The Cat Inside [Hardcover]

William S. Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992

A meditation on the long and mysterious relationship between cats and their human hosts by one of America's leading literary outlaws traces back to the Egyptian cult of the ""animal other"" and includes anecdotes about the author's own cats.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

The septuagenarian beatnik would seem to be the least likely author of a cat book, but Burroughs has clearly mellowed some and here celebrates his favorite ``psychic companions.'' Full of sentimental anecdotes and bizarre pseudo-scholarly lore, his slim essay is, in his view, ``an allegory, in which the writer's past life is presented to him in a cat charade.'' Fans will indeed appreciate the references to beat legend, and the cats who witnessed those days in Tangier, Morocco, and Mexico City. The usual gang of suspects makes the briefest of cameos, from Allen Ginsberg to Jane Bowles. And then there are Burroughs's cats-- Ruski, Fletch, Horatio, Wimpy, et al.--none of whom does anything beyond acting like a cat. Of course, Burroughs adds some incoherent stuff about dogs (with their ``vilest coprographic perversions'') and about cats as natural enemies of the State. Lurid dreams of hybrids and mutants fill out a book also concerned with ``cuteness ratings.'' The hipster's (and hepcat's) answer to Cleveland Amory. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author

William S. Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914 in St Louis. In work and in life Burroughs expressed a lifelong subversion of the morality, politics and economics of modern America. To escape those conditions, and in particular his treatment as a homosexual and a drug-user, Burroughs left his homeland in 1950, and soon after began writing. By the time of his death he was widely recognised as one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the twentieth century. His numerous books include Naked Lunch, Junky, Queer, Nova Express, Interzone, The Wild Boys, The Ticket That Exploded and The Soft Machine. After living in Mexico City, Tangier, Paris, and London, Burroughs finally returned to America in 1974. He died in 1997. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670844659
• ISBN-13: 978-0670844654
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,216,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone and their "Cat Within", June 9, 2000

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cat Inside (Hardcover)

The Elder Statesman of the Beat Generation is best known for the fantastic creatures of his drug-induced fantasies and nightmares: the Reptiles and Mugwumps of "Naked Lunch", the ramora-like pseudo-human parasites of "Junkie", and others too loathesome to mention. In contrast, in this slim volume, William S. Burroughs introduces us to the real-life creatures who accompanied him throughout his tumultuous career and particularly during his old age. These are his numerous and beloved cats, with names like Calico Jane, Fletch, Rooski, Wimpy, and Ed. Any cat-person will identify with Burroughs' pleasure in the affection and antics of his feline friends and his heart-breaking grief in their loss. But it would be a mistake to label this book of recollections a "Warm & Fuzzy". Burroughs' affiliation with the Cat is on a quite archetypal level. He reveals a recurring sensation from his earliest childhood of cuddling a small, trusting, but long-unidentifiable creature, and to realize much later he was "cast in the role of the Guardian, to create and nurture a creature that is part cat, part human, and part something as yet unimaginable, which might result from a union that has not taken place for millions of years". This resembles the vaguely disturbing imagery of classic Burroughs, to be sure. But there comes to him a startling revelation "...and now the creature is clearly recognized as a cat spirit, a Familiar. I postulate that cats started as psychic companions, as Familiars, and have never deviated from this function." This is a shamanic departure from typical Burroughs or his contemporaries. But Bill's most "off-Beat" book will surely strike a chord with anyone who has -- or is! -- a cat Inside.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Senior writer/explorer develops awareness of cats., July 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cat Inside (Hardcover)

In his many years of travel and artistic and psychic exploration, Mr. Burroughs encountered a wide variety of mentalities. Whether or not they were comprehensible to the rest of us, he described them and commented on their apparent roles in the universe. When he finally settled outside an east Kansas college town, he gradually became strongly involved with those small, furry, almost-alien creatures we call cats. Why humans interact so deeply with some nonhuman species, and even how those species arose, are questions this small, poetic book considers. It is much more though, a record of a man's emotional interactions with some quite different types of mind and what they revealed to him. At the least, it may bring the reader to pause at the next encounter with a cat of the house or street, and carefully consider the reserved appraisal one receives from those clear eyes

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As my cat sits on my lap, March 29, 2002

By 

Lance K. Mertz "Fantasy and Sci-Fi Reader" (Kent, Washington) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cat Inside (Paperback)

From his exasperating need to be at the highest point in the room, to his function as a wrist rest while I type, my cat is a psychic companion. Loki is a classic "one-man-cat", though he will stray when I am not available. This book is so true on many levels, even the wild fantasies... Definitely one for the library.