The Big New Yorker Book of Cats

March 10, 2014
Here comes the effervescent counterpart to 2012's Big New Yorker Book of Dogs, an anthology of short fiction, articles, photographs, and of course, cat cartoonsâan unassailable gift for the cat-lover in your life. The non-fiction spans from the fancifulâa lovely little piece from the â80s about a cat therapist operating in Manhattanâto the bizarreâAriel Levy's excellent 2013 piece about exotic cat fanciersâpeople who will pay "as much as thirty thousand dollars for the privilege of owning a hybrid that looks like it could prowl the wilderness"âlike, for example, the "Savannah cat, a cross between a domestic and a serval, an African native that preys on gazelles and springbok." The book spans the entire New Yorker history, and it's interesting to see how profiles have evolved, from a whimsical piece about a chorus girl turned cat-catcher from 1938 to Susan Orlean's masterful 2002 profile "The Lady and the Tigers," about a woman who owned up to two dozen tigers in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Readers will also enjoy a short story from Haruki Murakami, "Town of Cats" as well as fiction from John Updike, and Jean Rhys. Here is the rare coffee table book that is also a pleasure to read.

September 1, 2013
A worthy follow-up to last year's Big New Yorker Book of Dogs. Covers, cartoons, authors of pieces both longer and shorter, reflect current views of the feline subject in all its glory, and sometimes disgrace, as well as those of bygone days. Poets like Ted Hughes and Robert Graves sit alongside contributions from the magazine's former regular columnists--e.g., James Thurber's 1952 post-party tale "The Case of Dimity Ann" and E.B White's informative "How To Make a Cat Trap" (1930). White offers both a complicated assembly job and a simpler, more lethal one for those hardy enough to try. In "The Cats" (2003), John Updike writes about inheriting eight acres and countless cats. Included in this generous collection are big cats, lost cats, Army cats, bookstore and even wine-shop cats, cat therapists, a cat man, catsitters and cat savers. Cartoons and covers reflect more of these cross or interspecies types of rapport and humor. In 1954, a Republican owner of a Manx cat reported his pet's reaction to the mention of the name "Harry Truman" and how he got her down from the living room mantel by saying "Eisenhower." In one cartoon, a dinner-party host arrives with a cat perched atop a tray and asks his guests, "Cat, anyone?"; another cartoon wonders, "Who's Really Running the City." This theme is also echoed in some of the selections included among the 24 cover reproductions, like the Sleeping Beauty from Nov. 24, 1997, or the Cat vs. Dog game of chess from June 24, 1974. Other contributors include Roald Dahl, Jamaica Kincaid, Haruki Murakami, Susan Orlean, Robert Pinsky, Ariel Levy, T.C. Boyle and Steven Millhauser. The quality, humor and variety make for another successful New Yorker collection.

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November 1, 2013

Dogs had their day in The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs, and now cats rule in this engaging feline anthology. This fun collection of short stories, articles, humor, poems, and charming color covers from the magazine's archives devotes sections to fat cats, alley cats, cat fanciers, and curious cats. Writers such as John Updike, Ted Hughes, James Thurber, Elizabeth Bishop, Margaret Atwood, and Roald Dahl recall their own pets, lost cats, experiences rescuing cats, old and young women and their cats, and the sheer joy of observing the animals just being themselves. Peter Matthiessen focuses on endangered large cats in "Tiger in the Snow," and Susan Orlean describes one woman's tiger sanctuary in "The Lady and the Tigers." Cartoonists such as William Steig, Sam Gross, and others provide laugh-out-loud scenarios that capture important things in life: eating, sleeping, adventure, litter boxes, and scratching the furniture. VERDICT Patrons will thoroughly enjoy browsing these pages with their furry friends nearby in this high-quality, attractive work.--Eva Lautemann, formerly with Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Clarkston

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