I have very much liked everything I’ve read by Catherine Ryan Hyde since I first came across one of her novels about fifteen years ago. I added another couple of her novels to my wishlist a year or so ago, and was given ‘Seven perfect things’ for Christmas last year. It’s taken me this long to pick it up - but I have two full ‘to-be-read’ shelves in addition to re-reading some of my favourite authors.
This novel focuses on three main people. Two of them - Mary and Abby - are mother and daughter. Abby is a thirteen-year-old teenager who doesn’t much like school, and doesn’t really fit in - except when she’s swimming. She’s a very strong swimmer, and on the school team. This becomes relevant when she dives into a river to save a wriggling sack that has been dropped in; it turns out to be seven lively puppies.
Unfortunately, though Abby has a good relationship with Mary, her father is controlling, self-centred and manipulative. She has asked for a dog before but he refuses to consider the idea. Most of the time he seems to ignore his daughter. He is not physically violent, but he’s not a good husband or a good father. So she knows she can’t possibly take the puppies home. She tries taking them to the pound, but the sympathetic lady there explains that nobody is adopting puppies at present, so they will probably be put to sleep.
Abby knows of a cabin in the hills which seems to have been abandoned; there’s a shed at the back and she decides to keep the puppies there. It’s almost the school summer, break so she’ll be able to spend most of her time with them. She’s no idea what the future will hold; she’s very focussed on the present, and her aim is to save and nurture the puppies - and, if she can, to find good homes for them.
The third main character of the book is a man called Elliot. He’s actually the first person we meet, right at the start of the book where he’s taking a couple of hours away from the sickroom where he’s nursing his terminally ill wife. It’s clear that she doesn’t have long, and that he is going to be devastated. He’s taking compassionate leave from work to be with her as much as possible, but even so he has to get out of the house just occasionally, leaving a care assistant to look after his wife.
We don’t meet Elliot again until a few days after the inevitable funeral when he’s feeling entirely at sea, full of grief and with no idea what he’s going to do. He’s persuaded to go and stay for a few days in his cabin which he hasn’t seen in about three years, since his wife first became sick. And it’s clear to the reader that this is the cabin where Abby is keeping her puppies…
That’s just the introduction to a book that quickly drew me in, with such likeable characters (other than Abby’s dad) that I found it quite hard to say goodbye at the end. In a sense there’s not a whole lot of plot; the outcome is also somewhat predictable. But it’s beautifully done, in the context of conversations, and insights, and a lot of fun with the delightful puppies. Abby, in particular, is a very believable young teen: she’s enthusiastic, spontaneous, sometimes moody, sometimes determined, and with a great deal of intelligence and insight.
Definitely recommended if you like women’s fiction with some deeper issues; it’s perhaps a tad slow-moving in places, but that didn’t worry me. Nothing unsuitable for younger teens other than some ‘strong’ language from Abby’s unpleasant father; one of the main protagonists being a teenager means that this might appeal to folk younger than the usual readership of this kind of novel.
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