A Year of Cats and Dogs

by Margaret Hawkins

What happens when nothing happens? Maryanne wonders in A Year of Cats and Dogs, a darkly funny yet hopeful novel about a woman in midlife who feels surrounded by death. She answers her own question by deciding to find out.
"I wanted to embrace entropy, to stop working so hard at keeping things up, to go AWOL from the productive world I d so long been a part of, she tells us at the beginning of the novel. The clearer it became that Phillip wasn t coming back the more I wanted to hurry up and let things go just to see what would happen."
As it turns out, a lot happens. Even as Maryanne's world slows down and comes apart, curious revelations begin to emerge about the daily life she's formerly taken for granted. She discovers she can hear the thoughts of animals, starting with her own opinionated dog and cat. Then the veterinarian at the animal shelter where she volunteers offers her a job as a dog whisperer and asks her on a date to his mother s funeral. When her father falls ill she is reunited with her estranged sister and when he dies they learn about his secret life.
The book contains recipes for the consoling, if plain, foods Maryanne cooks for her family and friends, along with the inner dialog that accompanies them, and each chapter is linked to a corresponding chapter in the I Ching, reflecting that book's age-old wisdom that says that sometimes no action is the best action of all.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Adult

207 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Carissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was forgettable overall; the main character, Maryanne, is like a blank-faced proxy of either the author or the intended readership or both, and seems to passively observe her way through the events of the book without ever being shaken from her neutral state. There is no strong emotion to connect the reader to her. Things are observed and stated matter-of-factly, and her actions are offered as objective narrative with not much interpretation of her thought process or motivations. [return][return]Other characters, while more finely illustrated and much more emotionally interesting, are otherwise unpredictable and unbalanced. I felt I couldn't get a read on them as they didn't behave as believable people with consistent personalities.[return][return]The book's framing under the various sets of the I Ching is a mystery as well, and ended up feeling like an empty gimmick; often the chapters' contents had very little relation to the I Ching statements heading each one. Whether or not that was the intention I'm not sure, but I had expected more of a connection. The main character throws the I Ching herself a few times but never again after the midpoint of the book; it seems like a token gesture to try to tie the book to the texts more.[return][return]The whole book felt very disjointed and honestly rather pointless. Nothing is really learned by Maryanne; even an attempt at an emotional climax by having her boyfriend demand she find meaning in her life is never addressed again, and the reader gets no sense that Maryanne gained any more or less insight into her life. Unfortunate as the framing for the story was interesting and a lot more depth could have been infused into its pages.

[Allison Ketchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Original" and "ambitious" can mean almost anything in a review, depending on context. Original ideas may be ill-advised, and an ambitious premise can be ineptly executed. But when I call Margaret Hawkins's debut novel, A YEAR OF CATS AND DOGS, original and ambitious, it is the highest praise I can give, because not only has Hawkins produced one of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking novels I've read, she's done so using a premise that is utterly fresh and interesting. The first-person narration chronicles Maryanne's spiritual journey concurrently with her midlife crisis (which provides ample comic relief via Maryanne's dry, incisive sense of humor). Maryanne explains how she comes to abdicate from her life once long-term boyfriend Phillip moves out, ending a relationship mainly continued out of habit. Maryanne throws the I Ching, which advises waiting and deepening the stillness within, which she fulfills at first through taking long naps. She then begins breaking long-held rules, challenging her former assumptions, and culling things from her life, including her unfulfilling job at a company that makes collectibles, a neat metaphor for everything cluttering Maryanne's spiritual life, obscuring her passions and purpose. At the same time, her pets, and animals in general, become more and more important to her, and she invests time in caring for her ailing father. Her actions through inaction open up possibilities that her mind and soul are now ready to embrace, and Maryanne finds that she can hear the thoughts of animals, leading to a friendship with a veterinarian who values her skills as a dog whisperer and asks her to plan his mother's funeral.

Each of the sixty-four chapter titles is named for one of the sixty-four possible coin throws by which the I Ching (the Chinese book of changes) is consulted. In less capable hands, this would have been an annoying gimmick, but Hawkins uses the I Ching lessons as steps in Maryanne's spiritual journey, giving her wry observations the weight of age-old wisdom. Maryanne is a likable narrator, an average person seeking meaning in her life and a bit lost in the universe. Her method for finding herself is unorthodox but believable, her reflections on her spiritual development both profound and matter-of-fact, included alongside her recipes for the comfort food she prepares to console everyone around her. Hawkins's clear, lovely prose is a perfect backdrop for the straightforward thoughts of her protagonist, who is never preachy in her spiritual musings. Maryanne is so delightful, and her voice so earnest and witty, that I found myself hoping that she would find what she was looking for.

A YEAR OF CATS AND DOGS is an engaging yet reflective story of a likable woman searching for meaning in her cluttered life, and I highly recommend it. Available October 1.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I left my job five years ago, feeling like the walls were closing in on me, I immediately started taking classes toward a nursing degree. Basically I segued from one unhappy situation to a highly stressful situation and nearly had a mental breakdown. In A Year of Cats and Dogs, Maryanne leaves her rather dreary day job with every intention of living off her savings and doing “nothing” for a while. She’s 49-years-old and recently divorced, which has proved rather stressful of late, and she feels that she deserves this sort of break from reality and routine. She figures she’ll be happier on her own timeclock. Maryanne approaches her life in a very Zen way. Things are going to happen and she cannot change the outcome but she can make everything more bearable, more enjoyable, and more entertaining in some manner. She finds that animals can communicate with her through telepathy [she’s basically an “animal whisperer”]. This special talent leads to a job at the animal shelter and a romance with the veterinarian. Maryann also finds out that her father, who she cooks dinner for every week, has late-stage prostate cancer. Though she is surrounded by death, Maryann finds hopefulness in her own life. A Year of Cats and Dogs reads like a memoir instead of a novel as debut author Margaret Hawkins uses coin throws from the Chinese book of changes, I Ching, as headers for each chapter and intersperses comforting recipes throughout the book. A Year of Cats and Dogs is a quirky, engaging story about resilience, empathy and love.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC received through the First Reads giveaway program.

This quiet, meditative novel follows Maryanne as she struggles to come to grips with the loss of her boyfriend and job, her father's illness, a new relationship, and the fact that she finds she can mentally communicate with dogs and cats. It sounds cheesy, but it really really works.
This is the sort of book where it feels like not much is happening, while at the same time it feels like a whole lot is happening. It's a little hard to explain. Following Maryanne's story made me feel like everything is going to be OK later in life. I appreciate that feeling. I loved the recipes worked into the book, and I really liked that the "pet whispering" was just sort of... there. Hawkins did not make a big deal out of the discovery, and Maryanne just accepts it as being something that is part of her life (rather than it becoming a defining, all-consuming thing. I hate it when that happens).
The animals communicate much the way that I think they would if we could read their thoughts. I only wish we'd heard more from Clement--I'm more of a cat person myself.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had absolutely no expectations when A Year of Cats and Dogs arrived on my doorstep, I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or not.
I'll readily admit that as I chugged through the first few chapters I found myself disliking Maryanne. I found her sad-sack personality a bit off-putting - though that's one of my own character flaws, as I feel this way whether the person in question be on the page or moping before me. I was starting to get worried that this book would forever be a glimpse into the uneventful life of a deflated balloon of a woman, when it turned into something more. Maryanne seemed to develop more facets that I had come to expect and the story moved along nicely.


I'd have to agree that this is the anti midlife-crisis story of a woman who seems to be in the middle of a very difficult year. And while it isn't a life-altering novel, it is a nice little slice of life and a good read to boot.

[Margee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Middle-aged Maryanne's relationship with Phillip has ended after ten years, and he has moved out, leaving her in the care of Clement and Bob, her cat and dog. At loose ends, Maryanne drops away from the world, quitting her job, and filling her time by tending her aging father, her house, and her animals. At the urging of a friend, she accepts work at a local veterinary practice, gravitating naturally to using her talent for 'communicating' with dogs and cats. With the appearance of a handful of quirky characters, her situation veers from solitary to independent, her break-up from desertion to liberation. A few mood-reflecting recipes and chapters beginning with I Ching meditations lend 'food for thought'.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A year in the life of a middle-aged woman, left by her long-time lover. She is left with a dog named Bob, and a cat named Clement. She quits her job and just lets entopy happen.

She walks her dog, cooks Sunday dinner for her eighty-two year-old father every week, and volunteers at an animal shelter. Which then leads to a part-time job at a veternary clinic. But her life drifts on.

This a dark, but hopeful novel that despite the loss that happens in all lives, leave one with a warm glow at the end of the story. There will be more to life.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a "first-reads" book for me and to be completely honest, I wasn't impressed with it at the beginning. However, I was committed to finishing it and posting a review because I had entered the drawing. I'm so glad that I read through the book because it began growing on me chapter by short chapter. In its own quiet way, it was a touching little book that was quietly inspiring. I was sad when it was over. Find yourself a quiet corner and go enjoy this book. I know I did.

[Kayla Zabcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

84%

Strangely resonant with where I am in my life right now. Thought-provoking, engaging, and well-paced. Also, the recipes were surprisingly fun to read.

"I was tired of love. Love suddenly seemed like a frayed coat I'd outgrown, or a club I'd been voted out of. it seemed like an outdated, Pollyannaish concept, like putting all your pocket change in a piggy bank every night or dinking eight glasses of water a day. All those years you has to do it and then suddenly you didn't anymore and it turned out not to matter as much as everyone had told you it did."

"People without animals had even stranger notions about them if they had any notions about them at all. It was as if animals were an invisible race, a population whose inner lives had gone undocumented and unnoticed for the whole of history, with few exceptions. That they lived lives of emotion, pleasure and great suffering, often as a direct result of our actions, didn't seem to interest or concern most people."

"It was something like that although words cannot fully describe it, how emotionally rich and resonant it was, nuanced like when you awaken from a dream with a feeling that it is far deeper and poignant than the ridiculous events that inspired that feeling."

"What if that was all I or anyone was really required to do? Pay attention. Be kind. Do no harm. What if the yogis and the poets, the real ones not the plate poets, were right and the dreamy dozing dogs were the models of correct living? It sounded easy, a matter of taking walks and going to museums, releasing me, us all, from the tyranny of achievement and the pursuit of wealth [...] What if right living was what it took to change the world?"

[Magdalena]

Maryanne has had a difficult year. Her boyfriend of ten years, Phillip, has just left her as she edges towards her fiftieth birthday. She deals with the transition by throwing the I Ching, and leaving her job as ‘poetry’ writer at Keepsake Cottage, a firm that specialises in kitschy collectables. Objectively speaking, Maryanne's life appears sad and empty as she spends her days bathing and walking her pet dog Bob and cat Clement, but the animals close in to keep her from being lonely as she begins to withdraw to an inner space where she can work out her destiny. Externally, the story stays where it begins, in the first person narrative of Maryanne. Her journey is a quiet, unflashy one that begins to unfold when she realises she has the odd gift of understanding the language of animals, particularly the dogs she comes in contact with. Maryanne is an everywoman at mid-life, finding herself alone and without a support network aside from her two pets, but what sets her apart and draws the reader to her is her introspection and refusal to put on any artifice. Instead, she begins to shed those roles that make no sense to her, like her ex-partner's clothing, and opens herself up to the more subtle sounds and rhythms of life.

This includes paying attention to the wisdom of the I Ching, The Chinese Book of Changes that forms the books structure. Each of the book’s sixty four chapters is prefaced by one of the possible I Ching coin throws, and is used to chart Maryanne’s interior transformation and a series of key verbs that guide the action within that chapter. The book begins with being “alert to the Creative”, and that is probably one of the key themes of the book. From a kind of passive acceptance of what comes her way, Maryanne begins with opening her eyes and carefully waiting for some guide to the creativity she feels must underpin her life. It’s a sharp contrast to the burden of busyness that fills most modern lives, as characterised by her friend Donna:

What if that was all I or anyone was really required to do? Pay attention. Be kind. Do no harm. What if the yogis and the poets, the real ones not the plate poets, were right and the dreamy dozing dogs were the yogis of correct living? It sounded easy, a matter of taking walks and going to museums, releasing me, us all, from the tyranny of achievement and the pursuit of wealth, released us all from Donna’s plan to change the world. What if right living was what it took to change the world?(92)


Modesty and patience are part of Maryanne's charm as her gift for dog whispering/listening leads her to a job as a full time assistant to Stan, the Vet at a local dog shelter. Stan doesn’t quite understand Maryanne, but he is increasingly drawn to her as she discovers that some of the dogs at the shelter have their own gifts, once of which is the identification of human Cancers. Maryanne's growth is a slow and subtle one, but no less powerful, even as she works through a series of losses, surprises, and a career/life transformation that happens as organically as her relationship with Stan. Throughout the book, as Maryanne works through the I Ching, she provides recipes to help with life’s transitions. These are real, usable recipes with names like Chicken Soup for the Sad, Dog Party Pasta, Chili for Consolation, and My Father’s Corn Chowder. The recipes, like Maryanne and the story, are unpretentious and take a little time to simmer, but they are good and powerful in their way. Like the recipes, A Year of Cats and Dogs is a surprisingly powerful read. Though it’s quick and easy, and the reader might end up wondering whether anything happened at all, on reflection, Maryanne’s journey is one that all modern folk might benefit from taking. It’s a journey that involves shedding the daily grind of doing in favour of time to take long baths, long walks, observe and listen. A Year of Cats and Dogs is funny and spiritual in the most pragmatic sense – a satisfying, and pleasurable read.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

At 49 Maryanne Draper feels she has “earned the right to let things go” and decides it is her turn to be “irresponsible.” Her live-in boyfriend of 10 years has departed, her job is more than tiresome, and she has savings to support herself, so she opts to “let things fall apart, just to see what would happen.” I guess you call this a mid-life crisis.

Helped along by the wisdom of the I Ching, which encourages her to “wait” and to “deepen the stillness within,” and by the calming behaviors of her pet dog and cat, Maryanne finds her new and unambitious life to be comfortable and comforting. She avoids most of her friends and neighbors, however, because they demand to know what she’s up to and she can’t answer to their satisfaction. They unhelpfully offer suggestions like getting pregnant (!) and following her passion.

“A Year of Cats and Dogs” follows Maryanne as she allows life to just be and at the same time questions whether that’s really a good strategy. The “allowing” results in her discovery that she can communicate with animals, after which she finds two part-time jobs that suit her far better than her previous career writing smarmy verse for a collectibles company. But as Maryanne ventures out more, she must face the fact that most people take a more pro-active approach to life. They don’t really endorse her musing that “life doesn’t seem to have a plot.”

I’m sympathetic to her dilemma. The Taoist philosophy is appealing, and I personally would prefer to accept than to fight (ideally, that is). But whether Maryanne comes to any terms with this conundrum is questionable. So while I enjoyed many aspects of this novel -- the animals’ wisdom about life and death perhaps above all -- I didn’t know if Maryanne herself had grown at all as a result of her various serendipitous experiences.

I should add that using the I Ching as a framework for the chapters didn’t really work for me. Maybe it was just too much work to try to correlate the headings with the content of the chapters -- especially since there were 64 of them in just over 200 pages. Adding recipes throughout the narrative also seemed a distraction.

Or maybe I just wasn’t accepting enough?

[Pam Morse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was like taking a roller coaster ride with a woman coming to terms with herself. Maryanne has come to a place in her life where she steps back to take a look at her life when her partner leaves. She seemed at some points to quit life entirely and at others to seize it with both hands. I could completly relate to this feeling. Humor and dry wit abounds in this book, she learns she can telepatically talk to animals and lightly sprinkles in recipes in the book with titles like "Fried Camping Potatoes for Comfort in Case of Emotional Distance."

The book was written in small chapters that mirrored the stages of I Ching with while at first was distracting soon gave the story structure and focus.

Death seems to obsess her as it does many of us in mid-life whether it is from the gifts left on her doorstep from her big orange huntress cat or her fathers battle.

One quote from the book seemed to sum up the book and how it feels to reasses your life, pretty clearly to me. She has moved into her fathers hospital room while he is in a coma. She says "Being there was like being launched into orbit around my own life, which I circled endlessly, like it was a nearby planet, visible yet unreachable and happening all at once." I know that feeling....

[Anastasia Hobbet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this quirky first-person POV debut novel delighted me so much that I sent a note to the author through the publisher telling her I took it with me to the doctor's office and hoped the doctor would be running late so I could read and read and read in the waiting room. The main character, an under-achieving middle-aged woman, puts her past behind her and finds that she can read the minds of her pets, and vice versa. That sounds corny, I know, but this writer pulls it off, so convincingly, and with such humor, that I found myself thinking, Of course we can read one another's minds! Why not? But then the author, like her protagonist, wanders off from the life she's made, and the book falls away, losing its focus, its intention, and much of its sense of humor. What happened? This might have been THE book to head up my end of the year gift-list must-buys for literary friends. It was headed there. For the dry humor and spirit of the first half of the book, I still rate it highly--and I'll look for novel #2 from Margaret Hawkins.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, there was only one cat ... And (to talk about the less effective things first), the chapter headings from the I Ching were annoying, as were the recipes--kind of gimmicky and distracting. At the end, I wished that Maryanne had found her groove, that her life had found a story and she opened her heart to a new human love, but the narrator's voice remained the same. However, it was a good, satisfying book in many ways because it addressed head-on and didn't trivialize some of the big questions of middle age: the value of, love, and friendship; end of life relationships with elderly parents whose lives are more of a mystery to us than we assume; the meaning of work and the recurring fact of funerals and how families process death. And the importance of pets as the stable, loving continuity in our lives. The fact that Maryanne could communicate with pets -- not in an overdone or sentimental way -- added greater dimension to the human stories. In the end I closed the book liking the characters, except for Phillip, of course.

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It arrived yesterday and I began this morning! I think I like it already -- but will hold off on the whys and wherefores until I'm further into it.

Looking foward to this! Just learned that I'm getting a copy of this from Firstreads book giveaways on Goodreads and am anxious to dive into it.























It sounds interesting to me for several reasons -- not least of which as I just reread the synopsis, is a spark of relationship to The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which book is high on my list of best reading thus far in 2009. I'm now curious to see if the spark bears fruit once I've read this book. Time will tell.

[Shannon O’Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished this and not entirely sure how I feel about it. I did like many of the ideas, particularly the main character's ability to hear the thoughts of animals - wow would I love to do that. I liked the idea, too, of following one's passion, and discovering what one likes by just letting things happen and going with the flow (not that I'm any good at that). Anyway, I literally just finished this 30 minutes ago and I'm still digesting... I would definitely recommend though, it's a quick read with short chapters (I like short chapters very much) and it contains some thought-provoking moments, even if it meanders at times.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I frankly don't know how I feel about this book, and I am not sure how widely distributed it will be. It is about a woman in midlife crisis who decides to give up the life she has known. Her lover has left her, she quits her mundane job, and simply lets life happen to her. She soon learns to communicate with her cat and dog, and takes a volunteer job as a vets assistant. There is an I Ching element to the entire book, but I am not sure she lives up to that development. I can usually tell how a book will do. I don't have a clue with this one.

[Jed · Rating 5 out of 5]

An endearing, honest novel. Hawkins has an eye for detail and a sense for transforming the seemingly inconsequential into greater spiritual truths, then turning them back again.

An almost-50 woman gives up her job writing verse for a memento factory with no clear plan as to why or what's next and learns she has a gift for dog-whispering. It's like a coming of age story for a middle aged woman. I was deeply moved by the relationship of the protagonist to her elderly father near the end of his life.

[Janetlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not the typcial type of book I usually read and I wasn't sure I would really like it. Turns out that I truly enjoyed reading this book! Some books I read I can't remember the title 2 days after I've finished it, but I've found this book to provoke reflection. The main character decides to let her self go after her husband leaves her. She finds someone else in the most unexpected place, does things she never would have done had her life not changed, and finds she can talk to dogs and cats . . . . the book makes it all sound so logical! Very enjoyable read!

[Jena Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure if I liked it because it was good or because it confirmed some privately held beliefs about animals...regardless I enjoyed it. When Maryann's long time love leaves her, she quits her job and discovers her ability to hear the thoughts of her domesticated animals. Most interesting is her animals abilities to diagnose illness in others. This leads to her "following her bliss", which involves volunteering and then working for an animal shelter and planning funerals, as well as meeting her new love interest and losing her father.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an odd but strangely endearing book about a middle-aged woman remaking her life. Animals and issues of death predominate, and somehow she comes through all that to a pleasant and happy ending. The characters are quirky but believable, and I wanted to keep reading. The interspersed recipes are hilarious (I wish there had been more of them). Short chapters make this easy to read in little chunks, but the book flies by.

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book as a goodreads giveaway -- it was sweet, engaging, and odd. despite some difficulty suspending my disbelief and getting into the strange perspective of the main character, i found myself caring about the people, animals, and narrative... after awhile, the bizarre experiences of the narrator mattered less and her relationships with and understanding of the people (and animals) in her life mattered more. a quick and enjoyable read.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book. I read it over the course of an afternoon. It is a quick and easy read, yet it really moved me with its details of relationships between people and their animals. It is not sappy (think Marley and Me), but tells it like it is, which to me is so much more meaningful. It is also laugh-out-loud funny in some parts, yet other parts made me cry. All in all, a great read. I'm looking forward to the author's next novel!

[Jenk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a typical midlife crisis novel that throws in an interesting twist when the narrator becomes a "pet whisperer" of sorts. Animal-lovers will enjoy this book, for sure. For others, there is enough about life, death, and family to keep readers satisfied. I didn't really get the whole "I Ching" that was supposed to tie the novel together. I did appreciate the short, journal-like chapters. The novel was a quick, enjoyable read, but nothing earth-shattering here.

[Pam Cipkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept waiting for this one to get better, but it didn't really until the last 35 pages or so...just kept rambling...lot of minor characters introduced and then all of a sudden they were out of the story...didn't like the author's style: I'm no prude, but some of the sexual references made my skin crawl--she had a crude and gross way of describing some things...hard to root for the new love interest as he was painted as a very unattractive and sloppy individual...book was just ok.

[T · Rating 1 out of 5]

30% in, and this book is very not-good. Laundry lists of foods eaten, insipid dialogue, and a description of dog vomit. And these are the high points. A recipe for meatloaf given in prose interrupted by an uninspired and unconvincing explanation why she eats cows and not dogs (or something like that). Even the theme of her ESP with dogs was dull. If it gets good, I'll humbly eat crow (but not dogs (or something like that)).

Update: Book returned, unfinished. What a relief.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the narrator in this book and wish she lived nearby so we could walk our dogs together, and she could tell me what they are thinking.

Really, one day I may just stop with all the striving in my life and just see what happens. I'm sure it won't be as sad and funny as what happens in this novel, but it might be worth seeing.

[Bonnie]

Tender, loving, sad, happy, painful, generous, and I loved it. As an animal lover and firm believer that they know more than we think, I found this book compelling and I couldn't wait to find out what happened. I like the short chapters as I sometimes have to read in short spurts. I look forward to reading more books by Margaret Hawkins.

[Bernadette · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you purposely tried to withdraw from life: quit working, quit socializing, quit punching the clock at the factory of what-you’ve-always-done and finally begin to look around and ask what you want your life to look like? This is the heart of Margaret Hawkins delightful novel, A Year of Cats and Dogs.

Read more at http://rantsravesreviews.homestead.co...

[Larry Strattner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good "I was lost but now I am found" book. Books about close relationships between humans and animals are a favorite of mine. This is up there in terms of an original approach, some old tricks with original takes and it prompted me to take a look at the practice of I Ching. Worth a look. Beware,a more effective tear-jerker than Marley.