Cat People [Import] [Hardcover]

Michael Korda (Author), Margaret Korda (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340909501
• ISBN-13: 978-0340909508
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Warning: They Put a Cat Down for Biting, Not Cool, February 12, 2008

By 

Mariane Matera (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cat People (Hardcover)

I have written a cat book similar to this one, and I've been trying to find an agent to represent it, so I was curious to see how this one read. Well, considering the author is an editor at a major publishing house, that explains how such a small book, 163 pages and of almost paperback book dimensions, got published. And how it got published despite a rambling storyline that doesn't seem cohesive at times, with chapters that seem to come from other books and stuck in at random.

In short, the plot is: two people who like cats well enough meet, marry, and because they live in the country, acquire more cats. They are very civilized people, so the book is told in a very civilized, high society way, which waters down the humor of it a bit.

And it seems their neighbors, who had more than 20 cats at one time, would make a better book than the Kordas, who seldom have more than five in the house at a time. I have eight rescued strays and I live in the suburbs, so I think even I have a more interesting story.

Mr. Korda's little cat drawings are cute, though, and occasionally some of the stories are endearing or made me laugh, but the careless editing and plotting just got me mad, especially when I think of all the agents that keep turning me down and yet THIS got published.

And my other major upset, and a warning to cat lovers who might be thinking about buying this book, is what the Kordas did to Mrs. Bumble, the biter. They had her put to sleep. No, they didn't try a behavioral therapist first. They didn't try anything. They had a barn and a tack room, for goodness sakes, and they didn't even transfer her to barn cat status. Because she would occasionally bite hard without provocation, they put her down! She was a beautiful, healthy cat and even the vet had reservations, but did what the Kordas wanted. Death to cat. That kind of turned me off on these people, and the Mrs. Bumble incident comes halfway through the book, so you're ruined for the rest of it. I don't think you get to call yourself "Cat People" when you do something like that.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "I love my cats" ( but.....), August 24, 2006

By 

Ace (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cat People (Hardcover)

Nice anecdotes -- though I felt they were "holding" their cats at arm's length at times.

Sad to read about cats getting run over by neighbors -- the great outdoors is usually not very kind to a small being trying to cross even the quietest of streets.

I was also put off by the almost flippant way in which the brutal dog meat trade was discussed (page 2), and also by the way in which the equally brutal cat meat trade was dismissed as non-existent (and this book was written recently, so it's not for lack of knowledge of these facts). This book would have been a great way to alert people to the utter brutality and suffering that cats, dogs and other meat-trade animals are being subjected to over there -- even if it's just in one or two well versed sentences.

I don't approve of what they did to Bumble -- you don't kill a cat for biting you.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars In need of an editor, among other things., December 11, 2006

By 

D. Yunke (Clinton Township, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cat People (Hardcover)

I am a huge cat lover. Can't live without them, couldn't imagine even trying. So I was excited to get this book, as it seemed right up my alley. When I got it, I was disappointed in the size but good things come in small packages (or so they say) and I gave it a shot.

I'm still disappointed. For an editor-in-chief, Michael Korda is in serious need of one himself. Run on sentences and completely non-sensical paragraphs abound, and if he switched persons once he did it 50 times. One minute he's talking about his wife and her cat, and the next we're reading from his wife's point of view, and then all of a sudden it's 3rd person. I had to read sentences over and over just to get what was being said!

I didn't feel an emotional connection with the cats, either. How is it possible to desensitize a cat lover of my status? Bad writing, that's how. I was sad when the cat was hit by a car, but it was such a fleeting moment - given less than a paragraph of mention - that I couldn't feel THEIR loss.

Given what I know now, I wouldn't have bought this book. Take that as you will. I expected this to be funny and touching, much like Marley and Me (which I highly recommend) - but it fell much too short.