mother and daughter, once close, who somehow became estranged.  It’s about the baggage we carry with us from our childhoods and how that can affect our present lives.  It’s about how we relate to those we love, both human and nonhuman, and handling change and loss.  Prudence the cat narrators a good portion of the book, but we also hear from Laura and finally from Sarah herself as each tells a part of the story from her point of view. The result is a poignant, often funny, very charming story. The personalities of the three characters really shine through: Sarah the single mother who worked as a DJ and owned a record shop while trying to raise her rebellious daughter; Laura the button-down attorney who tries to keep everything under control; Josh the music-loving husband trying to get his wife to come to terms with a lot of pent-up emotions; and of course Prudence.


And by the way, "Love Saves the Day" is the name of a store where Sarah and Laura shopped.

Of course, being me I particularly enjoyed Prudence’s point of view, and I liked her practical, no nonsense approach.  A couple of times some of the text verged on the precious, but for the most part Cooper allowed Prudence to be a mature, adult character.

Finally, I’d say that while this is indeed a book for cat lovers, it’s also a good story about love, loss and coming to terms with your past.

Gwen Cooper is also the author of a fine non-fiction book Homer's Odyssey, about her blind wonder cat.  Here's a link to a review of that book http://bristol-library-bookblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/odyssey-of-heart.html