The Travelling Cat Chronicles
by Hiro Arikawa
translated by Philip Gabriel
2012, reprinted 2018
Hiro Arikawa's The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a short, sentimental novel narrated by the cat, Nana, as his human Satoru revisits old friends in an attempt to settle Nana into a new home.
I know that almost all authors are trying to provoke emotional responses from their readers, but in Arikawa's case, I was consciously aware that she was trying to manipulate my feelings, and I resented it. By chance, I watched the documentary Objectified in between chapters while I was reading this. One of the product designers, in defending his own commitment to minimalism, said 'When the poet's sentiments are overly visible, the audience may become uncomfortable', which struck me as an accurate summary of how I felt most of the time while reading this. But knowing someone is trying to provoke you does not, by itself, defend you against it, and Arikawa got me to cry through the last two chapters.
So, I don't like that, but I know that many people do. A friend pressed this book into my hands, and when I complained that I felt manipulated, several others spoke up to say sometimes they want that. This was a best-seller in Japan before getting translated; I recognize that I'm the outlier here. And I sometimes enjoy YA that accurately captures the intense, amplified emotions of adolescence. But a big part of my complaint isn't that this is emotional, but that, to me, the emotions often felt forced, overstated, inauthentic.
The book is mostly narrated in the first person by a cat, but the way Arikawa imagines Nana talking isn't how I imagine a cat talking. That's not to say I'm right and she's wrong, but it means that I experienced most of the narration as feeling false.
Nana is a stray black-and-white kitten who likes to sleep on the hood of Satoru's silver van. Satoru names Nana for the Japanese word for 'seven', which is what Nana's tail looks like. Nana gets injured, so Satoru adopts him, and they live together for several years before Satoru suddenly starts trying to give Nana away to one of his old friends, for unstated reasons. Each attempt involves a van-ride and a trip down memory lane, which like, resolves some unfinished business between the two of them, before they decide Nana won't work out here, and the pair return home.
I did worry that was all a shaggy dog story, that we'd find out there was no reason, that Satoru never intended to give up Nana, and all that was a pretext for him to go reminisce and fix his friendships before keeping Nana in the end. But Satoru really is putting his affairs in order for a reason, and that reason is why the last couple chapters are so sad. The one thing I thought Arikawa captured the way it really feels is watching someone you care about be very sick and not being able to do anything to help them.
Satoru goes to visit his childhood best friend, then his buddy from middle school, the the couple he was pals with in high school and college, and finally moves back in with his aunt who raised him after his parents died. She kept having to move for work, which is why each chapter of Satoru's life was in a different location. We see that not only is the one spot of tension between Satoru and each of his friends healed, but his visit helps each of them fix something that's wrong in their life right now. Nana intentionally sabotages each visit so he can keep going home with Satoru, until they get to the aunt's house, which becomes his permanent new home.
I have a hunch that if you like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing or The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, then you will probably like this. I really haven't meant to read so many sad books recently, and I'll probably seek out something different for my next few reads.
I know that almost all authors are trying to provoke emotional responses from their readers, but in Arikawa's case, I was consciously aware that she was trying to manipulate my feelings, and I resented it. By chance, I watched the documentary Objectified in between chapters while I was reading this. One of the product designers, in defending his own commitment to minimalism, said 'When the poet's sentiments are overly visible, the audience may become uncomfortable', which struck me as an accurate summary of how I felt most of the time while reading this. But knowing someone is trying to provoke you does not, by itself, defend you against it, and Arikawa got me to cry through the last two chapters.
So, I don't like that, but I know that many people do. A friend pressed this book into my hands, and when I complained that I felt manipulated, several others spoke up to say sometimes they want that. This was a best-seller in Japan before getting translated; I recognize that I'm the outlier here. And I sometimes enjoy YA that accurately captures the intense, amplified emotions of adolescence. But a big part of my complaint isn't that this is emotional, but that, to me, the emotions often felt forced, overstated, inauthentic.
The book is mostly narrated in the first person by a cat, but the way Arikawa imagines Nana talking isn't how I imagine a cat talking. That's not to say I'm right and she's wrong, but it means that I experienced most of the narration as feeling false.
Nana is a stray black-and-white kitten who likes to sleep on the hood of Satoru's silver van. Satoru names Nana for the Japanese word for 'seven', which is what Nana's tail looks like. Nana gets injured, so Satoru adopts him, and they live together for several years before Satoru suddenly starts trying to give Nana away to one of his old friends, for unstated reasons. Each attempt involves a van-ride and a trip down memory lane, which like, resolves some unfinished business between the two of them, before they decide Nana won't work out here, and the pair return home.
I did worry that was all a shaggy dog story, that we'd find out there was no reason, that Satoru never intended to give up Nana, and all that was a pretext for him to go reminisce and fix his friendships before keeping Nana in the end. But Satoru really is putting his affairs in order for a reason, and that reason is why the last couple chapters are so sad. The one thing I thought Arikawa captured the way it really feels is watching someone you care about be very sick and not being able to do anything to help them.
Satoru goes to visit his childhood best friend, then his buddy from middle school, the the couple he was pals with in high school and college, and finally moves back in with his aunt who raised him after his parents died. She kept having to move for work, which is why each chapter of Satoru's life was in a different location. We see that not only is the one spot of tension between Satoru and each of his friends healed, but his visit helps each of them fix something that's wrong in their life right now. Nana intentionally sabotages each visit so he can keep going home with Satoru, until they get to the aunt's house, which becomes his permanent new home.
I have a hunch that if you like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing or The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, then you will probably like this. I really haven't meant to read so many sad books recently, and I'll probably seek out something different for my next few reads.
No comments:
Post a Comment