REVIEW: 'I am a Cat' by Soseki Natsume

With the whole summer off from university, I have decided to spend more of my time reading for pleasure, which includes dipping into literature outside of Britain and the USA. I’ve already grown to like books by Haruki Murakami, but am willing to try out other popular authors from this country. One such Japanese classic is Soseki Natsume’s ‘I am a Cat’, which I first heard about from my sister (a student of Japanese at university). So when I saw it in the library I was eager to pick it up. Sadly, it didn’t quite meet my expectations.

==---Plot---==

‘I am a Cat’ is a collection of short stories that had been published in a notable Japanese literary magazine between 1905 and 1906. It chronicles the day to day observations of an unnamed cat on the humans around him. The cat is an intelligent, philosophical narrator who thinks most humans to be inferior beings, especially as the household that reluctantly take him in- which consist of his eccentric master Mr. Sneaze, the put-upon mistress, three reckless children and a housekeeper that loathes him- don’t treat him well at all. Through this unique perspective Natsume gives a social commentary on the changes happening in early 20^th-century Japanese society, such as growing modernisation of the country and its growing Western influence, as discussed by the human characters.

==---Opinion---==

I will say that Natsume’s cat narrative is fantastic to read: anthropomorphic, witty, deep-thinking and more intelligent than most of the human cast. He isn’t afraid to speak his mind about how (most) humans are inferior and seemingly incapable of emotion, which is understandable given the way he is treated by his adoptive family as well as how they expect him to behave. For example, the master and mistress consider him useless just because he can’t catch rats nor alert them to a thief (which he in fact tried to do in one story; they were just too deep in sleep to ignore him). Natsume himself was an English university lecturer and widely read, so ‘I am a Cat’ has extensive references to Western and Eastern literature of the past and present, culture and philosophy which further develop the cat’s character. As a Western reader such references allow me to connect to the book and its messages more easily. Whilst the cat sometimes comes off as arrogant to a fault, it is still a sympathetic and funny narrator that readers can relate to despite belonging to a different species. The rest of the characters are also brought to life through our cat’s perspective. For example, we learn that his master, Mr. Sneaze, is a humourless man, eccentric and easily influenced by others. None of the supporting human cast are made really likeable but they are developed enough for our feline protagonist to give his snarky opinion on their actions. Therefore the ending of the whole series was unexpected and a little sad, reflecting once again on how unwanted the poor cat is.

My biggest problems with ‘I am a Cat’ are the long, long paragraphs of dialogue, usually between the master and his friends. The cat narrator disappears to tell us everything that these men say, even though the subject matter of which isn’t always interesting because they turn out to be incredibly lengthy stories that even the characters comment on as being too long to be worth their time! These happen in almost every short story and are can be spread over a dozen pages. I just found these so boring because there’s hardly any narrative outside of it- just two to five characters talking back and forth- and ended up skimming over these for fear of falling asleep in the middle of them. It doesn’t help that Natsume Soseki’s writing style (or the translation, but I’m more sure it’s the former because it would try to capture his nuances) uses a lot of complex words during these dialogues.

==---Overall---==

Therefore, whilst ‘I am a Cat’ is a thought-provoking read, with a unique narrative and an interesting outlook, is let down by becoming boring to the point where I was forcing myself to finish it. The dialogues simply made the book unreadable in places because I was expecting more witty narrative and less “social commentary”. However, people whom are interested in this period of Japan will perhaps find the stories more readable, so by means I still recommend it to those looking for an intelligent piece of classical literature from Japan.

This review is based on a library copy. It may also be found on 'ciao!' and Dooyoo.