Hope longs for dog, perfect man in ‘Pug Hill’

“Pug Hill”

by Alison Pace (Penguin, 320 pages, $14 paper)

In her latest novel, Alison Pace delivers a love story for man and dog alike – a pleasurable yarn about likable Hope McNeill, who restores paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and loves pugs as much as the idea of finding a good man.

“Pug Hill” may be nothing more than classic chick-lit, but Pace is enjoyable and clever, throwing in sly commentary on our current social scene, a la Jane Austen.

Hope’s current boyfriend is, sadly for her, a Republican, and Pace gets a lot of comic mileage out of showing Hope’s hapless search for a guy as Democratic as she is.

The non-dog-owning Hope finds solace watching her beloved canines on Pug Hill in Central Park. Pug owners should read the book just for Pace’s droll descriptions of their eccentric but beloved breed.

She describes Hope’s favorite as a black pug that likes to sit on one hip, “with his legs splayed jauntily out to the side, proudly showing off his rounded belly.”

Pace delivers a final chapter as delightful as the rest of the book. So many novels end predictably, and the sheer unexpectedness of this one is a treat.