Customer Reviews

Waltzing the Cat

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Pam Houston writes in that imperfect way that achieves near perfection. You know an author is getting to you when the words make you stop and read them again, tasting and feeling them to make sure they are real.

Her passage explaining why she stays with a jealous, abusive man rang almost too close to home....after giving her litany of painful reasons, she explains that you should understand where she is coming from... "unless you are lucky, and then you will not." Reading Pam makes me feel as though an old friend is sitting in my bedroom talking to ME, and I realized reading this passage, that I did, unfortunately, understand. Thanks for writing from the heart, and I can't wait to read more!

"Waltzing the Cat" is a good book, although it is not the best that Pam Houston has to offer. The traditional Pam Houston elements are present in this novel, however I agree with the reviewer who said it was "disjointed." It felt to me as if each chapter was screaming out to be a short story. There was very little flow through the novel to tie it up into a neat little literary package.

I am a fan of this author through and through, don't get me wrong. I enjoy her writing tremendously, admire the way she spins a story, and the highly autobiographical nature of her work appeals to me a great deal. I am not maligning this book; merely saying it didn't meet my expectations, although they were probably set impossibly high.

The title of this review is the title of the chapter that spoke to me in the clearest voice. If you do nothing more than pick up "Waltzing the Cat" and read that chapter, your life will be enriched.

Pam Houston once again has spun a web of collected stories encircling the life of of our heroine; this time, it's Lucy, photographer, hunter of the perfect emotionally available man, realistic woman-with-issues that we can all identify with. Filled with rich metaphors and descriptive detail, this collection of related stories is fun to read and leaves the reader emotionally satisfied when he or she comes full circle by the end of the book. I highly recommend this book as great summer reading! Enjoy.

The writer of Cowboys Are My Weakness has advanced and improved upon her original success, pushing her new stories with daring prose and complex plots, revealing a new artistic confidence and an even more refined knack for smart dialogue and self-reflection. There are few contemporary artists who can depict with more insight and sensitivity a woman's perspective on landscape (whether it be the Bay Area, the Amazon or a small Colorado mining town), relationships (with both men and women), and identity.

Houston explores some familiar and new terrain in Waltzing the Cat. There is, for certain, what you might expect: outdoor adventures of a strong woman in the American West, smart and revealing depictions of her relationships with various men. But she also explores some exciting new terrain, both physical--most significantly, a place in the world to call home--and psychological, in the form of deft and brave visits to a darker past, the story that lurks behind all other stories.

The opening chapter, "The Best Girlfriend You Never Had," as well as "Three Lessons in Amazonian Biology" and the title story, are among the best I've read in years, and Houston interconnects them all in fascinating ways, creating less a book of short stories than a novel in stories, a novel which culminates in a lovely and disturbing epilogue that provides not only an emotional coda to the book but the formula for its decoding. I was impressed and delighted with Waltzing the Cat, aware as I read that I was in the hands of a gifted and innovative writer.

I'm puzzled by the reviewers that swooned over "Cowboys are my Weakness" and hate this current title.

"Cowboys," written by Houston in her late 20s, are stories by someone who's just found her voice and is trying it out. They are light stories, but Houston is hiding her feelings behind the adventures themselves.

In "Waltzing the Cat," the author is ten years older with a lot of introspection (and apparently good psychotherapy) under her belt. We still get some of the amazing adventures, but we also get to see Houston develop emotionall, through her alter ego/main character Lucy. It's more about how these adventures affect her, what memories they dredge up, what she learns from them. Houston's style has evolved into an unusual mix between the classic "women's confessional" and terse, Hemmingway-ish Western stories. It works, and it works beautifully.

You must understand that THIS BOOK IS NOT A NOVEL, but a set of related short stories that occur only roughly in chronological order, NOT chapters. Other reviewers found the book "disjointed," I myself did not. Because they are separate stories, I didn't find it odd that the character felt differently, even contradictory, about things at different time and in different stories.

I read all three of Houston's books over the weekend, and I can highly recommend all of them, but to me, "Waltzing the Cat" was the best of the three, just nosing out her nonfictional essay collection "A Little More About Me," which in turn just nosed out "Cowboys are my Weakness."

I expected to like this book -- I liked Cowboys are My Weakness, for all its flaws -- but this is too much self-contemplation and too little real substance. Can this author not look outside herself?

Pam Houston's "Walzing the Cat" is one of the best books I've read recently, interconnecting stories full of lyrical writing, jolt-you-to-attention insights, and luminous images. The titular story is perfect in every way, an examination of family, death and the horror of conditional love. Another gem is "The Whole Weight of Me" when our heroine jumps into illuminated water and tells us "When I opened by eyes under the surface, I felt like I was swimming in the stars."

Yes, the character is searching for love, but she is a thinking woman's heroine -- an artist, philosopher, and wounded but tough bird waiting to take flight. In the end, it's only fair that that flight is solo.

A wonderful book... turned me into a Pam Houston fan.

Like many other reviewers, "Cowboys" is one of my most tattered collections on my bookshelf. I have giving "Cowboys" as presents many times, and recommended it countless others.

I was eager to see how Houston had grown in the few years since "Cowboys" was published, and was disappointed to find she hadn't. "Waltzing the Cat" reads like a volume of B-side tunes. They all work, but none of them had the sparkle, wit or insight that I saw in "Cowboys."

It's possible that I expected too much from Houston-- after all, don't they say the second book always falls short of expectations? Quite possibly she needs to write less from her life and more from her heart.

Like many other reviewers, "Cowboys" is one of my most tattered collections on my bookshelf. I have giving "Cowboys" as presents many times, and recommended it countless others.

I was eager to see how Houston had grown in the few years since "Cowboys" was published, and was disappointed to find she hadn't. "Waltzing the Cat" reads like a volume of B-side tunes. They all work, but none of them had the sparkle, wit or insight that I saw in "Cowboys."

It's possible that I expected too much from Houston-- after all, don't they say the second book always falls short of expectations? Quite possibly she needs to write less from her life and more from her heart.

Pam Houston has a real talent for writing about the search a woman goes through to find herself and love. Her writing often stops me cold in my tracks, smiling and shaking my head simultaneously. I enjoyed "Cowboys" slightly better because "Waltzing" has too much nature writing for my taste. I prefer Ms. Houston writing about relationships rather than rafting or birds. Nonetheless I loved spending time with Lucy and all of her friends and was sad to see her stories end.