Customer Reviews

The Cat Who Went Bananas

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(31)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

I didn't feel that this book rambled on nearly so much as the last couple which just seemed to go on and on without going anywhere, and was actually relatively happy until the end which I found completely disappointing. I am ready for Qwill to finger a baddy again. It seems like it's been a while.

I agree with an earlier reviewer don't tease me about Celia. I think she's my favorite chraracter and we never hear from her anymore. And don't tease me about Polly and Qwill splitting up. Violet sounded great for Qwill. I was hoping we were finally going to get the end of the Queen of the Boring People, but alas no, on for one more :(.

I have read or listened to everyone of The Cat Who series and loved all the rest. This has the same formula with the clues from Koko and Quill's mustache moving the plot and building anticipation but then it ends with all the questions unanswered!

A terrible ending!

I have read every book Lilian Jackson Braun ever wrote and enjoyed most of them. Yes the plots were always lame and the endings stupid, but I enjoyed the characters and at least the previous books HAD endings. In my life I imagine I've read thousands of mystery novels. In fact I am a professional writer myself. This was by far the worst I have EVER read and in fact I want my money back from the publisher! How dare the publisher put out a book that is unfinished! The mystery is never resolved! This book violates the basic compact between mystery writer and reader: I will write a book with plot twists and turns and you can try to figure them out and then I will reveal the answers to you. This book simply stops dead, as if the author suddenly got tired of writing it or died or something and then they decided to publish it anyway. I am incensed at the waste of my time and money. Shame on you, author and shame on you publishing house for putting it out! This is the LAST "Cat Who" book I will ever read.

While this is definitly an improvement on its predecessor, it still does not meet the higher standard set by the earlier books.

The Good Stuff: It moves along quickly, easily, and jauntily, and while dealing with a lot of unrelated things, it is not as choppy as some of the previous installments have been. There is much more interaction between Qwill and Polly, and she has more dimension than she has been showing lately. Their relationship becomes a little more believable in the context of things. The more interesting/colorful of the Pickax denizens are visible both in context of the story and as background. For instance, the self-parody of "Eccentric Small Town in the Boondocks" laid on for the media for the benefit of the gullible living 'Down Below' was absolutly exquisite.

There is a charismatic new feline employee/mascot ( his status is not ascertained as yet) at the new bookstore who shows promise. Both a Literary Society and Theatre Arts school have been formed, giving the potential of some interesting stuff happening in subsequent books.

The Bad Stuff: More loose ends than a macrame owl. What happened to Kenneth/Whiskers? Is he even still alive? Did Alden kill Violet? Did he kill Kenneth's mother? How did he convince health fanatic Just-Say-No Ronnie to take those amphetamines? Is Alden REALLY dead, or did he and the dog use the confusion of the fire to disappear? Remember, we didn't see the body (and in a mystery we all know NEVER to write someone off as dead for sure until you see the body, right?). And whatever became of the kidnapped child? Who was the child's mother anyway...Violet's sister or aunt?

I also missed Qwill's Interview of some interesting character... the one where you actually learn about something...mushroom growing, turkey calls, scamadiddles, tarot cards, buttons, teddy bears.

I wondered if my copy was missing a few pages, seriously. And while one of the hallmarks of a good book is that you want it to go on after you are done reading it, I felt this book ended before the story was finished.

There are bits and pieces that remind you of the great stories in this series, but they few and far between.

Other than the same main characters, and scenery, and an occasional reference to a character in a prior book, very little resembles the great "Cat Who..." books of the past.

It was very "Cat Who..." formula. But not "Cat Who..." quality. Koko knocks books off the shelf, but it is never clear why. We know the 'bad guy', Alden Wade moved to town, and a he is a womanizer and cad. Yet he is welcomed by all (even Qwill, although he has reservations). Everyone feels sorry for him because his wife was killed by a sniper's bullet, although the conditions were mysterious and the sniper was never caught.

He marries a woman 20 years older than he. Why would she marry him? She goes to her lawyer to change her will. But we never find out what changes happened. We only know that what Qwill feared, that she gave Alden her most cherished and valuable property, was NOT the change.

Alden's stepson is in town secretly watching him. He thinks Alden has something to do with his father's mysterious death, how convenient, since Alden then could marry his mother. Then her mysterious sniper death follows. But, just when we get interested in the stepson, he disappears, never to be heard from again. Qwill just accepts this! Why did he flee so fast? or did he meet with foul play?

The elderly woman Alden just married suddenly dies. Again, since she was ill, Qwill accepts this. The old Qwill wouldn't have.

Then the cherished property burns down the very next day. Alden rushed in to save the dog, but was not found, and he was presumed dead. This cad runs into a fire to save a dog? I think perhaps he feigned this as an escape. Had Qwill (or Koko) thought of this, he may have had a way to nail the bad guy, as Qwill used to do. But no..... he just accepts this.

Also in this story, Alden is linked to possibly killing a young actor by doping him, and the theft of a valuable item. Again Qwill doesn't follow up.

Bottom line, lots of story line threads left just dangling. The book just ends -- it seems like a chapter or two was left off the end!

Either Lilian has lost it, or we've lost Lilian and someone else is authoring these now.

I've grimly hung on through the last two or three Cat Who books hoping they would get better, but each one gets progressively worse. If there is a mystery in the book, it goes unsolved. We hear a lot about Qwill's mustache and Koko's whiskers but nothing substantial. The charm of the characters of Moose County has worn very thin.

In this book, it is almost as though the writer is attempting a stream of consciousness style of writing-- nothing holds together and everything just kind of rambles along until suddenly the book ends with no real sense of finality or resolution.

I think it is time to put these books to rest. I don't plan to read any more in the series- I need to at least have a plot to follow and an actual mystery to try to solve.

I can follow most of the other reivewers here and agree that "Bananas" is not nearly as good as Lilian Jackson Braun's earlier books. It lacks the suspense and cleverness of the older installments - though to be fair, it is not quite as bad as some of the series' other recent offerings, like "The Cat Who Talked Turkey." We catch glimpses of what made the series great, but they are brief and unsatisfying.

Why? Well, as others have pointed out, the mystery doesn't really go anywhere. The little sleuthing that Jim Qwilleran does, he actually farms out to someone else - and not the effervescent Celia Robinson. Koko's contrubition to this book is minimal and formulaic. For instance, an inconsequential character dies, affording Koko the opportunity to do his famous "death howl." (The cat, for new readers, can sense foul play nearby and goes into a frenzy at the exact moment of death.) However, this character's passing has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the book, and what happened to him is never adequately answered.

There is also the problem of mind-bogglingly bad editing. The text describes Koko's routine of pushing books off the shelf several times - each time, as though this were a new concept being introduced to the reader. Even more frequent are descriptions of the cats' behavior when Qwill comes home from his daily errands. If you learn nothing else from this book, it will be chisled onto your soul that one frantic cat in the window means there is a message on the answering machine. Braun says this so many times. And, one young couple is referred to in this book as having a serious relationship, even talking about marriage, before their breakup. Later in the book, the youngsters are said to have been just good friends. Near the end, they're ex-lovers again! Qwill's longtime lawyer is introduced in this book as a new character. Even a mildly competent editor should be able to catch these things. Maybe the publisher just assumes that since "Cat Who..." fans eat up whatever Braun dishes out, it isn't even worth expending editorial talent on her books.

There are also problems associated with just plain bad writing. Braun is either totally out of ideas, or has a very poor ghost writer. For instance, Qwill will frequently interview his friends and neighbors for material to use in his newspaper column. In the past, Braun would weave these interviews into intriguing, seamless conversations, interesting for the reader. Now, she just has Qwill record the interview on his tape recorder, and throws out a line like "the following was later transcribed.." with a word-by-word, bland account of the interview. It just strikes me as very lazy. Braun has also had serious problems with characterization lately. Good luck telling the difference between Fran Brodie and Hixie Rice, or Junior Goodwinter and Larry Lanspeak! They're all stock characters.

And, the Qwill adoration has gotten totally out of hand. Braun has written a "Qwill gets a standing ovation" scene into every book, recently. Come on - yes, the man does a lot for the town and everyone loves him. But how often does a man need to be applauded? In this volume, a meeting of the new book club is used as a thin excuse for Qwill to get his fix. In reality, everybody in the darn town would be talking about what an attention hog the guy is, not adoring him at every turn!

I used to buy these books in hardcover without question, so anxious I was to read them. This time, I got it from the library; I won't even buy the paperbacks anymore. It's a real shame.

A woman is murdered by her husband, or not. A widower is really a fortune hunter, or not. Polly is too attracted by a new man in town, and too distracted by her new job, to find time for Qwill -- or not. I kept waiting for this story to really take off, and it never did. Qwill is charming. Koko is devious and mysterious, the town is endearing ... but alas, there's no real point to this story.

This could have been a terrific installment of the "Cat Who" series. Quill found himself committed to writing a book about an ugly old house, but intrigued by some of the ugly stories hiding in the history of its inhabitants. I picked the book up on a Monday night and read half of it in one sitting - so far, so good. By the second sitting, I was intrigued with the story of the Hibbard family and what had happened to the missing baby and the daughter who killed herself. Then last night - ZIPPO! The book ended without telling us really anything. I cannot remember when I have been so disappointed. It was as if Ms. Braun got tired of writing and just quit. Come on! What happened to the ending?

I stopped reading the "Cat Who.." series a few years back because they were starting to annoy me. Same basic plot in every book.

I picked up several books at the library to take along on vacation this past week. "The Cat Who Went Bananas" was in the group.

My gosh! How awful this series has gotten. When I read the first one, in which Qwill adopts Koko and Yum-Yum, I was completely delighted. And kept being so for years. I did read somewhere that Ms. Braun took a few years break in the series before starting it up again. I'm not sure when that happened.

I didn't get very far in to "Bananas" before I tossed it aside as a lost cause and picked up something else to read. Thanks to all of you who clued me as to why. I never got to the non-ending. I believe I left Jim having dinner at some quaintly named restaurant with some even more quaintly named person. After reading today's reviews, I'm glad I didn't bother.

Then, I got to thinking. I'm 66 and remembered that Ms. Braun is many years older than I. Did a Google and found that she was born in 1916. Which would make her 89 at some point in this year of 2005. Now, I wonder if she's permanently retired and handed over the writing reins to someone else, suffered some debilitating disease which makes writing well (or even at all)impossible for her or if she died and it has been kept a secret from "Cat Who..." fans.I imagine it's one of those those choices.

Whatever the problem is, the greedy publishers are doing her and her past books no service or honor. Ms. Braun deserves better treatment.

One more thought. Years ago, I decided that Ms. Braun had fallen into the same trap that P. D. James, Martha Grimes and M. C. Beaton have done. They are in love with their heroes and too jealous to allow them to have a real love life, marry or have a family. How sad.

If any of you ever read the "Miss Seeton" series by Heron Carvic, you will surely relate it to "Cat Who...". After Carvic's death, the series was never as interesting nor as entertaining. Agatha Christie was a smart author who wrote an ending for Poirot. Nobody ever tried to fool the public that another writer could do just as well. Good for her. And her books have held up through the years.