Play Book Tag discussion

The musical 'Cats' forever ruined for me T.S. Eliot's collection of poems about cats - in a bad way because I really dislike that show. I found it incredibly boring after the initial wonder of the production had eased...about 15 minutes into the first act.

Or so I thought.

For the first time since 1982 I have reread these delightful* poems and have been utterly charmed. *well charmed except for the overt racism in 2 of the poems. I had not remembered that, and granted I last read them before 'politically correct' was even coined, it was still obvious. I suspect that even for 1939, the racist references to Asians were insupportable. I chose not to demerit my rating for it, mostly because of the illustrations in the edition. (An aside, I reread a year or so ago The Wasteland, Prufrock and Other Poems, published in 1922, and don't recall anything so overtly racist.)

I have to rhapsodize over the whimsical charm of the illustrations in this 2009 edition drawn by the gifted children's book illustrator Axel Scheffler. Loved loved loved them. (And nothing racist about them either). In fact, I deliberately purchased this particular illustrated edition to revisit these poems after reading about the various illustrators who have enhanced them.

Theresa wrote: "The musical 'Cats' forever ruined for me T.S. Eliot's collection of poems about cats - in a bad way because I really dislike that show. I found it incredibly boring after the initial wonder of the ..."


I'll have to look for that one. I only know the Edward Gorey illustrations. I haven't owned a cat in over 15 years. I'm too much of a dog person. But if i ever had another cat, I would name it after one of these poems.

I bought this for my daughters best-friend for Christmas-I skimmed through it before wrapping and wished I had something else to give him-lol

Joanne wrote: "I bought this for my daughters best-friend for Christmas-I skimmed through it before wrapping and wished I had something else to give him-lol"

As I read the first couple of poems, I was thinking about it being a great gift for a friend's 8 yr old son...then I came to the pirate poem, with extremely racist verses, and thought 'nope'. I do wrestle with 'using as a teaching moment' though. I will no doubt discuss it with his mother and just lend them my copy if she wants.

My friend is an adult-so I did not have to make sure it was PG13-I will be asking him to borrow it though!