Deceptively simple or just a little bit naff? The Travelling Cat Chronicles

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Thorndike Press

Pp. 327

Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel, this novel (first published in 2015) had reviewers gushing that it was gentle, wise, witty, beguiling and full of simple but deceptive prose. I didn’t realise I was quite so cynical, but I have to wonder, is it deceptive or just simple and is it really profoundly charming or just a little bit naff?

The novel is mainly narrated by Nana, a cat named after the Japanese word for seven, which is considered to be lucky and the shape of the cat’s tail. Nana was a stray cat who was nursed by Satoru after being hit by a car. In return, Nana lives with Satoru and gives him affection. When Satoru knows he is dying, he wants to make sure Nana has a happy home so he sets off on a road trip to visit possible adoptive homes and friends.

These travels give Satoru an opportunity to spark memories and reconnect with old friends. He and Nana meet Yoshimine, the brusque and unsentimental farmer who thinks cats are just for catching rats, Sugi and Chikako, the warm-hearted couple who run a pet-friendly B&B, and Kosuke, the mournful husband whose cat-loving wife has just left him. In the pages concerning Kosuke, the point of view switches to the third person omniscient narrator who tells us about the boys’ friendship and how they bonded with a cat called Hachi (which means eight) when they were both in elementary school.

When we see Nana’s perspective he instructs us on cat behaviour, such as why they like cardboard boxes rather than special beds and toys. Nana doesn’t understand certain human idiosyncrasies including their fondness for the sea, and he also questions their need to concern themselves about burials and cemeteries. “When an animal’s life is over, it rests where it falls, and it often seems to me that humans are such worriers, to think of preparing a place for people to sleep when they are dead. If you have to consider what’s going to happen after you die, life becomes doubly troublesome.”

As well as teaching kittens to stand up for themselves and explaining feline ways, Nana also cares for his adopted human. He’s a proud cat, but he’s loyal, loving and perceptive. The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a novel about the bond between humans and their animals, but it also about the power of friendship from childhood to adults. Without the support of those he visits, Satoru would not have grown into the kind and gentle man he has become – the kind of man who would scour the country to find the perfect home for his cat.

My Newest Favourite Thing: Galeanthropy

Penelope pretending to be a cat

I have learned a new word, which I absolutely love.

Galeanthropy: A mental condition of thinking that one has become a cat, usually manifest in the adoption of feline mannerisms and habits.

I think Penelope may have it. That is all. 

Friday Five: ISO Puzzles

As part of the not being able to travel anywhere vibe, we are doing puzzles of places we can't currently visit. We've done this before, but puzzles become a little bit trickier when one has cats in the house. It turns out that many paws do not make light work. Who knew? 

5 Puzzles Completed:

1. 
   




Rialto Bridge, Venice







Seljalandsfoss, Iceland

2. 
   



Island Archway, Great Ocean Road, Australia

This is the reason the above image is called the island archway. It used to be - now, due to erosion it has become two pillars instead.










Biking in Tuscany

This last is another from the whimsy collection lent to me by the good Dr Kay. I love Lowry so really enjoyed completing this puzzle. I'm now considering a Lowry cross-stitch... 



Market Scene, Northern Town - L.S. Lowry

Cosy Cat Crime: The Cat Who Sniffed Glue

The Cat Who Sniffed Glue by Lilian Jackson Braun

Jove Books

Pp. 200

The eighth book in The Cat Who… mystery series is a light-hearted mystery featuring an eligible bachelor, Jim Qwilleran, and two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Qwilleran is biggish, 50-ish, and with a moustache that bristles when he is ‘on to something’. He is a bachelor so he eats out at restaurants every night and has a succession of lady-friends, whom he calls for dinner dates. They are always keen to accept (perhaps because of his inherited fortune) and he has a succession of romantic entanglements with housekeepers, librarians and interior designers.

The cats play a major role in his life, and they are incredibly spoiled, with their own apartment and chef. With feline intuition, they help Qwilleran solve crimes as he explains the details of cases to them, and they respond with clues such as banging into things, sitting on vital evidence, or tripping up villains.

The novel is set in Pickax City, Moose County, “400 miles north of everywhere”, with nearby towns called Chipmunk and Brrr (it’s the coldest place in the county) bursting with folksy characters. Written in 1988, it is a novel of its time, before the digital age. Newspapers are still read in physical form; the town does not have one but Qwilleran, himself a ‘newspaper man’ helps to establish The Moose County Something. It is going to “hit the streets” in a week, and there is no name for it – maybe things were run differently thirty years ago, but this still seems very slack in a corporate world, and is yet another aspect of the novel that is exceptionally homey.

Braun also incorporates theatrical tropes into her mystery, as each chapter is introduced with Place, Time, and Cast – this is both an original device and means to introduce characters, but also an example of lazy description and stereotypical characters. Interior designers and architects see buildings as a set designer would, and places are described like stage directions.

The crime begins with vandalism and drink driving, but all are shocked when it progresses to murder. It is what is described as a ‘cosy mystery’, the increasingly-popular genre of crime that is the literary equivalent to a hot cup of tea; the perfect antidote to the daily onslaught of violence and outrage. The characters are broadly drawn, there will be more description of meals eaten than of wounds inflicted, there is very little violence or pain, but copious cold leads to follow in the quaint little community, and the murders don’t really matter all that much. In these olden times there are no forensics, and red herrings include plenty of opportunities for the cat to sniff glue: snowshoes; bookbinding; taxidermy; model-ship making; theatrical make-up.

Amazon has three sub-categories of ‘cosy mystery’: animals; crafts and hobbies; and culinary. This places itself firmly in the former category, and if you know what to expect, you will not be disappointed.

Muddle-Headed Storytime

The Muddle-Headed Wombat by Ruth Park with illustrations by Noela Young

Published by Angus & Robertson

Pp. 225

This Australian children’s classic is an utterly delightful tale of a wombat and his adventures with Mouse and Tabby, his second-best friend. The animals live in a little house at the edge of Big Bush which is “green and quiet and airy, and the right place for animals to live.” They go to school, visit the circus, have holidays by the sea and build a treehouse that collapses in a storm. Frequent squabbles punctuate their escapades, as they have many differences, but they always make up as they realise the value of friendship.

Wombat is muddle-headed because he is a Wombat. He mixes up words and can’t count past four – “He runs out of paws, that’s the trouble” – but he likes to be helpful although his favoured solution to a problem is to sit on things. He is thrilled to be going to school where “We’re going to learn things like four and eight make eleventy one and C O W spells cat, and things like that.” Similar to Pooh Bear he is not bright although he has inimitable logic, such as when he eats a packet of chalk but not the green because “it might taste like spinach and I don’t like spinach.” He is good at digging and seeing in the dark and is very loyal and loves his friends, which in turn makes him loveable.

Mouse is fastidious and house proud, always cleaning things, preparing meals (pancakes for Tabby; snails for Wombat; and mosquitoes for itself) and polishing its spectacles. Referred to throughout as ‘it’, Mouse is gender neutral, although this was written in 1962 and Mouse carries its long tail “over its arm as though it were the train on an evening dress” so is possibly meant to be female. Mouse is also sentimental and cares for things and people, particularly the grey tabby cat whom it adopts because “He was skinny and miserable and he had a peaky little face with big ears. He wore a bright red bow tie, but anyone could see it hadn’t been washed and ironed for weeks.”

Like many cats, Tabby is vain and thinks he is handsome, while he also claims to be frail and delicate, mainly to get out of hard work. He is very good at building things, however, such as a caravan and a treehouse and is also remarkably resilient, surviving being sucked into a carpet cleaner, dropped from a great height while performing as a puppet, and accidentally shaken into a stream, not to mention being sat on by Wombat who thinks “if he were sat on once or twice, and flattened out like a bookmark, it would do him the world of good.”

Noela Young’s charming illustrations add to the humour of the stories and caricature the animals highlighting their best and worst traits. They regard themselves as a family and they constantly attempt to adapt to living with each other while retaining their individuality. The tales are equally diverting and reassuring and were loved by both the adults and the children at holiday story-time. 

Licky-likey?

A sketch of her cat, Cort, by Sarah Morrissey

Today I learned another totally useless but mildly interesting fact - why yes, I do collect them. Apparently 45% of people lick the lid of their yoghurt pot. 10% of people in the survey said they didn't eat yoghurt. This leaves a whopping 45% of people who don't lick the lid. Who are these people? And why?

I can only assume that they are of the 'younger generation' who don't buy their own groceries and are therefore quite content to waste someone else's money on uneaten dairy product. I also assume that their parents have not lived through an era of rationing so they have never received the lecture on the sin of food waste. Nor have they ever had the one about starving children in Africa. Or they simply have no shame.

Of course, I'm talking individual yoghurts here, not the big family-sized one, as that would be unhealthy and a bit odd. The only reason I can see for not licking the lid is because they used to be made of tin foil and if you tore that and then licked it you could cut your tongue. Hands up who's done that? Just me, then. Well, most of them now are that plastic sort of substance and it's very difficult to cause yourself a mischief with that.

I'm not sure that I know a single person who belongs to the non-lid-licking 45%. Even my cat licks the lid, and the empty pot for that matter, and he gets his little face stuck in there which is quite funny but he won't thank me for sharing that with you. So, if you are one of these mystery container top abstainers, could you please explain your reasoning? I'd really like to know.

Monopoly Shock!

According to a recent press release from Hasbro, the game of Monopoly has got a new player. The iron counter has been replaced with a cat, after a Facebook voting poll.

Now, anyone who shares their life with a cat will not be surprised by this news. After-all, whenever they try to play Monopoly, there has always been a cat on the board. Ba boom tish!

Friday Five: Rent Requirements

We are looking for a place to rent. There are a lot of possibilities, so we have to narrow them down. At the same time it will probably be a short-term lease so we're not looking to stay there forever.

The location is important. I would like somewhere with trees and close proximity to water. It is also paramount that I be able to walk to the shops/cafes and there is a bit of a village feel, rather than a soulless suburb in a cultural wasteland.

But let's focus solely on the house - and preferrably it is a detatched house rather than an appartment or a terrace. Although, of course, we could mostly live anywhere if necessary, there are some things that are very high on the wish list, and yes, I realise this is exactly what we own.

5 Things I Want in a House:

1. Three bedrooms - our room, guest room and office (preferrably one with an ensuite)
2. Open plan living areas - I'm happy to be in the kitchen cooking if I can still mingle with the conversation in the front room; good flow to the outdoor area also works for entertaining
3. A garage or large lockable shed - I don't care about the car, but we need somewhere safe and dry to put the bikes (and the beer)
4. A bath - it's not a bathroom if it hasn't got a bath
5. Must take pets - our cat goes where we go; that really is non-negotiable

My Newest Favourite Thing: Simon's Cat

No explanations necessary.