Status
Checked out
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Picador (2018), Edition: Main Market, 144 pages
Description
The international phenomenon that has sold over a million copies in Japan, If Cats Disappeared from the World is a funny, heartwarming, and profound meditation on the meaning of life. The postman's days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor's diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week...With each object that disappears the postman reflects on the life he's lived, his joys and regrets, and the people he's loved and lost. Genki Kawamura's timeless tale is a moving story of loss and reconciliation, of one man's journey to discover what really matters most in life.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member eesti23
I have to admit that I picked this book mainly because of the title and the beautiful black cat on the cover. However, the storyline also intrigued me. My feelings about the book since reading it are a bit mixed. This story had me sobbing my eyes out at one point, but did I walk away with new
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meaning to my life or even the vow to appreciate things more? Not really. It's a good book, but it could have gone a bit deeper. I will struggle to justify keeping it on my bookshelf for any other reason than it has an unusual title and an awesome cat on the cover. Show Less
LibraryThing member bgknighton
Charming, delightful, whimsical. Loved it. How much is your life worth to you? What would you give up to save it? What would you regret the most -- what you did or what you didn't do?
LibraryThing member KateBaxter
This was such a bittersweet existential study of one's human condition. The narrator is a 30-something Japanese man, striving to get on in the world. He's had a few troubling health issues so off to the doctor he goes. While there, he's informed that he has only a few months to live, at most. He is
Initially, the young man goes along with this concept which buys him a couple extra days but then he is affronted by a particularly challenging choice. In this short period of a man's final days in life, we see him struggle, philosophize, and deeply examine his contribution to the world and find out for himself what truly is important in life. This is a gently sweet yet rather sad tale of discovery, joy, sorrow, reconciliation, regret and love..
I am grateful to publisher Flat Iron Books and Goodreads First Reads for having provided a free advance reading copy of this book. Their generosity, however, did not influence this review - the words of which are mine alone.
Synopsis (from book's back cover):
The international phenomenon that has sold over a million copies in Japan, If Cats Disappeared from the World is a funny, heartwarming, and profound meditation on the meaning of life.
The postman’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week…
With each object that disappears the postman reflects on the life he’s lived, his joys and regrets, and the people he’s loved and lost.
Genki Kawamura’s timeless tale is a moving story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters most in life.
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stunned by the news and begins to examine his life - determining what is important; what was squandered and whether he's made an impact during his short time in this world. He finds comfort in the company of his sweet cat, Cabbage. Then the devil appears offering the young man the opportunity to extend his life, one day at a time, obliterating the existence of some object in the world which will take the item out of everyone's world. (It's somewhat the Faust theme renewed.)Initially, the young man goes along with this concept which buys him a couple extra days but then he is affronted by a particularly challenging choice. In this short period of a man's final days in life, we see him struggle, philosophize, and deeply examine his contribution to the world and find out for himself what truly is important in life. This is a gently sweet yet rather sad tale of discovery, joy, sorrow, reconciliation, regret and love..
I am grateful to publisher Flat Iron Books and Goodreads First Reads for having provided a free advance reading copy of this book. Their generosity, however, did not influence this review - the words of which are mine alone.
Synopsis (from book's back cover):
The international phenomenon that has sold over a million copies in Japan, If Cats Disappeared from the World is a funny, heartwarming, and profound meditation on the meaning of life.
The postman’s days are numbered. Estranged from his family, living alone with only his cat Cabbage to keep him company, he was unprepared for the doctor’s diagnosis that he has only months to live. But before he can tackle his bucket list, the Devil appears to make him an offer: In exchange for making one thing in the world disappear, our narrator will get one extra day of life. And so begins a very bizarre week…
With each object that disappears the postman reflects on the life he’s lived, his joys and regrets, and the people he’s loved and lost.
Genki Kawamura’s timeless tale is a moving story of loss and reconciliation, of one man’s journey to discover what really matters most in life.
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LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
This short book follows the familiar trope of making a deal with the devil. This particular personification of the devil is very fond of garish shirts and odd deals. And our protagonist accepts his deal. The book is pleasant and fun, a bit of a morality tale. And, of course, the reader (or at least
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this reader) can't help but wonder what she would do if offered the same deal. Altogether, it's a nice story when you want something short and interesting but not weighty. Show Less
LibraryThing member WinterFox
I'm rather a sucker for Japanese cat books, and I snapped this one up the moment I saw that Eric Selland did the translation. Selland translated one of my favourites, Takashi Hiraide's The Guest Cat, and his poetic sensibility as a translator matched with the philosophical and whimsical premise of
So this is the story of a postman who is told that he has a very small amount of time left to live, and tries to work out what to do with his remaining moments... and then is visited by the Devil, who looks just like him but with loud Hawaiian shirts, and is offered a deal: get rid of something from the world, and have your life extended by a day. Our narrator, figuring that there's lots of things you could eliminate and still be okay, goes for it, but then as things go away, he starts to have second thoughts.
The book deals both with larger ruminations on life and what it would be like without clocks, or movies, or phones, as well as more human scale relationships between our narrator and the people in his life who have already passed away, or who he'll be leaving behind. As you might guess from the cover, there's also a lot about relationships with cats, as well. These are generally pretty thoughtful, and the book strikes a good tone between hope and melancholy.
All in all, I appreciated this story, and while I don't think I'd give it as high marks as the Guest Cat, I liked the translation's quality, and its mood and insight were worth the time invested. Just don't let those cats disappear.
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this book pushed me into trying it.So this is the story of a postman who is told that he has a very small amount of time left to live, and tries to work out what to do with his remaining moments... and then is visited by the Devil, who looks just like him but with loud Hawaiian shirts, and is offered a deal: get rid of something from the world, and have your life extended by a day. Our narrator, figuring that there's lots of things you could eliminate and still be okay, goes for it, but then as things go away, he starts to have second thoughts.
The book deals both with larger ruminations on life and what it would be like without clocks, or movies, or phones, as well as more human scale relationships between our narrator and the people in his life who have already passed away, or who he'll be leaving behind. As you might guess from the cover, there's also a lot about relationships with cats, as well. These are generally pretty thoughtful, and the book strikes a good tone between hope and melancholy.
All in all, I appreciated this story, and while I don't think I'd give it as high marks as the Guest Cat, I liked the translation's quality, and its mood and insight were worth the time invested. Just don't let those cats disappear.
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LibraryThing member muddyboy
A man gets diagnosed with a terminal disease with only one day to live. The devil appears and offers him an additional day of life if he is willing to get rid of one thing in the world (phones for instance). This is a very unique premise and the author is quite adept at getting into the man's head
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as he agonizes over what to choose. The book is very short and easy to read. Very nice first book. Show Less
LibraryThing member flying_monkeys
Ahhh, my heart!! This book...sigh. Read this is you like books by Fredrik Backman, stories about the meaning of life, cats, and/or movies.
LibraryThing member Slevyr26
An interesting and mildly uplifting take on life and death.
LibraryThing member Ronrose1
What would you do if you suddenly were told by your doctor that you were going to die soon, very soon? You have spent most of your adult life delivering mail in a small town in Japan , when out of the blue, or more likely, out of the darkness you are told that you will soon be dead. Many of us
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would be devastated and likely to faint, pardon the expression, dead away as our postman does. After regaining consciousness, we might try to think up a bucket list of things that we want to do before the end. But what if you awoke to see a stranger in your house. A stranger who looked just like you. Well maybe not just like you, because you would never be caught, here it comes again, dead in a loud, brightly colored Hawaiian shirt that could light up the darkest night. To top it off this neon copy of you tells you he is the Devil and he might just have a plan to keep you from dying. Well at least from dying today. It seems if you are willing to exchange one extra day of your life for making one thing in the world disappear forever, you can make it through another day. Seems like a no brainer. An extra day of life to cross out some meaningless thing from the world as though it never existed. There must be hundreds, no thousands of things in this world that we could do without. Oh, I forgot to mention, the Devil gets to decide what goes. You just have to agree. It starts simple enough. What would a world be without chocolate? A lot thinner perhaps? A bit less tasty? Surely not a bad choice for another day of life? Then where’s the harm in a world without movies, or phones, or clocks? These are all inanimate objects, but what about a world without, say, cats? Where do you draw the line? Our postman learns a lot about the value of his life and what matters in this world of ours. A very thought provoking tale told in a light easy to digest manner. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookish59
Novel about having the presence of mind to live our priorities. Don't take time for granted; do important work now. Show love,kindness, gratitude and honor each day. This way you avoid having regrets later when its too late.
Quick, okay read.
Quick, okay read.
LibraryThing member CarrieWuj
This started out very promising - the narrator has just learned he has a terminal illness and not having any family (his mother is dead, his father is estranged) to process the news with, he goes home to his apartment and his cat Cabbage and in his self-mourning, he gets a visit from the devil, who
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looks just like him, but is a flashier dresser. The narrator is a postal worker and favors black and white, but the devil, who he comes to call Aloha, is always dressed in some variation of Hawaiian shirt, as if ready for a party. He offers the narrator a deal: he can extend his life by one day if he allows something to cease to exist. The first thing to go is phones - which might be wish-fulfillment in our dependent device days. But it pertains to all phones - how this impacts the world is not really addressed, but it does impact the narrator and causes him to reach out to others (an ex girlfriend, a friend, his father) in unique ways. Movies and clocks also disappear - again sweeping categories that surely cause havoc and have major impact, but the book is more interior and looks at the impact on the narrator - his regrets in life, his happy memories, and what he can do in the remaining time to come to an acceptance of his life choices. Not sure if it is a factor of translation or the need for a good editor, but the book lags in some places and belabors the point of what life really boils down to is choices. We just have to be sure we can live with the ones we make. Show Less
LibraryThing member rrkreads
It was not bad, it was not great. it was ok. Predictable, sweet, a little whimsical. This is a good coffee table book. Something you can read when you are too distracted, overwhelmed, and need a tiny dose of perspective. I wouldn't read it again, but I don't regret reading it either.
#GenkiKawamura
#GenkiKawamura
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#contemporaryFiction #scribd #audiobook #2.5starreads, #rrkreads Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
A short, odd little fable about a man who is told he's about to die, but is then provided an opportunity to make a deal with the devil: he can buy himself another day of life, but for each day he buys, something else will be removed from the world. What might it mean, though, to live in a world
These are entertaining and interesting questions. The ultimate answer we get to them, I think, risks verging onto the corny, but there's enough weird, low-key, thought-provoking charm here to make it work.
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without phones, or movies, or clocks, or cats? What do those things mean, specifically, to him? And is it worth the price?These are entertaining and interesting questions. The ultimate answer we get to them, I think, risks verging onto the corny, but there's enough weird, low-key, thought-provoking charm here to make it work.
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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
I mostly skimmed this slight Faustian novella. A young man learns he has only a short time to live. Still in shock, he is approached by the devil and offered one additional day of life in return for choosing one thing to "disappear" from the world. As he makes his choices, we are treated to
There were brief spurts of interesting and slightly inspired thoughts and insights, but for the most part I think this is a skippable book, although perhaps I'm not the target audience. I found it had a very YA feel to it, and it was rather simplistic and shallow.
2 stars
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vignettes of what life would be like if there were no phones, or no movies, for example. And then he must decide whether to live one additional day he is willing to disappear cats from the world.There were brief spurts of interesting and slightly inspired thoughts and insights, but for the most part I think this is a skippable book, although perhaps I'm not the target audience. I found it had a very YA feel to it, and it was rather simplistic and shallow.
2 stars
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LibraryThing member AndrewRPhillips
A beautiful and touching novel about loss and grief.
LibraryThing member Andy5185
This was really a sweet story. A reminder of all that’s important in life - and I loved the idea of making a deal with the devil to extend your days.
LibraryThing member mirryi
There are moments in this book that have made me think much about those elements of my life that I easily take for granted---there are some good lines in here (disclaimer: I read the original Japanese), and the premise is fantastic. But other moments feel rather dramatic and cliche. The commentary
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following the end of the story proper doesn't help---its extravagant praise reads more like an advertisement than much else. Show Less
LibraryThing member Helenliz
This is an interesting surmise, I'm just not sure it worked as the central character didn't seem to have enough depth.
One day the young man who tells this story finds out that he has an incurable brain tumour and has only a limited time to live. At which point he starts writing a bucket list and
And so he vanishes phones, movies and clocks. He gets the chance to have one more experience with each item before it vanishes, so one last phone call, one last movie etc. The surmise is interesting, what would you get rid off for one more day on the earth. But the execution seems rather poor. The central character meets up with an ex girlfriend who adores movies, and when he vanishes then, he barely gives a moments thought to what it would mean to her life. Maybe that's why they are ex... The 4th offering is cats and at this point he declines the offer. Along the way he revisits parts of his life, reviews his relationship with his mother and the broken one with his father. He is somewhere in his 30s, we find, but at times he is very childish and selfish, not considering anyone else apart from his mother and the cat.
Good idea, but the central character and the execution let it down.
One day the young man who tells this story finds out that he has an incurable brain tumour and has only a limited time to live. At which point he starts writing a bucket list and
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wishes he has longer. At which point the devil appears. Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, like you do. And he is offered a bargin, remove one thing from the world and gain an extra day of life. And so he vanishes phones, movies and clocks. He gets the chance to have one more experience with each item before it vanishes, so one last phone call, one last movie etc. The surmise is interesting, what would you get rid off for one more day on the earth. But the execution seems rather poor. The central character meets up with an ex girlfriend who adores movies, and when he vanishes then, he barely gives a moments thought to what it would mean to her life. Maybe that's why they are ex... The 4th offering is cats and at this point he declines the offer. Along the way he revisits parts of his life, reviews his relationship with his mother and the broken one with his father. He is somewhere in his 30s, we find, but at times he is very childish and selfish, not considering anyone else apart from his mother and the cat.
Good idea, but the central character and the execution let it down.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2012-10-25
Physical description
144 p.; 7.76 inches
ISBN
9781509889174