The Rabbi's Cat 2 [Hardcover]

Joann Sfar (Author), Alexis Siegel (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008 | Series: Rabbis Cat

Joann Sfar's beloved, humorous, and wise talking cat is back for more beautifully illustrated adventures in Algiers and across Africa in the 1930s. While the rabbi is away, his cat tags along with Malka of the Lions (the rabbi's enigmatic cousin), who roams the desert with his ferocious-on-demand lion. Some believe Malka to be a pious Jew, others think he's a shrewd womanizer, but the cat will be the one to discover the surprising truth.

Back in Algiers, the rabbi's daughter, Zlabya, and her new husband fill the house with their fighting, while the city around them fills with a rising tide of anti-Semitism. On a whim, the rabbi's cat, the rabbi, a sheikh (also a cousin of the rabbi), and a very misplaced Russian painter set out on a fantastic journey (even encountering a young reporter named Tintin in the Congo) in search of an African Jerusalem. It turns out to be very fortuitous that the rabbi's cat is not just a talking cat, but a multilingual talking cat.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Japanese graphic novel here receiving its first English-language edition was radically different from mainstream manga in looks, content, and procedure when new in 1970. It remains so, though Veronique Tanaka’s Metronome (2008), while structurally and stylistically less adventurous, shows related cinematic influences. To intensify a simple, easily understood, universally sympathetic story of love battered by poverty and mercurial youthful emotions, Hayashi employs the extreme viewing angles, jump cuts, and visual allusions of French New Wave movies and the interpolations of fantasy to evoke the characters’ moods that Fellini exploited so brilliantly in 8½. Turn the page from a lovers’ clinch or one lover’s emotional funk, and a Hiroshige-like wave, a Godzilla poster, or a building corner with phone lines out of Ozu’s great films of urban middle-class matchmaking appears to both point up and gently mock the protagonists’ passions. Such commentary images are realistically rendered, while the protagonists are barely more than wavy outlines with thatch hair and black-patch clothes. Everyone won’t like it, but this is a genuine work of art. --Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Sfar's words and pictures mingle in a dance both sacred and skeptical, perfectly graceful and clumsily human. I'm so grateful that his brilliance has finally been brought to America."
--Craig Thompson, author of Blankets

"He draws faster than his shadow. He comes up with new stories as if he were drinking a glass of water. He talks more than anyone I've ever known. He's extremely talented, extremely funny, extremely smart. I guess this is the description of a genius. And I don't say such things because he's my friend. Joann Sfar is not a rabbi, but he describes better than anyone the religious dilemma with a tenderness, intelligence, and humor. The Rabbi's Cat is a book that everybody should read."
--Marjane Satrapi, author of Perspolis

"[The Rabbi's Cat] is rich in historic and cultural detail and filled with great stories."
--The Washington Post

"As fanciful as Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a whole lot shorter than The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and a good deal more Jewish than Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Joann Sfar's graphic novel is hilarious, poignant, and wise. And now that I'm done reading it for the first time, I'm going to read it again."
--Adam Langer, author of Crossing California

"An affecting, fraught, and--yes--sometimes hilarious tour de force about the complexities of living faithfully in a godless world."
--The Boston Globe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375425071
• ISBN-13: 978-0375425073
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.6 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Narrating cats? What's next!, May 28, 2008

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rabbi's Cat 2 (Hardcover)

This adult-themed graphics novel is set in 1930's Algeria, however most of the issues such as religion and race are still current and unsettled.

The Rabbi's Cat 2 is the second book featuring the Rabbi and his nameless cat that narrators, and not only talks to certain persons and most animals but is multilingual.

Initially I had mixed reactions to this my first graphic novel. However, after reading through the first story entitled "Heaven on Earth," a second time, I discovered its biting charm and cryptic humor. The cat, along with an old lion and a snake, have an ongoing conversation as they follow Malka, a cousin of the rabbis, around the desert. The animals'comments about the humans around them come out as little gems of wisdoms that remind you of Aesop's Fables.

Malka the wandering storyteller and his lion are getting old, and he longs to become a legend and a man of mystery so that people will forever search the desert for his grave. When Malka returns to town and the cat returns to his rabbi, the story shifts the action to the religious and cultural differences in Algiers.

"Africa's Jerusalem" was longer and a little difficult story to follow in places. The rabbi's daughter is unhappy with her husband, and a Russian painter is found as a stowaway in a box of books. All these events cause the entire town to become involved. With the help of the cat that can speak Russian, and another Russian living in Algiers, we learn that the painter is on a quest to find the black Jews and their city of Jerusalem in Africa. The expedition is launched with the painter, the Russian, the rabbi and his cat in an old truck. Much happens to this unlikely group on their pilgrimage â" some good, some not so good.

Loved the art and the quirky faces of his characters. Their expressions often told the story without any conversations. You could just tell what they were thinking. My favorite character was the cat. He was such a sage and so Shakespearian-like in his assessment of human behaviors.

Would I read another graphic novel about the Rabbi and his cat? Absolutely! With pleasure!

Armchair Interviews says: Check out the new genre of graphic novels, stories with a comic book look.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Rabbi's Cat 2 is Not the Cat's Meow, September 26, 2011

By 

Ravkarp - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Rabbi's Cat 2 (Hardcover)

While the Rabbi's Cat 2 was an all right read, it did not come near its predecessor in engaging its readers and it transmitted significant messages.

However, as in the original The Rabbi's Cat, the art work itself was delightful.

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Mr. Sfar, December 22, 2010

By 

sonya34 "sonya34" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Rabbi's Cat 2 (Hardcover)

I LOVED Rabbi's Cat, and I really enjoyed Rabbi's Cat 2 and hope there are many more in the series. It's very different in style and pacing - more a series of shorter stories than one long narrative, but it is equally rich and humorous.