The Cat and the City - Nick Bradley

Description

A stray cat dances through Tokyo, connecting a group of apparent strangers, in this inventive literary debut.

In Tokyo - one of the world's largest megacities - a stray cat is wending her way through the back alleys. And, with each detour, she brushes up against the seemingly disparate lives of the city-dwellers, connecting them in unexpected ways. But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers - from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo's denizens, drawing them ever closer.

In a series of spellbinding, interlocking narratives - with styles ranging from manga to footnotes - Nick Bradley has hewn a novel of interplay and estrangement; of survival and self-destruction; of the desire to belong and the need to escape.

Formally inventive and slyly political, The Cat and The City is a lithe thrill-ride through the less-glimpsed streets of Tokyo.

Review

It's hard to believe that this is the author's first book or that it is not in fact written by someone who is Japanese. The writing is just brilliant and certainly evoked memories of my trip to Japan. I have to say I never visited the seedy side of Roppongi district in Tokyo so I can't vouch for that, and some may find some of that side of the book not to their taste.

When the author wrote this book he would have no reason to doubt that the Olympics would not be going ahead in 2020 and so you do have to go along with the references of Tokyo preparing for the Olympics and people flying in for them.

Seemingly full of short stories, as you begin to read further into the book one or two of the characters are repeated and so you start to see the connections. The main connection throughout is of course the cat in the city. My only trouble was the mixed up time line - when you meet the characters again it could be before or after you last read about them. I almost want to read it again and really get to know them all better.

I loved the part about the American translator and it was so clever the way her footnotes were built into the tale she translated. I also loved the "cat scan" and could sense where that part of the story was heading. 

The book does contain a lot of Japanese words - most of which I was familiar with and got the "jokes", but don't let that put you off as the story flows without knowing what they mean. It even contains a bit of manga, which I found difficult to read on the kindle. 

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.