Mia is the eponymous Cat Lady of television presenter Dawn O’Porter’s new novel. She has the perfect life, a job she loves, a husband, lovely home and a 16- year-old cat called Pigeon who she adores.
n the first chapter Mia goes to a self-help group for people who are grieving for dead pets despite Pigeon being alive and well. There is never an explanation why.
The participants seem to have come from ‘Stereotypes R Us’ – a bald tattooed angry man, a (I kid you not) ‘jolly’ black lady, a cat lady from central casting wearing layers of dowdy clothing, and an Insta-ready beautiful young Asian woman.
O’Porter apparently recognises this herself when later in the narrative it transpires that the Instagram Gal was an undercover reporter. Her hit piece in a daily newspaper notes, “If the cast of characters were in a novel, the author would have leaned too comfortably on the stereotype.”
Early on in the story, vegan Mia prepares steaks for a dinner party with her husband’s friends – two couples and his ex-wife Belinda. (Belinda is an almost constant presence in Mia’s home).
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‘Cat Lady’ by Dawn O’Porter
They are all gargoyles with no redeeming characteristics at all. The conversation revolves around Mia’s cat and her veganism both of which they all disapprove of. Mia has been married for seven years so you would expect they would have long exhausted these subjects.
Our feline-loving heroine works for a small jewellery company named after the owner Isabella May – a former It Girl and socialite whose business survives on regular handouts from her super-rich father. Isabella is a narcissistic nightmare.
Now if the narrator was a timid 28-year-old with low self-esteem the fact that she would put up with any of these people (including her wimpy husband Tristan), might make some sense. In fact she is a successful self-contained woman of 45 so none of it rings true.
Midway through the story, Mia’s life implodes and she loses her husband, her home, and her job all in one day.
And to be fair, things do pick up a bit as she stumbles from one ‘comic’ set piece to another – just don’t expect any internal logic in her actions.
When the reader is finally appraised of the reason why Pigeon the cat has such inflated importance in Mia’s life it makes sense.
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Unfortunately, it’s too little, too late.
There are the seeds of a decent story in Cat Lady but sadly they are smothered under too much fertiliser.
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