The Cat Who Saved Books - Review

Medium: Paperback

Publisher: HarperVia

Length: 198 Pages

Rating: 4.5/5

The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others – and the tremendous power of books.

Grandpa used to say it all the time: 'books have tremendous power'. But what is that power really?

Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.

After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .

Magical realism is one of my favorite genres to read. There is something specific though about magical realism that was originally written in another language that just hits! When I picked up this book and it was promoted as a magical realism work in translation about people who love books, and on top of all that there is a talking cat ... I've never bought a book faster. Originally written in Japanese, this work in translation is a beautiful mixture of Western literature references and very distinctly Japanese storytelling. The story was built for people who not only love to read, but love the books themselves. With each adventure we follow Rintaro and the talking cat on, we are introduced to a quandary that every life-long reader has thought on. For such a short book, the story packs a punch. Between the moral and ethical questions presented by the labyrinths, the personal growth of Rintaro, and the relationships built between the characters, each scene, piece of dialogue, and internal thought is deliberate. It all comes together as a gorgeous look at how humans connect over storytelling and sharing things that they love.

Literary Quandaries that Haunt Us

The three labyrinths that the talking cat brings Rintaro to can be broken down like this: 1) Who has time to re-read books anyway? 2) Who has time to read books anyway? and 3) Who is reading these books anyway?

Labyrinth 1: Re-reading

The man who reads all day locks away the books he finishes as trophies, never to be touched again. This is presented as neglect to the books, which are made to be read and loved over and over again. An argument that I have with myself all the time because -- like I said above -- who has the time to re-read books when there are so many out there that I haven't gotten to read yet? I don't want to only experience a book I loved once or never give a book I didn't really like the first time a second chance, but when there are upwards of 3 million books published each year what is one meant to do? The answer is you have to decide for yourself what you want to prioritize, but the most important part is that you are learning, growing, and enjoying what you read. As long as you feel connected with the books you read, you're doing it right. Just don't neglect the books you own, otherwise a shy but strong boy and a small but sassy cat with materialize in your house and vanish your books away.

Labyrinth 2: Summarizing/Speed-Reading

The man who dedicates his life to reading as many books as possible takes to cutting books up until all that is left is the "core" of the story. According to his philosophy reading the summary of The Odyssey will be just the same as reading the entire book. This way you can keep the attention of those who don't like reading and those who do, can read more books in a day than before. As someone who loves nuance, you loose so much by skimming or summarizing a story. It is within the details that the core message is driven home. Other people don't agree. They think that if you know the base ideas of the story, you know the story. From personal experience, listening to people talk about a book or summarize the book for you does not mean you know the story. I went into Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky after years of hearing about it from friends, family, and the general world thinking I knew what the story was about. I could not have been more wrong. I got the base plot, but none of the bits and pieces that made the book so loved. It still comes down to read what you want, but don't persist under the illusion that a summary or a skimming of a book is the same as having read it.

Labyrinth 3: Publishing Problems

It is this labyrinth that I feel is both the most relevant and the most controversial. A publisher is creating so many books that fit current trends in reading and are throwing them out the window as they publish them because they are producing more than is being consumed and keep having the change tact to meet customer taste. If you are on the book side of the modern internet at all, you are probably aware of the renewed discussion of overconsumption when it comes to buying books. There is a split on those who want to own any book they might want to read or multiple copies of books they already love and those who think you should only purchase books you will actually read. The surge of special editions, custom covers, sprayed edges, and so on has pushed people to "try and collect them all". In my opinion it all boils down to this: are you a collector -- like really a collector -- or are you buying into the moment. If you plan on selling your books off again, or just getting rid of them within a few years, then in my opinion you are contributing to the problem. If you are truly building a library of your own then go for it, buy all the beautiful books you want. (I do say this as someone who buys AND READS an extreme number of books.)

The second prong of this issue is the claim that publishers are printing high volume of low quality stories that match a current media trend instead of a lower volume of high quality stories that need to be heard. Can you say subjective? This is a truly a Schrodinger's Cat moment where both things are simultaneously true. I think there is a large number of lower quality books being marketed in a massive way to people while the higher quality books are being swept aside in the promotion. Modern social media is defiantly the main contributing factor to this. BookTok, Bookstagram, and Booktube all have fallen into the rut of talking about the same dozen books by the same dozen authors over and over again. (Please excuse the coming holier-than-thou attitude) True book people will go out of their way to branch out from the suggested internet popular books and find the shinier gold hidden amongst the tarnished. Every book has an audience, it is just a matter of finding the books that were made for you as an audience member. Yeah, yeah you don't have to like everything, but sometimes it is hard to wade through the slush.

I really could go on and on, taking about life-long readers vs. young readers vs. adult new-readers. I could mention the effect of Wattpad and AO3 and fanfiction on modern traditional publishing. I could bring in the audiobook argument and the very existence of abridged classics. I could bring up the debate of what is the job of the publishers vs. what is the job of the consumer. This is the reason that this book has left such an impression on me. These labyrinths forced to the forefront of my mind questions that have been hovering on the edges for years. That is what all brilliant books are meant to do right?

I know I didn't really discuss the story aspects of this novel as much as usual (or really at all), but it presented other topics of discussion that I thought were necessary to put out there. If you have read this book I would love to hear your opinions on the story! If you haven't read this book, please chime in on the questions the labyrinths covered! Do you re-read books often? How effective do you think summaries are at capturing the heart of a story? Any opinions on the current publishing landscape? Tell me all about it in the comments!

And as always,

Keep wondering and stay wandering!