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The Guest Cat - Takashi Hiraide, Eric Selland
The Guest Cat
by: (author) (author)
3.68 70
A wonderful sui generis novel about a visiting cat who brings joy into a couple’s life in Tokyo A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient... show more
A wonderful sui generis novel about a visiting cat who brings joy into a couple’s life in Tokyo A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife — the days have more light and color. The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens…. As Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work "really shines." His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae."
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780811221504 (0811221504)
Publisher: New Directions
Pages no: 140
Edition language: English
Bookstores:
Community Reviews
Chris' Fish Place
Chris' Fish Place rated it
3.5 13 Square
This is more a series of short stories/essays about more than one cat. The narrator and his wife are not cat people and slowly become so.It is not particularly gripping, but it is a good cat story. So if you like cats, it is worth reading. Just be warned - pet death. I also read Lucky Cat #1 for...
fromfirstpagetolast
fromfirstpagetolast rated it
I received a copy of this book from the publishers and this is my honest opinion of the book. A couple reside in a rented property in the suburbs in Japan. They are meandering through life when suddenly a cat, adopted by neighbours begins to visit their house. As the cat works its way into their h...
Dor Does Books
Dor Does Books rated it
3.0 It's a Japanese book about a cat, I'm going to be biased - The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide
[This book was provided to me for zero pennies by the publisher, Picador, their button-pressing approval made possible by NetGalley. Wren and I thank them profusely.] The Guest Cat is an odd little book. It is a fairly simple novella about a Tokyo couple who gradually become a second family to a n...
so many books, so little time
so many books, so little time rated it
4.0 The Guest Cat
Subtle and sad little story that stretches out from the couple and the neighbors' cat at the center of the it into the isolation of so much of life--in Japan and everywhere. To be read mindfully; then go hug your cat.
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Books by Takashi Hiraide
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