Does the Dog Die? A Brief Review of The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

My book group read this as a light summer reading choice. And I have to say — as I told them — I was disappointed. I’m perfectly capable of getting into chick lit, but this felt like it was written by a software program. In other words, it was way too predictable. Yes, genre fiction follows a structure. But this book went well beyond that. And the set-up involved a single lost piece of paper on the crowded desk of the overwhelmed protagonist, a successful attorney. This single lost piece of paper led to huge financial losses and a scandal. Oh, please. In any office I’ve been in, there would have been 100+ e-mails checking on the thing. Single lost pieces of paper do not happen any more.

Oh, well. Were there any animals in it? Barely. One of the other attorneys brings his dog to work. So this book is Safe for animal lovers. But I’m not recommending it because there’s better chick lit out there. For example, Elaine Viets is a better writer than Sophie Kinsella, and her books are more amusing and shorter. Check out Viets’s Dead-End Job series next time you’re tempted to try Kinsella. Just be careful with her book on the pet care business, because it’s not completely safe for animal lovers.