Just Finished Reading: Poe’s Cat by Brenda Walker (FP: 1999) [234pp] 

Normally with my fiction reviews I’d start with a quick synopsis (spoiler free as possible) before moving onto my thoughts and feelings about the text. I’d throw in what I liked, what I didn’t like, styles etc... and then finish off with my recommendation (or not). But as this was my strangest read of the year (so far!) I’m going to need to do something different.  

The main characters/protagonists are cousins Thea and Finn. When they were growing up, they had spent many summers at their grandparent's house in the country. Now as adults they find themselves back there after their grandparents have died. As they go through various rooms and pick up various items, they both muse about the past and their complicated family history. But that’s only really the top-level story which kind of holds the essentially non-linear narrative together. Both Thea and Finn are authors. Finn has been commissioned to write a biography of an Australian General (the main story takes place in Australia but no actual geographic location is mentioned) whilst Thea is looking for ideas for her next novel. Whilst looking through her grandfather’s bookcases she comes across a whole set of books either by or about the American author Edgar Allen Poe. What fascinates Thea is not Poe himself but his young wife Virginia who Poe married at the age of 13(!). Prompted by what she finds, Thea begins writing stories around Virginia’s life with Poe and especially towards the end when Virginia was dying from TB. In these stories Virginia also tells stories she has created to anyone who is around at the time. When no one else is available Virginia tells the stories to the family cat. Mixed in with these tales are retellings of some of Poe’s stories from different points of view or as if they were actual historical events (which some of them were actually based on). 

All of the above sounds messy – incoherent even. The surprising thing is – it REALLY works. The author has a wonderfully lyrical way with language. There’s a dreamlike quality throughout the book which almost feels like floating in a hot bath at the end of a long day and hovering at the edge of sleep. Reading it felt like you were surrounded in that weird light you sometimes get on late summer evenings when it seems like time has stopped or slowed to a snail's pace and will last forever. Haunting is a word that continually came to mind. It was, as I’m hoping I’m getting across, quite the experience. I actually picked this up in one of those ‘book exchange’ things that appear for a while and then (sometimes) vanish. The title intrigued me (and the word ‘cat’ definitely helped) and I was attracted by the cover. I’m really glad I chose it even if it took me a few more years to actually getting around to reading it. Definitely recommended if you can source a copy. This is her third book and I’ll be looking out for her others but I think they’re quite difficult to find.