The Travelling Cat Chronicles

The Travelling Cat Chronicles / Hiro Arikawa
trans. from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Toronto: Viking, c2018.
277 p.

This little book is so very Japanese -- it openly acknowledges its references to that classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat by Soseki. However, unlike Soseki's cat, this one overcomes his pessimism about the human race in the end. 

The main characters are Satoru, a young man who has rescued a stray cat -- Nana, who is a gruff personality who doesn't think too much of people so far, though he does admit a grudging affection for Satoru. Nana narrates the book. 

The story is a road trip tale, since after the introduction explaining how Nana came to live with Satoru, they head off in their little silver van to travel all across Japan, meeting up with old friends of Satoru's. He is looking for a friend who will be willing to take Nana in, since (for unexplained reasons) he'll no longer be able to keep Nana. 

Nana isn't too pleased with this plan, and makes himself unpleasant in each place, only wanting to get back into the silver van with Satoru and return home. Satoru, on his part, finds some reason why this house isn't quite right, either -- he doesn't really want to leave Nana behind anywhere. As they travel, there is description and commentary on the Japanese landscape and on the various kinds of people who live there, from rural to urban and of all occupations. 

Eventually Satoru heads north to his aunt's home in Hokkaido, and the reason he's been trying to find a new home for Nana is revealed. (the reader will likely have guessed it long before this point.) His aunt, not a cat person, develops a tentative relationship with Nana, and the bittersweet ending is rescued by this ray of light. 

This is a charming, quirky, and sentimental tale. It is simple and fable-like in some ways, and cat lovers will most likely love this emotional little story. While I am not a big fan of sentimentality, this didn't cross the line into schlock. It's a little too twee for me at some points, but there is enough interest in the setting and the relationship between the two main characters to keep even me reading!  If you're in the right mood, this will be an enjoyable read.