Behaving Badly, a novel by Isabel Wolff

All men are beasts…

…or so Miranda Sweet believes. As an animal behaviourist, she can get inside the heads of deluded Dalmatians and introverted iguanas, but she can’t work out why the men in her life behave so badly. Animals are braver kinder and a lot more reliable. So Miranda’s given up on love to open her own clinic and work her magic on neurotic pets and their grateful owners.

But can she keep the whole male species at bay for ever? Her best friend, Daisy, an incurably romantic wedding-planner, doesn’t think so. When a delicious photographer comes into her life, even Miranda starts to wonder if she’s been a bit hasty. But, just when she’s letting her guard down, her past starts to catch up with her. Now, she has to face up to her own behaviour, which hasn’t always been as sweet as she’d like to pretend…

It’s a good story (with very few sex scenes , I like it). The main character is not too cheerful, yet not too shy. She’s average. Miranda is a pet psychiatric and she receives email from her patients that asks about their pets. From the story, now I know pet’s behavior. Why my dog likes bulying other dog, why my cat likes water, etc. I’m sure pet lovers love this book. Ms. Wolff also wrote about photography. Though a little, I know what they’re doing in the dark room (is it its name, isn’t?). I know they go to places and takes landscape photos, feel the wind and see themotion of the cloud and capture the dawn or twilight.

Miranda’s guilt makes her brave. She look for the one she wants to see, she finds him and she asks for forgiveness. I can say the story is rather black because Miranda tell readers she did bad thing in the beginning of the book. Readers know Miranda’s feeling and how she can’t tell the truth. Nevertheless, Miranda hates her ex-fiance, so her feeling is more stress than before.
The story is so me. When I read it, I realize, “Wow, it’s me”. No, no. I never do bad things like Miranda. But what they say, feel, think, do; their behavior, their relationship, it’s like me. The book is my other life that people can consume. I feel like I’m the role model of the character. Yeah.

The rarer action is in virtue, than in vengeance…

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