The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are [Hardcover]

Bruce Eric Kaplan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 2002

A hilarious renouned master of observation comments on the way we live with the help of cats Bruce Eric Kaplan captures the silly and absurd language of humans and places it in the mouths of cats to produce a hilarious comment on the way we live. As the 50 cats talk about their lives and influences, it turns out that they, in their own feline way, have the same vanities, the same foibles, the same ambitions, and the same excuses as people. In their own words, we hear from such cats as Jelly Bean, who felt hopelessly misunderstood and alienated until she met Dorothy, a cat down the road with the same predisposition to skittishness; Puffin, whose brief fling with a cat named Henry thrust her into the ugly underworld of saltwater taffy addiction; and Evelyn, filled with a renewed sense of possibility when she witnessed a misfit cat named Stinky reinvent himself as Prince Volgar of Budapest. This is a strange and wonderful book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The New York Sun In its portrayal of common housecats struggling through existential crises and moments of catharsis, [The Cat That Changed My Life is] hysterical in that way that makes you want to pick up the phone and read along (through gasps for air) to a friend. -- Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Bruce Eric Kaplan has contributed more than four hundred cartoons to The New Yorker, many of which were collected in his first book, NO ONE YOU KNOW. He lives in Los Angeles, where he has written for such television shows as SEINFLED and SIX FEET UNDER.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743219449
• ISBN-13: 978-0743219440
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,952,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance Personified, September 18, 2002

By 

Cara D DiPaolo (Scaggsville, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are (Hardcover)

This book is a literary masterpiece. If I could have one wish, it would be to meet Bruce Eric Kaplan and shake his hand. He has taken the art of animals "speaking" and really made them say "something." A lot of times I'll look at my cat and think she's trying to tell me stuff, like that she loves me or that it's time to change her litter. (But I can't understand her, because she's a cat.) Bruce, however, has used these piercingly perceptive creatures to voice the inner truths, anxieties, neuroses and longings of all cognitive creatures - great and small. Delightful!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 8 Paw Salute!!!, January 2, 2006

By 

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

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This review is from: The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are (Hardcover)

My cats persuaded me to write this review, after I read this fine fine book to them. They admit that yes, they ARE "vain, decadant and self absorbed with few redeeming qualities, and many quirks", and they are quite happy to reside in this mode. One likes to lie flat on her belly and chew on my exercise bench when she is not sitting spellbound, listening to my female country music singer CD's. The other, a long haired foundling, likes to fill the hallways with her self-pitying wails. I have sometimes found my keys and my charge cards under their food mats..... They do delight in their personal perversions. And then again, am I, their human, considered by them to be any less bizarre?

Anyway, they allowed me to read this book to them, and after the last page, they stopped what they were doing long enough to lie on their backs and wiggle their paws in the air, giving this book an unprecedented 8 Paw Salute. Then they went back to their usual routines.

They insisted that they have KNOWN some of the book's characters personally, and tell me that BEK did a fine job -- for a human, that is -- in portraying the many twisted and not-so-twisted personalites of these feline individuals. They also want to know how much these cats were paid to be interviewed.

Was their enjoyment of this book a one-time phenomenon? I doubt it -- As I started to re-shelve this wonderful little book the other night, one of my cats, who lay fully stretched out on my side of the bed said in her breathy catnip-tinged voice "Read it again, Sam." I was so shocked when I heard her say that -- now, I want to know who this Sam is......

Buy this book, even if you DON'T have any cats to read it to. Buy it for your friends, even if THEY don't have any cats to read it to.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great treat for insiders, August 21, 2002

By 

Clea Simon "avid reader" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are (Hardcover)

This is a great book for people who truly love cats -- in other words, it's a series of marvelous sketches that reveal the rich, interior lives that these intelligent creatures may possibly have ... no, it's not for children, but for adults who like their humor with a touch of wry, this is grand fun.