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Pre-Read notesl0
I have no idea what I'm getting into but I love stories about cats and contemporary Japanese literature, so I bet this one will be a win! I'm reading the introduction, which is about the author and book and common interpretations and is worth the time to read.
Final Review
I highly recommend if you're interested in this book, to read it in three volumes! 500 pages straight through creates a slow pace and a meandering plot that feels repetitious. Besides that though, this is a scathingly funny send up of Japanese and western culture at the time of writing, at the turn of the 20th century. I just love the narrator, a common housecat who speaks English and keenly judges his master and family. If you enjoy magical realism that is mostly realism, like I do, you will probably love this book!
Beyond that, I recommend this two fans of gossip in fiction, light magical realism, books about cats, and anthropomorphic characters.
The prime fact is that all humans are puffed up by their extreme self-satisfaction with their own brute power. Unless some creatures more powerful than humans arrive on earth to bully them, there’s just no knowing to what dire lengths their fool presumptuousness will eventually carry them. p9
Review summary and recommendations
I am no human cog. I am a cat, a being sensitive to the most subtle shades of thought and feeling. p177
Well, it’s always pleasant to admire something incomprehensible when you think you understand it. p325
It is painfully easy to define human beings. They are beings who, for no good reason at all, create their own unnecessary suffering. p362
Reading Notes
Three (or more) things I loved:
1. Thus we never keep things like diaries. For what would be the point? No doubt human beings like my two-faced master find it necessary to keep diaries in order to display in a darkened room that true character so assiduously hidden from the world. p26 I adore the tone of the protagonist's voice!
2. At this point, though a mere cat, I perceived a truth: that golden opportunity makes all animals venture to do even those things they do not want to do. p30 I love that this book is about so many important issues, but being addressed from a cat's POV. It gives the reader a fresh way to think about the issues they normally encounter in books. There's an immediacy to this POV that heightens the stakes, not just I'm the story, but for every issue it touches upon.
3. I'm enjoying the pov from the cat. I'm tough on anthropomorphism, but this book strikes a nice balance.
4. I lack the energy to trail along after them. I shall therefore skip all mention of their afternoon doings and, instead, relax. All created things are entitled to demand of their Creator some rest for recreation. p176 So cat-like! But also, such a wise thought, If it were to belong to a human.
5. I adore that Cat adores the visitors whom the owners couldn't stand! Oh thank God, says Cat! My husband is sleeping, says Mrs. Sneeze!
6. I sort of love the important role of gossip in Cat's world. He often protects himself or meets his needs by overhearing, at least in part.
7. But let it be remembered that the death of a fish is described in Japanese as an ascension. Birds, we say, drop dead, become mere fallen things. Men are simply said to have kicked the bucket. But fish, I stress, ascend. Now, just ask anyone who’s journeyed overseas, anyone who’s crossed the Indian Ocean, whether they’ve seen a dying fish. Of course they haven’t. p225 The humor in this book is wonderful! And another one: But, very recently, there has been a swing in the opposite direction and people may now be found who go about incessantly advocating nudity, praising nude pictures and generally making a naked menace of themselves. I think they are in error. Indeed, since I have remained decently clothed from the moment of my birth, how could I think otherwise? p242
8. This book is sort of a caper, which means not much plot movement but tons of activity. These sorts of stories are pure fun!
Three (or less) things I didn't love:
This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.
1. The plot is a bit limp, but this isn't a story about a story, it's a story about one cat. It seems fitting that plot's arc might be a little odd.
2. The plot is so slow and repeats itself! Need to focus on the details to relate to this one.
3. I recommend reading this in three volumes instead of as one book. It's quite long to read it as a book and I felt myself getting fatigued with the story.
Rating: 😻😸😹🙀 /5 ordinary cats
Recommend? yes
Finished: Mar 22 '25
Format: accessible digital copy, Libby
Read this book if you like:
🐈 cat stories
🗣 anthropomorphism
💬 witty dialog
⛩️ critique of civilization
I found an accessible digital copy of I AM A CAT by author Natsume Soseki, on Libby. All views are mine.
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