Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Historia de un gato.
Randomly came across this book in a bookstore and thought it looked cute! Let's check it out.
This (auto)biographical book tells the story of both Laura Agustí, the author, and her titular cat, a Siamese mix named Oye. In this richly illustrated book we explore the author's childhood, how she grew up with a lot of pets and eventually ended up with Oye and he got to live a long and happy life with her.
Overall this was just a really wholesome and cute book. It wasn't quite what I expected going in, but I really enjoyed reading this one. Despite the title, the book is (like the summary I just gave says) not just about Oye, but also about Agustí's life in general, mostly about the animals in her life. The middle portion of the book is dedicated pretty much entirely to Oye, though, so that's great. It's just not as much as I expected going in with this title and cover. There's also brief tangents the author goes on relating to things such as pet care tips or cats in art/history. While I wasn't expecting these bits in an autobiographical book, they were a welcome and fun addition. I especially liked the section dedicated to cats in art, with the author briefly delving into cat depictions by various historical artists throughout the world.
The sections that are specifically dedicated to Oye (but also Agustí's other pets) are also just really wholesome. The author clearly has a very big heart for animals and I really appreciate it. Oye was a major player in her life, but he was far from the only pet she's ever had, and several other animals get a (brief) spotlight as well.
The book is also, like mentioned before, richly illustrated with beautiful ink drawings, a very welcome addition to the already beautiful text. It really just adds an extra dimension in the things the author talks about, such as her parental home or various scenes involving Oye or the other pets. They're also beautiful.
My main...I won't say gripe, just an aspect I noticed, about this book, is that it's over really fast. Like, 160 pages already isn't super long, but this combined with there being (large) illustrations and not a lot of text on a lot of these pages makes the book really fly by in an instant. I read 80-90% of this book while waiting at the train station and after that my commute home, which is roughly 45 minutes. I know I'm already a fast reader in general, but this book was over really fast. Which is a bit of a shame, because I was really into this book. I wouldn't have minded if it was an extra 100 pages long. Again, this is not a direct criticism, but it definitely flies by fast, so if you're not in for reading fast-paced book and want a bit more depth the reader might be a bit disappointed.
Overall a short but very wholesome and at times emotional read. Definitely recommend this one if you love cats or animals in general
Rating: 4/5
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