Name: The Company of Cats
ISBN: 9780385472111

Michael J. Rosen

The Company of Cats

Sarah Sammis

The Company of Cats is a collection of short stories, photographs and comics about cats. Michael J. Rosen chose stories from well known and well respected authors so the book should be good but it falls short on its promise of an enjoyable read for cat lovers.

I think the problem lies not with the stories themselves but with presentation of the book. The book is printed and bound in the same fashion that uplifting gift books are done. With the tiny and sometimes ornate font and duotone photographs, it looks like a book that should have lighthearted and short stories. What one gets instead is twenty literary works. The disconnect between the text and presentation makes for an unnecessarily difficult to read.

The authors included are: Alice Adams, Roald Dahl, Amy Hempel, Doris Lessing, Phillip Lopate, and Bobbie Ann Mason. The story by Lessing, while depressing, was actually one of my favorites in the collection.