The Guest Cat is the charming sui generis novel by Japanese writer Takashi Hiraide. It is at its core, a story of loss which examines change and ruminates on the vicissitudes of life.
This elliptical tale about a cat changing the lives of its owners is set in the late 1980s, and hints at being an autobiographical novel. Despite its title, the book is far from being a pet memoir. The premise is a thirty-something married couple living together in a small house in Tokyo who are adopted by a stray cat they call Chibi, set against a backdrop of an unstable property market and economic insecurity.
The childless couple, one a writer and the other a proof reader, find that their marriage has grown stale as they both lose themselves in work. Chibi’s presence changes the dynamic of the couple and brings meaning to their lives, slowly drawing them from their desks, work and daily grind into the garden where they learn to enjoy the moment.
Not only does the plain plot and sparse prose make the novel an unexpected hit, but the modesty of its author Hiraide who has rarely been published outside of Japan is also surprising. Initially published by Picador in September to a lukewarm reception and few reviews, the book went on to quietly win over the hearts of the nation and become a very unlikely best-seller. It sold an impressive 20,000 copies in several months without a marketing campaign. It’s not hard to see why: although the tale is simple and the words are spare, its allegory and pathos resonates with the reader on many levels.
Reminiscent of Haruki Murakami, The Guest Cat highlights small daily details: the silences between the couple, the passage of time, the quest for a home. It holds a magnifying glass to the minutia of life, reminding the reader of what really matters.
Although the novel reads quickly and fluidly, the loss of Chibi is reflected by the reader’s feeling of incompleteness they are left with at the end, which inevitably is a symptom of the novel’s best attribute: its lack of embellishment. Despite this, it is a brilliant read, and The Guest Cat forces us to examine our own lives, stop a while and enjoy the present.
