Alison Pace Pug Hill

Pug Hill

Alison Pace

Berkley, May 2006, $14.00

ISBN: 0425209717

Hope McNeill prefers the safety of anonymousness to having to perform in any public sense. Security is all she seeks as self-actualization and commitment to another are concepts to avoid as it takes a person out of their comfort zone. Thus she feels safe with her job as a painting restorer in the backrooms of the Met and like the Pygmalion Effect any relationship she has had failed because Hope could not offer even a fragment of her heart out of fear; thus asserting her subconscious assumption of remain in your safe zone.

Her favorite getaway spot is PUG HILL in Central Park where the canines run around having fun as if they have no worries. However, Hope has an issue coming up and even Pug Hill fails to provide her solace. Her parents want her to give a speech at their fortieth anniversary bash; Hope never speaks in a public forum. Still she loves her parents and decides she has to do it so she signs up for a public speaking class hoping to overcome one of her phobias and begins to self-analyze her other heart stopping anxieties.

PUG HILL is an intriguing character study starring a woman whose fears have crippled her life as she spends much of her time in avoidance. Readers empathize with Hope hoping she can begin to face and conquer her phobias. Though the causes are not delved into deep enough to include her relationship with her seemingly nice caring parents, Alison Pace provides a deep look at a traumatized individual shunning life.

Harriet Klausner