A Month of Novellas, Book 3: The Cat - Colette (1933)

bedroom window w/guest appearance by Franny

I'd obviously heard of Colette before. Who hasn't seen the film 'Gigi' - well, apparently my husband, but that will soon be remedied - and squirmed at the inappropriate song sang by the otherwise enchanting Maurice Chevalier? 'Thank heaven for little girls' indeed you old lech :p

Somewhere along the way I even managed to pick up a collection of her 'Claudine' novels, but hadn't managed to crack into it as of yet. I do that a lot. Pick up things here and there that I've vaguely heard of and save them for the proverbial rainy day. Eventually one way or another they end up getting read, sometimes decades after being bought. That's the wonder of having a mini-library in your home. For the bookish-ly inclined with a little space - you don't need much, I promise - I highly recommend it :)

But back to Colette.

I perused my collection but found that none of the 'Claudine' novels fit the criteria, i.e. were under 150 pages. But I found that Colette had written 2 small novels that fit the bill. 'Gigi' and 'The Cat'. Since I'd already seen the film version, I wasn't really keen on reading 'Gigi', so 'The Cat' or 'La Chat' it was.

The description in the back made it almost seem as if this was going to be a Murakami-like cat with human characteristics. This was not to be. In fact for the first third of the book, the cat, Saha, barely makes an appearance. Instead we get to meet about to be wed Alain and Camille, who don't really seem to be that enamored of each other to tell the truth...or at least Alain doesn't seem to be.

Camille is young and seems a bit flighty, but then again how many 19-year-olds aren't a bit flighty? ;)
Alain though, seems to be just sort of going along for the ride.
At one point, after they've just been married he says the following:

"...But what a...what brazenness; Does she think I'm dead? Or does it seem perfectly natural to her to wander about stark naked? Oh, but that will change!" pp. 84

I found this to be just about the oddest thing for a newly wed husband to say. Camille, the hussy, did this in their bedroom. Not outside and/or in public as one might have assumed from that tone. This was definitely not starting off well.

And then continuing in this 'happy' tone:

"'You're like the smell of roses, he said one day to Camille, 'you take away one's appetite.'" pp.110

I'm guessing he didn't exactly mean that complimentarily as he's started to sleep with her in haste and then thinking of women with other body types. Anything but that of the woman he decided to marry.

But where's Saha during all of this? She is after all the titular kitty. Well, she's been left behind at Alain's family home which is being remodeled in expectation of the newlyweds moving in. Except it'll take a little while longer, so they've temporarily moved to an apartment Alain has rented to a friend who's currently on vacation.

While they're away though, Saha has started to become withdrawn. Unused to her Alain being away overnight, she starts to refuse to eat and becomes a shadow of herself. During a visit home, he decides he can no longer allow Saha to get even more ill and takes her home to his and Camille's apartment...all the way up on the 9th floor.

There Saha quickly regains her strength and vigor and quickly starts to antagonize Camille, simply by existing it seems. It all comes to a climax when... well, I'm not going to actually say what happens, as it's pretty incredible.

Let's just say things only get worse.

This was just a very strange story. I never really understood why Alain ended up marrying Camille, as it seems he was much happier living the single life and no one was pressuring him into it. And then his dedication to Saha. I well understand the love and devotion he had to his little cat as I have cats myself. I think the author was trying to show that his love was too much, too over the top, but honestly, he just seemed like someone who really cared for his cat.

Meanwhile Camille, who really was not well suited for Alain, starts to develop a jealousy towards the cat. Yes, the cat doesn't seem to like her, I'll give Camille that. But she does nothing to try and befriend Saha, after knowing how much the little chat means to Alain.

Once the climax has occurred, it's no surprise what happens next. My only real surprise was how it seemed as if we were supposed to take Camille's side as the put upon wife. Their problems went much deeper than a conflict over a pet. But thankfully Saha was there to make Alain truly realize what he'd gotten himself into.