Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Cat Who Went to Heaven

The Cat Who Went to Heaven
reviewed on + 25 more book reviews


I thought this was going to be a sweet story of how a cat spends time in heaven, but I was so wrong. (SPOILER ALERT!) Instead, the cat sits before a mantel, worshiping Buddha. The artist that owns him is painting all the creatures Buddha transformed into, thinking, "Buddha was a lion. The lion saved a bird. The bird was happy." Then he'd paint the picture in his mind. However, the cat was sad that a cat was not on the painting. The cat would die of sadness if the artist did not paint a cat. The artist had a struggle, knowing that Buddha never transformed into a cat. Still, he doesn't want his cat to die, so he paints a cat anyway. The cat doesn't die of sadness--she dies of JOY! When the person who requested the painting saw the cat in the painting, he got mad, because Buddha was never in the form of a cat, and then he threw the picture in the fire.
The artist was sad, never hired again, and poor forever more. And the cat was dead.
This story makes no sense and should be called The Cat Who Died. Even though it gives an introduction to Buddhist culture, it was a waste of time to read.