Fred in Love [Hardcover]

Felice Picano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 11, 2005

    In the early 1970s, when he was still an aspiring, unpublished writer, Felice Picano began a remarkable relationship with an extraordinary animal: a days-old kitten slated for euthanasia who refused to perish.  Rescued, named, and trained, Fred became an extraordinarily intelligent companion, ally, teacher, and constant wonder to the author as he began his ascent through the Bohemian circles of Greenwich Village, among musicians, actors, curious characters, and even the famous British actress in hiding right next door.
    But when an acquaintance brought his female cat to be serviced by Fred, an entire new set of experiences opened up for the cat-and for Picano, who'd never had the nerve to befriend her owner, his ideal man.  The course of love seldom runs straight for cats or for men, and this time would prove (hilariously) no different.
    This is another of Picano's distinguished portraits of a vanished era, when a new gay domain was solidifying only a few years after the Stonewall Riots, and the still nascent gay literary world that Picano would help invent was just a conception. Fred in Love is a charming, nostalgic, funny, gossipy, involving, and ultimately enlightening story about how we learn and grow, and how we love-whether the object of our affection is a cat or another human being.  It's sure to take its place next to Picano's now classic literary memoirs Ambidextrous, Men Who Loved Me, and A House on the Ocean, a House on the Bay.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Picano, a popular writer of gay fiction--author of, most recently, the novel Onyx (2001)--this time around submits a beautifully tender but not maudlin essay about his cat, Fred. Picano was living in New York City when he first encountered Fred, who was only a couple of weeks old. Fred's "education" is chronicled here in selective but fond and telling detail--if a cat can indeed be educated, of course. Fred and the author built a tremendously affectionate relationship based on Picano's eventual realization that, after he and Fred went through a bad spell over Fred's confusion and desire and pining for his one great lady-cat, "All I can do is love him." Lots of people have a cat story, but this one excels in seeing the whole adventure with both irony and amusement. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A lovely, not too nostalgic portrait of what is now a vanished bohemia."—Jim Marks, Executive Editor, Lambda Literary Foundation

"Picano, a popular writer of gay fiction—author of, most recently, the novel Onyx (2001)—this time around submits a beautifully tender but not maudlin essay about his cat, Fred. Picano was living in New York City when he first encountered Fred, who was only a couple of weeks old. Fred's "education" is chronicled here in selective but fond and telling detail—if a cat can indeed be educated, of course. Fred and the author built a tremendously affectionate relationship based on Picano's eventual realization that, after he and Fred went through a bad spell over Fred's confusion and desire and pining for his one great lady-cat, "All I can do is love him." Lots of people have a cat story, but this one excels in seeing the whole adventure with both irony and amusement."—Brad Hooper, Booklist

"Having always been allergic to cats, reading Felice Picano's new book about his beloved cat Fred was so vivid that it caused sneezing and made my eyes water."—Bob Smith, author of Openly Bob

"A beautifully written roman à clef centered on the felicitous and mysterious connection between Man and Cat."—Tony Mendoza, author of Ernie: A Photographer’s Memoir

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 108 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (February 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299209105
• ISBN-13: 978-0299209100
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,117,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Freedom to a pet also means having to give him up for good", August 2, 2005

By 

M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fred in Love (Hardcover)

Just one look at the cute cover of Fred in Love will probably melt most reader's hearts. Encompassing everything that is charming and delightful about these extraordinary animals, author, Felice Picano has written a pleasantly entertaining and rather wistful tale of a young and energetic man who over the years had many different cats and many different experiences living with them.

In the late 60's and early 70's, Picano lived a bohemian, arty, and somewhat poverty-stricken life as a struggling writer in Manhattan. During this time, the author was blessed with a kitten that he managed to rescue from euthanasia. He named him Fred. Fred turned out to be truly remarkable animal; big and handsome, and masculine, "he even looked like a Fred," and he possessed an astute intelligence and a fierce independence.

This short story covers Picano's life with Fred as he tells a rather quixotic tale of how humans and cats, while learning to respect each other's space, take their time to build bonds and tolerate flaws in each other's characters. The author paints Fred as a type of "benevolent dictator," the indubitable boss in the relationship.

Fred came into the author's life at a time when he was depressed about his career, and worse, could perceive no future worth making any effort for. Picano even admits that he did have several boyfriends, which lets face it, "is hardly equal to having a good cat in one's life!"

Felice immediately trained Fred as a kitten, but Fred was also trained him. For Felice and Fred, learning to live together was a two-way street, and while other animals in the home eventually acquiesce to human bullying, Fred immutably proved that cats could be far smarter and slier. Fred slept inside, but he would also drink out of the toilet, would eat sporadically, and often disappear for days on end!

While the author's world became filled with dance, music, men, drugs, parties, and fun, Fred's life was full of scampering around the neighborhood and befriending the odd assortment of cat ladies scattered about the West Village. Fred obviously had a penchant for freedom, which was obviously reflective of Picano's own need to be freewheeling and heady. But of course, freedom ultimately comes with a cost.

Fred in Love is a more a chatty personal essay than a reflective, revealing memoir. It's also a funny, fresh and rather clever account of an era in New York where Picano lived amongst musicians, actors, curious characters, and even a famous British actress who moved in right next-door. (And if you take notice of the clues it was probably Vanessa Redgrave).

Fred isn't the only cat on the block in this book. There's also Miss Cat, a Persian who was full of quiet dignity, with a bulbous shape, flat leonine face, and long wild mane of hair. And Max, a big, neutered, yet not at all overweight cat with Siamese features suggesting he was a cross between that breed and a tabby.

But Fred is undoubtedly the star of the story; he's easily the one that had the greatest affect on the author and it was the relationship that was the most deeply connected. At times almost baffling and full of misunderstandings, the relationship between Picano and Fred was mostly about profound love and intense and powerful trust. Mike Leonard August 05.