Though the total book is held together by the continuing theme of a nameless cat's observations on upper middle-class Japanese society of the Meiji era, its essence is in the humor and thesardonic truth of these various observations
Japanese classic written from the point of view of a wisecracking cat, full of wry observations. An imported book with a different cover, purchased overseas. In English, of course. Cat lovers will like it, as well as those interested in Japanese society.
More musings from the mind of this insightful Japanese cat. "Amusing and illuminating."
Japanese translation of a book of musings from a cat's perspective.
Told from the point of view of a cat, this book is a satire of intellectual society in Meiji era Japan. It is a slow read, and well worth savoring both for its acute observations of humanity and for the excellent use of language. It's clear from this translation how well the author understood the intellectual culture he mocks, because many of his jabs still ring true to anyone familiar with academia. There were times I laughed out loud while reading it, surprised and entertained.
I would recommend reading this book either if you have a lot of time to devote to it or one chapter at a time (as it was originally published). The elaborate language can be a little much after a while. I also was a little irritated by what seemed like copy-editing errors: "grain" instead of "grin" a couple times, and out-of-place capitalization. In such a word-centered book, and such a beautiful edition of it, these apparent errors were jarring. Of course, maybe they were meant to be that way, and some elaborate point was being made that I missed.
I would recommend reading this book either if you have a lot of time to devote to it or one chapter at a time (as it was originally published). The elaborate language can be a little much after a while. I also was a little irritated by what seemed like copy-editing errors: "grain" instead of "grin" a couple times, and out-of-place capitalization. In such a word-centered book, and such a beautiful edition of it, these apparent errors were jarring. Of course, maybe they were meant to be that way, and some elaborate point was being made that I missed.
This book is rather interesting and in very good condition. There are a few notes in the margins and a couple of highlights here and there as it was read for school. But good nonetheless
