We were in Strasbourg yesterday, and I couldn't resist buying this little book: it's mostly pictures of cats in Ungerer's inimitable style, with no words. Here are a few examples I found on the web:
At the end, there is a short biographical section about Ungerer's two beloved cats Piper and Heidsieck, who served as models for many of his pictures. Quite moving, in fact.
"At rest or in motion, these languorous, slinky, sinuous and sensuous, wily and selfish creatures have been a constant source of inspiration..."
Though I'm too crazy allergic to ever live with one, I still feel like a cat person because I have noticed that most of my favorite authors are/were cat people - Oates, Gorey, Chandler, Jansson, Spark, Wodehouse, Le Guin, John Crowley (convinced that most of the dragons in fantasy books are the writer's favorite cats in disguise by the way)
So you say that my demure child would never think like that. Who knows what they have on their minds? Tomi Ungerer, a well-known illustrator, and author of children's books do. The cover illustration would make a great cross-stitch.
“I love to watch and draw animals, and cats are one of my favorite subjects. At rest or in motion, these are languorous, slinky, sinuous, and sensuous. Wily and selfish creatures have been a constant source of inspiration throughout my life, and my observations of their behavior have resulted in hundreds of illustrations.” - Tomi Ungerer
There are more words on the back cover than there are in the book as it is a series of highly stylized cats the way Freud would have seen them.
Ce petit album dépeint plus d'une centaine de chats, peints, bricolés, croqués (au sens propre comme au figuré) dans toutes les postures typiques que les amoureux des félins connaissent si bien. du chat mélomane au chat jongleur ou équilibriste, leurs talents sont exacerbés avec humour. Challumette, chamots croisés, chalettre, é(chat)rpe, tous détournés et intégrés avec brio. Les dernières pages sont très émouvantes. L'auteur nous y explique sa relation avec deux chats ayant particulièrement compté dans sa vie et leurs manies. Comme chez soi.
Au jeu du chat et de la souris, le sieur Ungerer s'en tire à très beau compte puisqu'il met en scène des félidés en proie à des rongeurs survoltés, ou l'inverse. La cocasserie et l'incongruité des scènes représentées, comme la multitude de styles graphiques utilisés, sont autant de richesses qui font de cet album un petit bijou à regarder encore et encore.
Ungerer's illustrations are nothing short of brilliant. i had quite a laugh at some of them (namely the cats behaving like humans, or the ones of them as planes) and i love how he brings cats to life through his creativity. perhaps my favorite part of this wasn't the illustrations, but the short biography that Ungerer wrote about his inspiration and his two cat subjects, Piper and Heidsieck. adorable.
I collect books about cats (fiction and non-fiction); books with cat pictures, photos and/or drawings (children and adult books); books with cats as one of the main characters in the story (or main subject/theme). I enjoy collecting these books very much thus I bought this book at my local public library's bookstore, almost brand new.
The author is very talented, all the drawings are his own drawings with cats as the main character, and some are very beautiful (well, at least to me). Some of the drawings have adult themes though (no pornography). Since this is not a book I want for my personal collection, I am offering it at the Goodreads Bookswap (www.goodreads.com). The book is an excellent choice for others who also collect cat books and are not bothered by the adult themes.
Note: The book cover has a black and white cat with blue sunglasses, one of the author's own drawings, and is very beautiful. I couldn't find the particular cover when searching for it in Goodreads.