The Guest Cat: Takashi Hiraide

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A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo. They work at home as freelance writers. They no longer have very much to say to one another. NPR This is a gentle, thoughtful and subtly profound work . . . It's the kind of work that makes you ask of its author: "How on earth did he do that?" as you find yourself dabbing your eyes and pausing to look wistfully into the distance . . . You will want to read The Guest Cat more than once, so you notice more details - seeing as you can't do this with life The Guest Cat’ is also, in some ways, a poetic ode to the cat lover. The narrator recalls feeling “absolutely disgusted” on witnessing the sweet affection oozing from his cat-loving friend’s eyes: “Having devoted themselves to cats, body, and soul, they seem at times utterly indifferent to shame.” With time, the narrator and his wife too, become cat lovers. I’m sure many fellow cat lovers will also be nodding in agreement when reading lines such as this: “For me, Chibi is a friend with whom I share an understanding, and who just happens to have taken on the form of a cat.” In Japanese folklore, cats are associated with good fortune, and today cats still hold a special place in Japanese society. Cat cafe culture started in Taiwan, but really exploded in Japan. Cats have also become integral to pop culture and kawaii culture (literally ‘Cute’ culture), with icons such as Hello Kitty and Jiji from Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. They feature frequently in Japanese literature as narrators, such as in So- seki Natsume’s ‘I am a Cat’, or as omens, as in many books written by Haruki Murakami. ‘The Guest Cat’, or Chibi, was a real cat, who came into the young couple’s lives much in the same way as Fortuna, or these literary cats as portents of change. The Guest Cat is a rare treasure . . . beautiful and profound . . . whether you're a cat lover or not, don't pass this one up

But then something happens that changes their lives again. Change over the passage of time is one of the main themes in this book. Others are about nature and the nature of belonging – who does Chibi belong to, were her visits to their home actually a homecoming or was her home really with the neighbours? This was one of the chords that resonated with me because my in-laws once had a little white cat, Mitzi, who went to live with one of their neighbours. The neighbours clearly thought she didn’t belong to them because although = they fed her and she lived with them they brought the vet bill to my in-laws for them to pay it. Living with his wife in a quiet suburb of Tokyo, a writer is working hard to realise his ambition of becoming a full-time poet. The book opens with a description of a view through a window, highlighting the monotony of the protagonist’s protracted days. The couple live a slow, almost separate life; they say little to each other beyond the necessary. One day their chemistry is altered by the appearance of a beautiful young kitten they name ‘Chibi’ (roughly meaning small child in Japanese). Chibi gives the couple a common topic to discuss and a child-surrogate to fawn over. At all times, however, it is clear that Chibi is the neighbours’ cat, and her visits are accompanied with a sense of loss. Highlighting the Japanese notion of self and other, insiders and outsiders, the story discusses ideas of ownership and the selfishness this brings. This is a gentle, thoughtful and subtly profound work, utterly without pretension or pyrotechnics (.....) And at the end, you find yourself confronted with a mystery; a small mystery, perhaps, but one that certainly gives you pause to think. You will want to read The Guest Cat more than once, so you notice more details -- seeing as you can’t do this with life." - Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian I was curious about this book – is it fact or fiction? So, I looked online and I came across this article, about a book signing/discussion organised by the Japan Foundation at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation’s venue on Cambridge Street in Manchester. Takashi Hiraide explained that some of the novel including the location and living quarters for instance, are based on fact, although the novel is a mixture of reality and fiction. Chibi remains a mystery -- and has definite boundary-issues -- so she remains unknowable in many respects, and the novel too keeps a certain distance (the narrator never even revealing his (or anyone's) name, for example).The language and descriptions are careful, elegant and lovely; while Hiraide’s book is ostensibly about a cat, it is more precisely about space and ownership. The book renders an unusually intimate, detailed and vivid picture of a place that is simultaneously private and open." - V. V. Ganeshananthan, The New York Times Book Review Eric Selland (translator) lives in Tokyo. He is the author of The Condition of Music, Inventions, and Still Lifes. He also explained that the novel is a Japanese ‘I’ novel and pointed out the problems in translating it into English. For example whereas in Japanese personal pronouns (such as ‘I’, ‘he and ‘she’) are not necessary in a sentence, in English they are. As a result the narrator, who in the novel is meant to be a detached observer, in the English translation sometimes becomes a character in the story, which explains the detached feeling I had whilst reading it. I was also interested to find out that Hiraide is influenced by modern art and that he regards book covers as an art form in themselves. So, the cover that first attracted me to the book was his choice (I guess).

An old friend dies the next year, while the old couple living on the property's main house (and from who the narrator and his wife are renting theirs) are also in decline, eventually moving to an old-age home, the man then dying and his wife wanting to settle the estate by putting the property on the market. Similarly, even though Chibi is a frequent visitor, she never becomes their cat (and their relationship with the cat does eventually become an issue of sorts with the actual owners) -- she is always just the temporary 'guest cat' of the title.

Book Genre: Animals, Asian Literature, Cats, Contemporary, Cultural, Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature Starred Review. This is a beautiful, ornate read, brimming with philosophical observation, humor and intelligence, leaving the reader anticipating more translated works of Hiraide." - Publishers Weekly The language and descriptions are careful, elegant and lovely; while Hiraide's book is ostensibly about a cat, it is more precisely about space and ownership. The book renders an unusually intimate, detailed and vivid picture of a place that is simultaneously private and open., New York Times The long Shōwa era comes to an end with the death of emperor Hirohito in 1989, and the couple move out of the guesthouse soon later, just at the tail-end of Japan's property boom, which soon heads towards a big bust (first published a decade after the events of the close of the book, Japanese readers of The Guest Cat were well-aware of where things were headed in the story). The Guest Cat’ delves into how cats can teach us to take joy in each moment — and how if we can do that, we can make the most of the gift we call life.