The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are

by Bruce Eric Kaplan

The personal stories of fifty cats, as presented by a "New Yorker" cartoonist, include the tale of Puffin, whose brief fling with a cat from Atlantic City thrusts her into the ugly underworld of salt-water taffy addiction.

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Cats

112 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2002

About the author

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known as BEK, is an American cartoonist whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. His cartoons are known for their signature simplistic style and often dark humor. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and has worked on Six Feet Under and on Seinfeld (funnily enough, one of his most well-known episodes is one where Elaine becomes increasingly frustrated over what she takes to be an utterly nonsensical cartoon in The New Yorker). He graduated from Wesleyan University where he studied with Professor Jeanine Basinger.

Kaplan joined the crew of Six Feet Under during the first season in 2001 as a supervising producer. He scripted two episodes of the first season – "The Foot" and "The New Person". He was promoted to co-executive producer for the second season in 2002 and wrote a further two episodes – "The Invisible Woman" and "The Secret". He remained a co-executive producer for the third season in 2003 and wrote a further episode entitled "The Trap". He was promoted to executive producer for the fourth season in 2004 and wrote another episode "The Dare". He served as executive producer during the fifth and final season and wrote his last episode "The Silence". Kaplan wrote seven episodes in total for the series.

He has authored and illustrated six adult titles for Simon & Schuster: the cult classic The Cat That Changed My Life; the collections, I Love You, I Hate You, I'm Hungry, No One You Know and This is a Bad Time; and Every Person on the Planet and Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, both featuring the wonderfully neurotic Brooklyn couple, Edmund & Rosemary. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My partner brings odd books home. This is a collection of interviews with cats about the person/cat in their life that changed them the most. It's existential humour paired with sketchy cartoons. Definitely not want I expected to find on my coffee table one day!

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting psychological insights, but weird for them to be from/about cats.

[Ginny Thurston · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love cats, you will love this book! It is a wonderful satire on humanity and our foibles and vanities.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute!

[Laurie Siblock · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was interesting and short enough to keep me going but suffered much from the negative bent to most of the stories. Found it at a thrift store and back it will go.

[K aren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me laugh, that is all you need to know.