If Cats Disappeared from the World
Reviews
It's simplistic, straightforward yet it clenches your heart. It makes you ponder about life, about the importance of simple everyday things, and yes — the importance of cats.
PS: the devil is so funny lol
"Yeah, but just being alive doesn't mean all that much on its own. How you live is more important."
Thought provoking and absolutely beautiful
Das ist genau mein Buch. Das ist genau meine Geschichte. Das ist genau mein Favorit.
Dieses Buch gab mir alles, was ich von einem guten Buch wollte.
Es macht Spaß und bringt mich dennoch zum Nachdenken über viele Dinge, die in der Realität wirklich wichtig sind.
Ich liebe es, wie der Autor so große Themen des Lebens auf so einfache Weise geschrieben hat. Es ist einfach erstaunlich.
Ich habe gelacht und geweint, während ich dieses Buch gelesen habe. Es ist bezaubernd und wird eine der denkwürdigsten Lektüren bleiben.
Es geht nicht nur um die Katze oder irgendwelche emotionalen Bindungen zwischen Katzen und Menschen, die die Handlung dieses Buches ausmachen.
Sondern es ist etwas, das völlig anders ist und dem Leben des Erzählers so wichtig ist, am Ende ergibt alles einen Sinn.
"I guess it's the same with life. We all know it has to end someday, but even so, we act as if we're going to live forever. Like love, life is beautiful because it must come to an end." *** Memento mori, basically. The premise really piqued my interest, but I didn't get to connect with the book as much as I thought I would. The thing about Japanese literature is that it's always hit-or-miss. Translation is probably a major factor because I felt like I was reading a YA novel here. If you're not a fan of self-help, you might feel this book getting over preachy at times. Nonetheless, the ending tied everything together nicely. 😃
I really enjoyed this book. Although the plot is obviously a little bit depressing, the beginning of the book is written in a rather fun and carefree way which lightened the atmosphere a lot. For me personally, it could have used a lot more emotion at this point and I found the constant reflecting and deep thoughts a little repetitive, I was fully prepared to give this book only 3 stars (because it was still nice and entertaining to read), but the last couple of chapters really hit me in the face with the emotions, they definitely made me tear up a couple of times. The book really does make you reflect on your own life, on the people and things that surround you and what they mean to you, and how your life would change if they happened to suddenly disappear. You begin to ponder whether things are really necessary or if they are only around us out of comfort. Lovely novel. 🐈⬛
How would the world change if I disappeared?? A touching and depressing novel about a young man who faces death, after he discovers he has a tumor and he doesn't have much time to live. It made me think of how we sometimes forgot that life is truly short and in the middle of everything we lose ourselves we forget how to life and enjoy the little things. It pushed me to question myself about the life I'm living, how I'll end up at the end? would I feel any regret?
A beautiful book about what makes life worth living. Had me bawling my eyes out at multiple occasions, one of them being in the middle of a train station in Madrid (which was embarassing.) The story was simple and at times repetitive, but still a fun read.
With the first chapter (maybe second, I don't remember), I was laughing out loud and thought I would be in love with this book. Sadly I'm not. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. But the beginning and end, I didn't feel much for the story one way or another. And even then, the ending, I would say, was charming. Not as standout as the beginning, with the introduction of Aloha. Cabbage was cute though.
“And that’s why we need cats. It’s just like my mother said. Cats don’t need us. It’s human beings who need cats.” the first book to actually made me cry this year. this is my kind of book. the book which is funny, nothing significant really happens and yet at the same time, it teaches us so much about reality. loved the way the magical realism was shown in the book. perfect for those people who love cats and movies. it was a short but beautiful journey of seven days with the narrator and as cliche as it sounds, i have grown to appreciate the little things, like he said. “I was never able to be completely myself or live my life in exactly the way I wanted to. I’m not sure I ever even figured out what exactly “being myself” really meant. So I’ll die with all those failures and regrets, all those unfulfilled dreams—all the people I never met, the things I never tasted, the places I’ve never been. But that doesn’t bother me anymore. I’m satisfied with who I am and how I’ve lived. I’m happy to have been here at all. Where else but here could I have been?” loved the ambiguous ending. in my mind, the narrator and his father had made up and his father now takes care of sweet Cabbage while he is dead now.
honestly idk what i expected coming into this but i did like it. it really did make me think about life and just things humans do lol. also my first book i’ve read in yeaaars so shoutout to it for that 🙏
This is the most beautiful book I have ever read. I sobbed. Literally sobbed.
I'm not going to lie, the title of the book is what drew me to this book since it would be terrible if cats actually disappeared from the world! I did find the title a little bit misleading though, but I still enjoyed the novel.
Kawamura's prose is adorned with a simplistic and genuine emotion that it adds to the immersive setting and thought-provoking concept. Although some parts were a little too cliché, and a comedic tone to the writing and characters was added, it was the quiet tender moments that I adored the most. While the ending of the novel becomes a little more obvious as I read, the manner in which the conclusion is reached, to me, is poignant and touching.
I feel like I can’t give this a full 5 stars but I will remember this book for a long time. I recommend it if you love Japanese fiction or speculative writings about life and death.
"With his four white feet tucked in and folded under his fur, he looked like a perfectly round throw-pillow. I stroked him and felt his little heart beating away. It was almost unbelievable that such a life force flowed through this small creature, as he lay there so still, sleeping beautifully". This book explores the "unnecessary things" that play an important role in shaping who we are and give our lives meaning, such as cats and movies, and the ethical dilemma of denying the rest of the world those "unnecessities" in exchange for an extra day of life. Up until around the halfway mark of this book, I wasn't really enjoying the writing style and felt that the narration was too stoic for such a subject (cats disappearing from the world!!!). Initially I thought it was a translation issue, but looking back, I see that this may have been intentional to reflect the main character's development and the emotional awareness he gains with the realisation of what he might cause to disappear from the world.
** spoiler alert ** Honestamente? Eu gostei muito. Apesar de ser uma leitura reflexiva — com todos os clichês que tem direito — não é um leitura pesada, talvez porque meus estágios do luto estão mais avançados e já não sinto mas tanto quanto sentiria há alguns anos atras. Pra Laura de hoje é um ótimo livro com passagens bonitas e significativas. O final me remeteu a duas possibilidades e em qualquer uma delas, fico satisfeita de ter decidido ler. obs: não acho egoísta nenhuma das decisões dele e acho que faria a mesma coisa.
*4.5 cant believe i started to sob when he talked about his mom
Would’ve been a 5/5 but I absolutely hate abrahamic religions.
An amazing book on the uncertainty of life and death. A beautiful piece on the inevitability of death and acceptance.
a book u hav to rlly connect with to actually feel it unfortunately i didnt rlly connect to it i think the premise of the book is good tho
** spoiler alert ** Dude this book is a huge disappointment. It’s flat, it comes short on 98% of its points, and it had a lot of potential if you read the blurb, but god, the book is just as underdeveloped as its protagonist. Our dude is either a teenage boy pretending to be an adult or a very emotionally underdeveloped 30 yo man. Reading the book was an insufferable experience… it’s extremely hard to connect with a character so shallow and self-serving. It just made the book an unpleasant read for most of it. There were moments that I just hated the character, and I know that some books are written in a way that it’s just intended for you to hate a character, but let me tell you, this was not it. He’s after all just a very flat and unlikeable character. To the point where all the bullet point items in his mom’s list of “things I love about my son” felt either delusional or just taken out of nowhere for cry effect at the end of the book. You couldn’t at all grasp any of those qualities anywhere else in the book, and there wasn’t any type of discussion or exposition to debate that maybe impending death made the boy act out. He should just have scheduled a therapy appointment when he left the doctor and this book would’ve been more interesting. So there, it’s just an overall badly constructed tale. I would’ve totally DNF’d this book if it wasn’t so tiny (it was a 4-hour read while in a road trip). But god, it really doesn’t make any sense to me that this book is so well acclaimed. Read at your own risk, I guess.
*sniffing* *sobbing*
Not a fan of the writing style but it did make me cry.
the writing does get so much better towards the end, presenting you with steady rain of emotional punches. i caught myself sobbing far too many times
This book reminded me a lot of “The Phantom Tollbooth” in its humor and whimsical storytelling. There were heartwarming moments and surprisingly philosophical sections of the book. A fun, light read, though the translation into English does seem a little on the clunkier side.
Highlights
“But as I write these things down, I'm beginning to wonder, is this really what I want to do before I die?
Perhaps I should start a new list, but when I think of all the things that I want to do before I die, they all involve you.”
“I guess it's the same with life. We all know it has to end someday, but even so, we act as if we're going to live forever. Like love, life is beautiful because it must come to an end.”
I was never able to be completely myself or live my life in exactly the way I wanted to. I'm not sure I ever really even figured out what exactly “being myself" really meant. So I'll die with all those failures and regrets, all those unfulfilled dreams, all the people I never met, the things I never tasted, the places I've never been. But that doesn't bother me anymore. I'm satisfied with who I am and how I've lived. I'm happy to have been here at all. Where else but here could I have been?
The tears rolled down and fell on the letter like warm, salty drops of rain. I quickly wiped them off, not want- ing to ruin a letter that mattered so much. But when I tried to stop I just cried more and more, and the letter got wetter and wetter, the ink beginning to smudge. Along with the tears, came a torrent of memories of my mother.
Mom said it was just obvious. People are always trying But that's just theft. If to get something for nothing. If you’ve gained something it means that someone, somewhere, has lost something. Even happiness is built on someone else's misfortune. Mom often told me this, she considered it one of the laws of the universe.
Life is beautiful because it has to end.
Love has to end. That's all. And even though everyone knows it they still fall in love.
If you've gained something it means that someone, somewhere, has lost something. Even happiness is built on someone else's misfortune.
Human beings exchanged their freedom for the sense of security that comes from living by rules and routines-despite knowing that costs them their freedom.
And next to all the movies that play on a loop inside me, sit the images of friends, lovers, the family, who were with me when I watched them. Then there are the countless films that I've recorded in my own imagination-the memories that run through my head, which are so beautiful, they bring tears to my eyes.
It's a real loss, something deeply human, that can't be expressed by counting things. It's so small you could miss it, but without anyone noticing, our lives are changed completely.
Before, I would hold him and pet him without thinking about it much, but now, for the first time, it occurred to me that this is what life was all about.
’There are so many cruel things in the world,’ he once told us. ’But there are also just as many beautiful things.’
“I’m really sorry. I just can’t help it. No matter how hard I try I can’t remember anything. Except perhaps one thing . . .”
“One thing?”
“I was happy. That’s all I remember.”
In my dream the man says, “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” The little tramp wears a silk hat and an oversized suit, twirling his walking stick as he approaches. I’ve always been moved by these words. When I first heard them and even more so now. I want to tell him how important they are to me but I can’t get the words out.
It was the first time the finality of death had really hit home for either of us, and so she started to cry there in that place. A place where there no denying just how powerless and utterly helpless we human beings are. I didn't know what to say.
“What did I gain by growing up, and what did I lose?”
“So I suppose I now know two things that I didn’t know then: I can’t fly, and what I had back then is now gone forever.”
“I realized then that when a person talks about something they really love, there’s a kind of thrill to listening to them.”
I completely agree like yes tell me everything!!
Love hast to end. That's all. And even though everyone knows it they still fall in love. I guess it's the same with life. We all know it has to end someday, but even so we act as if we're going to live forever. Like love, life is beautiful because it has to end.
My whole existence had taken place within this little sliver of time that sat between two much larger chunks of time—during which I didn’t exist.