The Cat Who Came for Christmas (Cleveland Amory) Chapters 7-8

The book continues to divide its content between the story of the adoption of Polar Bear – the story we came to the book for – and sporadic essay-like asides related-to and not-so-specifically-related to cats.  That continues to be okay with me because the asides are pretty interesting in themselves.  But it still smacks just a little of bait-and-switch tactics to get us to read something we otherwise might have given a pass.

The story of the author’s trip to Hollywood is justified here by the fact that he took Polar Bear with him.  We learn a lot vicariously about the dos and don’ts of traveling with a cat – mainly, don’t – and wade through a lot of rather shameless name-dropping on the author’s part.  It is pointed out that in traveling with a cat, introductions are unpredictable: ‘The fact is that most cats, most of the time, have already met everybody they care to meet.’  Different hotels have widely varying rules on pets, but the author noticed that at the time of writing, the trend was toward banning them and he hoped the trend would someday be reversed: ‘A possible sign is the success of the Anderson House, a hotel in Washaba, near Minneapolis, where not only are cats welcome but, if you have not brought yours and are homesick for him, the hotel maintains fifteen of them in a barracks dormitory with their names over their rooms, from which you can select a companion to share your room for the night.’  Okay, that’s a little weird.

The opportunity arises to show how well the author knew Cary Grant, when he invited the actor to see Polar Bear in the hotel room to escape autograph seekers:  ‘Cary never gave autographs, but his turn-downs of requests for them were such studies in charm that I often thought they served as come-ons even to people who knew they wouldn’t actually get one.  In any case, this proved itself on this occasion – and, as usual, Cary was up to the challenge.  To one woman who gushed, “My friends will never believe I met you unless...” Cary gently interrupted, “You mean you have friends like that?  You really shouldn’t.”  To a man who began, “I hate to bother you, but…” Cary’s interruption was firmer.  “Don’t ever,” he advised, “do anything you hate.”  And finally to a third man, who started, “My wife will kill me…” Cary was also admonitory.  “Tsk, tsk,” he smiled.  “You really shouldn’t have that kind of a relationship – it’s too dangerous.’”

Returning to Polar Bear – remember?  The Cat Who Came for Christmas?  Amory talks about cats getting sick and having to attempt forcing a pill down Polar Bear’s throat.  ‘Polar Bear and I were, from the beginning, two very different individuals when we were sick.  When I am sick, I want attention.  I want it now, and I want it around the clock … He wanted to be alone and he wanted to be completely alone.’  (That second one is me!  The first is my wife…) ‘…the very last thing he wanted was a pill.  When it came to pills, Polar Bear was not only a Christian Scientist, he wrote the book…”

The story of the author’s trip to the arctic to foil a baby seal clubbing event is tied in to the book because one of the other activists suggested that he bring Polar Bear along as their good luck charm on their ice-breaking ship.  Right.  Even Amory saw the problem with this.  The Canadian government had fought to keep the seal clubbing viable, and had laws about interference from activists:  ‘…Canada’s so-called “Seal Protection” Act had decreed that nothing, ship or person could come within half a nautical mile of the sealhunt unless engaged in the killing.  It was surely remarkable seal protection.’  Indeed. 

Next Week: Chapters 9-10 (Conclusion)

January’s book of the month:

“Garnethill,” by Denise Mina!

Amazon.com Review

Garnethill (the name of a bleak Glasgow suburb) won the John Creasey Memorial Award for Best First Crime Novel--the British equivalent of the Edgar. It's a book that crackles with mordant Scottish wit and throbs with the pain of badly treated mental illness, managing to be both truly frightening and immensely exhilarating at the same time. -- Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly

From its opening pages, this winner of the 1998 John Creasey Memorial Award for best first crime novel pulls readers inexorably into the tortured world of sexual abuse victims and their struggle to survive as whole people. Eight months after spending almost half a year in a Glasgow psychiatric hospital devoted to treating sex abuse victims, Maureen O'Donnell is desperately trying to hold together her shattered life. Bored with her job at a theater ticket office and depressed because her affair with one of the hospital's doctors, Douglas Brady, is over, Maureen and a friend get drunk. The next morning Maureen finds Brady's body in her living room, his throat cut. With bloody footprints matching Maureen's slippers at the scene, Detective Chief Inspector Joe McEwan sets out to prove the woman's guilt … Maureen's valiant struggle to act sane in an insane world will leave readers seeing sex abuse victims in a new light. -- Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Week 1:  Chapters 1-8 

(First post, 1-9-15)

Week 2:  Chapters 9-20
Week 3:  Chapters 21-27
Week 4:  Chapters 28-38