Customer Reviews

The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

It's this simple if you loath the cat who books and the woman who writes them and enjoy GRAPHIC sexual descriptions and no holds barred bad taste THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU! If you do not feel that way and enjoy The Cat Who.. books there is NOTHING here worth wasting your time on. I enjoy the books but would not mind a well written parody of the series. THIS IS NOT IT!

This alleged parody of Lilian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who..." series belongs in the litter box. Sure, the LJB franchise has been going downhill for quite some time, but not nearly deserving of this dumper. It's not parody - it's a lame excuse for porn. Adolescent boys might get off on it, but other than that, it's catty and pointless and puerile and prurient and stinks worse that the other stuff in the litter box. Reviewed by TundraVision

I wish I'd read some of the reviews before I picked it up from the library! I have no objections to paradies in general, but this is badly written. Like some of the previous reviewers, my main objection is the overt sexual references. It could have been very funny without being explicit. I mean, I loved the title. Guess I should have just stopped there.

Amazon needs a zero star category for bools like this! I have a sense of humor, and can appreciate someone poking fun at some of the absurdities of LJB's book series, but this book was disgusting. It wasn't even a parody! All it was to me was an excuse for the author to talk about the male reproductive organ at every opportunity. That requires no imagination. The author more than made up for the lack of sex in LJB's novels, and sent me rushing back to them to clear my mind of the mental images left from his book!! I think perhaps the author hates LJB for some mysterious reason! YUCK!!!!!!!!!

It is wildly extravagant to call this book a satire or parody of the Lilian Jackson Braun "The Cat Who..." books. Braun's books may be formulaic, especially in her more recent tomes, but they are always very good reading.

Braun is very convincing in her male voice of the central character, James Quilleran, former newspaper reporter, now murder-mystery-solving philanthropist. Her descriptions of catly behavior, north central American places, and small town mores are colorfully and engagingly written. Her characters are well- developed and carry over from book to book, creating a village of characters, which Braun fans feel they know like old friends.

On the other hand, "The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun" is very poorly written. It cannot stand on its own as a book worth reading. It relies on heavily the reader's knowledge of Braun's writings for meaning and so-called humor.

There is no humor, no satire, no parody in this trash. There are many disgusting sexual and perverse situations and charaterizations in Kaplow's book. The tone is pure trash novel sleaze. Braun's favorite characters are made into absurd and obscene cartoons. A heavy hand serves up vulgar attempts to be funny, but they fall flat again and again. I am no prude and do not object to the language, but here the attempt to gross out readers is so obvious and so grotesque, that it interferes with the attempted satire. It does not "flow" -- it barks!

I threw the book down in disgust. I was not irate because Kaplow tried to rip Braun's genre (cat lovers' murder mysteries), but because the book was slapped together in about one day, with little thought or care.

I must have been dreaming to think this book was going to be a humorous satire!

It ain't.

I wasted my money. Don't waste yours.

I guess I'm one of the little old ladies, but I could not finish this book. All the scatology would appeal to 8-year-old boys, but they are too young for the sexual scenes. I just found this book too stupid to waste my time reading it. It is too bad this review system does not allow for negative stars.

I really, really wish I had read the reviews before I wasted my money on this book - a friend had the title pop up on her "If you like Lilian Jackson Braun, you'll like this..." and I bought it on the basis of that information. WRONG!!!!! I couldn't even finish it; my friend managed to struggle through to the end but hated it. The parodying may be excellent, but I couldn't wade through all the graphic sexual scenes to appreciate the parody. There should have been some clue in the actual description of the book. Caveat emptor!!!

No stars preferred for Mr. Kaplow's unfunny, unoriginal, grossly vulgar and sub-sophomoric The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun: A Parody. A successful parody requires wit, erudition, a sense of play, a shrewd selection of targets, and some actual humor. None of these are displayed in this sorry and needless massacre of innocent trees. If the author seeks to display venom, he has certainly achieved that. Unfortunately for him, he has also displayed the "fulsome settlings" of his inner mind.

The Cat Who books are certainly not above parody, and they may indeed annoy some people enough to make them angry enough to write a biting satire. However, throwing a bucket of random names and manure over a general subject does not constitute a parody.

Readers, Braun fans or not, can save money and have an equivalent experience by standing in a cow barn on a hot day and taking a deep whiff.

Although the LJB "Cat Who.." books are PG and for children, this parody is not for kids. Besides the detailed pornographic actions of the main character, the way she was murdered is pretty gross.

However, the parody is terrific. The writing is funny. And every aspect of the LJB books are made fun of. For example:
Instead of country town it's in NJ. Wholesome characters are far from that. And the cats are irrelevant when it comes to solving this case. Also, I found a great pun of LJB's style of using common items as murder weapons. Instead of butter knives or fireplace pokers, we have a shaver and dildo!

It's creatively cleaver and fast-paced reading. But it can be disrespectful to serioius LJB fans and even perhaps her family?
To repeat: NOT FOR CHILDREN!!!

I expected this book to be in the same spirit as the other "Cat Who..." books--humorous and light-hearted. I found it to be disgusting and extremely misleading. I agree with the reviewer who said her copy was going into the dustbin. Mine is already there.