I've been a cat now for what seems like an eternity. If anyone asks you what it's like to be a cat, hand them a copy of the book and walk rapidly away. Reading the book has been a lot like having a cat as a pet -- occasionally delightful, sometimes insightful, and frequently annoying.

I Am a Cat was written by Japanese author Soseki Natsume at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. It's a gentle satire told from the point of view of a household cat in the home of a teacher of modes More...

I had issues rating this classic so low because it truly is a classic, but I rate purely on the amount of enjoyment I receive from a book, not on historical impact, and so the evaluation stands.

A collection of anecdotes told from the perspective of an ordinary albeit extremely intelligent house cat, it has its moments but there's nothing too captivating here. For its time, having a cat as a narrator was a unique approach, but what was creative and revolutionary then has lost its novelty under t More...

"I am a cat" is a "slow-reading" book. There's not much action in it and it's all about the cat's opinion on everything: especially people. It actually speaks, in a very particular way, of mediocrity. The cat describes the routine of its master, a japanese man that teaches english in 1904 Japan, and the way he deals with life. The descriptions are very rich and the references to other works are diverse and intriguing, compelling you to know more about japanese classic literature. All things cons More...

In un giorno come tanti una cucciolata di gattini miagola in cerca della mamma, uno di loro
viene raccolto ed abbandonato in un campo di bambù accanto ad un fiume. Questo gatto è stato
fortunato: la sua vita è salva dalla crudeltà dell'uomo che voleva gettarlo nelle acque
fredde del fiume. Spaurito e affammato il Gatto inizia a vagare alla ricerca di qualcuno che
lo possa aiutare. Per caso si ritroverà nel giardino della casa del professore Kushami
ed è
lì che troverà riparo. Inizia così l'avventura More...

amazing and ridiculous in equal venture, this book possesses surprising foresight for something written in 1906. supposedly a satirical take on japanese society during the meiji period, some of the observations hold true for humankind as a whole. some of the ideas that intrigued me in the book:
Nobody at all, not even Alexander the Great or Napoleon, has ever felt satisfied with his or her conquests. Take a more homespun case. You meet a man, you take a scunner to him, you get into a quarrel, yo More...

I Am A Cat is a book that I can read over and over and over again wiothout getting bored.

In turns humorous, literate and brilliantly ahead of it's time, the original Japanese is translated extremely well by the team and the humour and comical restraint of the Japanese original text is expertly done, nonchalantly doing the job of making a good book open to a deservedly wider audience.

The book does go on a bit at times, but that is perfectly in keeping with the central conceit of observing and an More...

Cinque stelle perché nonostante non ci sia praticamente azione e l’intera vicenda abbia il setting di un unico quartiere, le quattrocento e passa pagine del romanzo scorrono via in maniera estremamente piacevole e divertente. C’è un’ironia che non credevo familiare alla letteratura orientale (di cui peraltro non ho mai letto niente, quindi era solo un pregiudizio) e un inaspettato ma continuo riferimento alla cultura occidentale: mi sono stupita di sentir parlare di greci, romani, inglesi da un More...

I Am A Cat is an original and rather adorable tale about the world of man told from a cat's perspective. At least it is for most parts. At other times we just have a cat recounting exactly what his master, Mr. Sneaze, and his friends are up to. This results in a novel that has its ups and downs. Certain anecdotes that our feline friend recounts had me zooming through the pages and laughing out loud. Others had me dozing off and seemed to be coming more from the author than the cat persona he sho More...

Any flaws this comic novel has have to do with pacing, and structure (and this is largely due to how the tale was originally conceived and eventually published) -- the characters are used brilliantly to expose the foibles of a schoolteacher, his friends and neighbors in Meiji era Japan. Seen through the eyes of a curmudgeonly cat, as these these characters wrestle with the changing times and increasing Western influence, they struggle to discover what is of enduring value. Their adventures in se More...

This book was really very inventive and the cat is just so likeable. The cat has no name, which I think is rather nice because, somewhat lacking in identity, we provide our own. So not only is the cat watching and remarking on the humans around him, but the reader is also. I am a great lover of cats, so this book immediately appealed to me when I saw it on the shelf. The cat's observations are laughable, but the dialogue between the humans is even more absurd. The cat's master is a hopeless case More...

As you may have guessed from the title, the main character of the novel is a cat who “as yet [has] no name.” As the book opens, the cat wanders into the home of a teacher named Mr. Sneaze and eventually takes up residence there. In the book, the cat shares his observations about Sneaze and his family, friends, and neighbors.

I absolutely loved the device of having a cat as narrator. For one thing, I’m a cat person, so the idea of a book from a cat’s point of view is definitely intriguing. But mor More...

It's beautiful. A joy to read, written nonchalantly, with wit, humor but no lack of depth.
The cat's repeated emerging as a main character followed by its sudden relegation to the mute witness status is the soul of the book. This is what we all do on a day to day basis I think.
I was perplexed to see so mixed reviews, but I believe one of the reasons for the quite low rating on English websites is that in the English translation the names are translated as well. I have read the book in Romanian, w More...

Early twentieth century Japanese social satire. Told from the perspective of a sardonic cat, who observes the goings on of his master's family and friends. Definitely insightful and pretty amusing at parts, but overall the tone is dominated by pessimism and cynicism. Reminded me a lot of The Misanthrope in terms of tone and ambiguity about who's way of thinking is worthy of merit (A: probably no one's). The translation seems quite good in terms of replacing aphorisms or idioms with their equival More...

O gato (que não tem nome) consegue ser muito cômico e crítico ao mesmo tempo, principalmente ao comentar o dia dia de seu amo, Kushami, mas as partes em que ele age como um felino normal conseguem ser ainda mais engraçadas. Gostei muito de como o gato observa o discurso vazio e muitas vezes petulantes dos humanos e acaba fazendo o mesmo quando quer criticá-los, revelando a influência que os serer que ele considera inferiores têm no seu desenvolvimento. As falas dos personagens contém muitos troc More...

Filled with the clever wit one would expect from a feline protagonist, and complete with all embellishment of Japanese pride, which I gather was the integral theme. Like a cat, we rarely stray from the house, but instead examine in depth the tiny world of one family in one room.

Natsume certainly loves his tangents, from gross exaggerations like comparing a baseball team to "an army poised for war", to frankly befuddling statements such as "with careless care, he...". I have an inkling that the More...

Such a humorous book!

A nameless cat who loves to eavesdrop and reflect on his master's day to day activities! Although this was a slow read for me (compared to th other Japanese books I've read, there weren't really any action scenes in it. Nothing too exciting.) I was still entertained for this cat is no ordinary cat; he's (or she's) got a clever tiny mind hidden in those furry little head. And I actually find his statements about humans very true! One of which is this line:

"the prime fact i More...

The feline protagonist's observations are at times uproarious, but he (along with the unbelievably long-winded human crowd in the book) starts to really wear on you after a couple hundred pages. I'm also not sure what's quite up with the translation. Like other reviews have noted, it's stilted and has some unbelievably bizarre phrases that no sane editor should've vetted. I think the translators might have tried too hard to capture the original text's level of formality, which I can only assume More...

The edition I read has only the first three chapters of this ten-chapter series. Three was enough.

The first two chapters establish the narrator as a nameless cat and we see his observations of his human household and a few of the neighborhood cats. Quite entertaining. By Chapter 3, though, the cat has decided that he is really human, although in the form of a cat, and the narrative loses a lot of its charm. The cat's owner, a teacher, has endless discussions with fellow intellectuals in which e More...

Avviso: io sono un'avida lettrice degli scrittori giapponesi. La Yoshimoto, ovviamente, sta al primo posto della classifica. Altri li sto scoprendo man mano, come Soseki Natsume.
Bellissimo, divertente, ironico questo libro, raccontato dal punto di vista...del gatto! che ne è anche protagonista.
Soseki, come la Yoshimoto, riesce ad evocare ambientazioni, personaggi e sentimenti con i tratti leggeri di un pennino a china.
Spassosissimo fino all'ultimo capitolo. Una sola pecca: non mi è piaciuto il f More...

Others have warned that the introduction to this book gives too much away. I agree. Resist the urge to read it, as major events are spelled out within the first page or so.

I read the first volume of this many years ago and, remembering it very fondly, bought this edition of all three volumes in 1 as a little present to myself. Having looked at some of the reviews here on Goodreads, I was nervous that the second and third volumes might not stand up to the first. Happily, I found that I enjoyed th More...

Noioso, logorroico, privo di qualsiasi interesse sebbene l'idea del libro non era per niente male. Un gatto che racconta in chiave filosofica fatti ed episodi che avvengono all'interno della casa in cui vive.
Il problema è che qui di filosofia ce n'è troppa ed è pure giapponese. Inoltre, la filosofia felina lascia troppo spesso il passo ai dialoghi lenti, pesanti e assolutamente insignificanti dei protagonisti umani. Discorsi che, alla fine, non porteranno assolutamente a nulla.
Poteva essere ac More...

Maybe I'm completely missing the plot in some way, but I'm finding it somewhat of a drag. The premise is interesting, the p.o.v. is great, but I've struggled through 250 pages so far and still I don't get that rush of longing to drop everything else I'm doing and picking up my book. I'm reading just to read as it stands and to be honest, that's not great.
P.S. At time of completion I can think of one redeeming factor: it is a potent cure for insomnia if anything at all......I'm annoyed I put in t More...

Per un amante delle piccole tigri domestiche quattrocentocinquanta e oltre pagine di gattitudine zen non sono neanche tante. Lo dico in anticipo: questa è una recensione di parte!

L'unica mancanza di questo gatto saggio è già scritta nel titolo: non ha nome, perciò ognuno può riconoscere nel suo sguardo, che segue le vicende narrative come una steadycam - solo un po' più bassa -, il proprio punto di vista...



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'I am a Cat' is the the first of Natsume's "major works", and if this had been the first book of his I'd read, I regret to say it would've probably been my last. Natsume's wit and insight shine within a concisely written story. Here, the author keeps adding lengthy, indulgent, meandering chapters to his original short story, seemingly without any idea of how it would be read as a whole.

The original premise of cat's observations of his master and cohorts has its initial, amusing moments. But whe More...

Solo un gatto può essere così curioso, scanzonato, acuto e imprevedibile nello scandagliare e descrivere l'incoerenza, la boria e la saccenza umane.
Siamo nel giappone moderno, e il gatto si destreggia tra un padrone dispeptico e nevrotico, la sua famiglia scalcinata e gli amici, ciascuno dei quali rappresenta una variante della stessa perfetta balordaggine.
Ma alla fine il gatto è un gatto, e, come spesso succede ai gatti, sarà la stua stessa curiosità a perderlo, eppure, come il Budda, troverà l More...

Libro che stazionava da ben 5 anni sulla mia libreria, ai tempi iniziato e abbandonato dopo poche pagine.

Questa volta l’approccio è andato sicuramente meglio. Primo, non aspettarsi che il libro parli di un gatto e delle sue peripezie. Il gatto è un alter ego dell’autore usato per parlarci degli umani, dei rapporti che intercorrono tra loro e della società giapponese che via via si sta occidentalizzando. Il romanzo è stato pubblicato nel 1905 ma l’ho trovato molto attuale rispetto a una certa cri More...

I am a Cat by Natsume Soseki is a satirical take on Japanese society during the Meiji era. Soseki's social commentary is presented in an interesting way -- through the perspective of a cat. The cat, a nameless stray, makes intelligent and amusing observations about human society and, more specifically, human stupidity. The cat is a regular comedian, and the novel is riddled with puns and word play. I found the cat's point of view to be refreshing and entertaining, and I enjoyed reading this book More...

Reading this 470-page novel by Natsume Soseki was undeniably tough and its readers' concentration reasonably required. I didn't think I'd finish reading within a definite plan since I've usually regarded my reading, especially in search of enjoyment and consolation from some novels by my favorite authors, as something I can keep going whenever I want to. This idea might look boring to some readers, however, I found reading his biography and some of his shorter works like his "The Tower of London More...

Esse livro foi minha grande descoberta de 2012 no que diz respeito aos autores japoneses. O clima de sátira e humor negro de Soseki é exuberante. Para mim ficaram claros os parelelos com Sterne e Machado, mas com uma rápida pesquisa pela internet descobre-se que ele é bastante conhecido como o "Dickens japonês" - algo que eu não posso afirmar, minhas leituras em Dickens são nulas.
Aqui vemos a figura de um gato abandonado que foi adotado por um senhor que ensina inglês.
O gato não é nada ingênuo, More...