When I started reading Beth Morrey's The Love Story of Missy Carmichael, I felt like I'd read it before. Elderly and alone, main character Missy is soured out on life. She especially hates the people who frequent the local dog park and the way they pander to their pets. Yet it's the park where she ends up making friends with a motley crew of strangers -- both human and otherwise -- who change her life.
Yep, no doubt about it, Missy is the male Ove. As in Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove. As I read on, I learned that the story even had some Backmanian twists. Then I re-read the back cover and realized that this wasn't a brilliant observation on my part but something I'd gleaned from a review:
"Fans of Fredrik Backman and Rachel Joyce will enjoy this uplifting (but never saccharine) 'coming of old' story." -- Library Journal
Like Missy herself, this book requires a little patience. For the first half, I wasn't even sure if I liked it. Which in and of itself was problematic because it made me question if I was being a bad feminist. Was A Man Called Ove really the better book? Or was I merely more forgiving of an unlikeable man than an unlikeable woman? Yet even if I don't have an answer to this, The Love Story of Missy Carmichael is worth reading. If nothing else, then it reminds us that every unpleasant person has a sad secret and is deserving of our kindness.
That and a young pup can teach an old dog new tricks.