Helpful Score: 1
full of humor and satire, good first person narrative of the life, times and adventures of a cat within a Japanese household. Cat is obviously superior beast. What a perspective!
Japanese translation of a book of musings from a cat's perspective.
Excellent book for those interested in Japanese society of the Meiji period presented with sardonic humor.
Told from the point of view of a cat, this book is a satire of intellectual society in Meiji era Japan. It is a slow read, and well worth savoring both for its acute observations of humanity and for the excellent use of language. It's clear from this translation how well the author understood the intellectual culture he mocks, because many of his jabs still ring true to anyone familiar with academia. There were times I laughed out loud while reading it, surprised and entertained.
I would recommend reading this book either if you have a lot of time to devote to it or one chapter at a time (as it was originally published). The elaborate language can be a little much after a while. I also was a little irritated by what seemed like copy-editing errors: "grain" instead of "grin" a couple times, and out-of-place capitalization. In such a word-centered book, and such a beautiful edition of it, these apparent errors were jarring. Of course, maybe they were meant to be that way, and some elaborate point was being made that I missed.
I would recommend reading this book either if you have a lot of time to devote to it or one chapter at a time (as it was originally published). The elaborate language can be a little much after a while. I also was a little irritated by what seemed like copy-editing errors: "grain" instead of "grin" a couple times, and out-of-place capitalization. In such a word-centered book, and such a beautiful edition of it, these apparent errors were jarring. Of course, maybe they were meant to be that way, and some elaborate point was being made that I missed.
This book is rather interesting and in very good condition. There are a few notes in the margins and a couple of highlights here and there as it was read for school. But good nonetheless
