Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
My rating: 5/5 cats
first, let’s focus on the artwork, because i saw this cover somewhere and i knew that i needed to read this book, no matter what its contents. i really do love dave mckean. he has been responsible for some of my favorite jonathan carroll covers, and the man just really knows how to draw cats.
he manages to get cat mannerisms down perfectly with such an economy of line – i love it. the only person whose cats even come close, and with a totally different tone is jeffrey brown:
he gets all the cute stuff – mckean settles for the slinky, creepy, dangerous cats.
fortunately for me, the book is also very good. it is the story of a purebred housecat who goes on a mission to find a “dog” in order to rescue his family from a bad man with two seriously bad cats who have taken over the house. along the way he learns some ancient secret cat fighting tricks in order to survive on the streets and meets some cat gangs and learns about the ways a cat can just go missing on the streets…
said does a good job of juxtaposing the pet cats with the feral ones; the stakes of each and their own particular values and mythologies. and now i am off to read the sequel!!
