No, I haven’t read it yet, but it certainly is intriguing. Thanks to reader Merilee for calling it to my attention.
It’s on Amazon in paperback, audiobook and Kindle:
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.”
Thus begins The Meowmorphosis—a bold, startling, and fuzzy-wuzzy new edition of Franz Kafka’s classic nightmare tale, from the publishers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Meet Gregor Samsa, a humble young man who works as a fabric salesman to support his parents and sister. His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and finds that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten. His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills piling up? And how can he expect them to serve him meals every day? If Gregor is to survive this bizarre, bewhiskered ordeal, he’ll have to achieve what he never could before—escape from his parents’ house. Complete with haunting illustrations and a provocative biographical exposé of Kafka’s own secret feline life, The Meowmorphosis will take you on a journey deep into the tortured soul of the domestic tabby.
You can have a look inside on the Amazon site (it’s also at Amazon.ca). Two editorial reviews follow, and there’s an introductory video:
“Highly recommended for connoisseurs of the bizarre.”—Publishers Weekly“Takes meta-fiction to dizzying new heights.”—The Huffington Post
And an approving review by a reader:
******
Arachnophobes may bridle at the latest Simon’s Cat video, called “Scary Legs.” To me, only the ending is disturbing.
Be sure to subscribe to Simon Tofield’s wonderful animations (he makes all the cat sounds with his own voice), and head over to his shop for some Simon’s-cat-merchandise, just the ticket for your ailurophilic friends at Christmas. (Note: merchandise priced in pounds and must be shipped from the UK.)
******
Reader Steve sent a link from the Torygraph’s “This week in pictures” about Kick the cat, who hitched a ride on a car on the M1 in England. The caption to this photo reads:
A daredevil cat, Kick Buttowski, clung to a ladder on the roof of an electrician’s van during his unexpected high-speed journey down the M1. Kick has been reunited with his owners after amazingly surviving his adventurous motorway ride. The van driver, Helen Stevens, pulled over to check what was wrong after another motorist flashed her a warning, and was amazed when she saw the 18-month-old cat clinging to her roof. Picture: CATERS
I love Kick’s last name.
Steve added his own note: “The M1 is a UK motorway (freeway), where the speed limit of 70mph is regularly exceeded, so Kick will have had quite a ride!
My cats eat spiders, but they’re not okay afterwards, the spiders I mean.
We had a cat many years ago that we acquired because, as a small kitten, he got away from someone at the flea market and went under our van. He rode, clinging to the transmission housing, from Albuquerque, with a stop at the grocery store, to our home near Sandia Park, and then spent the night under the van.
The following morning, I heard a meowing as we were unloading, and I coaxed him out.
Of course, we named him VW. We had him for fifteen years. L
The Scary Legs video was pretty funny in its dramatic irony. I like that the spider was okay at the end. 🙂
It wasn’t! The cat squashed it.
No – the spider blinked after – he was okay!
…only in the same sense that the Coyote is after being force-fed an anvil made of dynamite….
b&
I watched it again and I think Diana’s right. The big googly eyes did blink. ( hate to admit that the scampering spider fed into my not so latent arachnophobia…)
I would have reacted in just that way in the video to the spider but I would have tried to catch it in something to put it outside. 🙂 It’s like I’m two people!
I’ve done the putting the spider outside routine, too, Diana, but sometimes after an EEEK! Why are spiders so much more EEEK-provoking than insects? Definitely evolutionary, I presume…
Ditto, but I usually scoop them on a piece of paper (and very nervously shift my hold if the spider gets too close to my half of the paper). Legal- or tabloid-sized paper is much preferable to letter-sized paper for this purpose!
b&
Perhaps American spiders are slower than Australian.
We have what are called Huntsman spiders and those things can move.
They are sometimes known as dinner plate spiders because that’s how big they can get.
They supposedly can make you sick if they bite you and being not too fond of spiders in general, they make me freak out.
Watching QI the other day, Stephen Fry said that in Australia, spiders kill more people by causing road accidents than by biting them.
Sure sounds like it. I’ve never personally encountered a spider that moved anywhere near as fast as what you’re describing.
b&
There is a reason that while in Australia, I didn’t go anywhere in the bush off of boardwalks & refused to look up in trees except where there were bats.
Remind me to never take Baihu for a walk in Australia. His favorite part is sniffing under bushes. Granted, our bushes tend to be open scrub….
b&
Ontario has huge dock spiders ( which sneak up on you when you’re lying on a dock by a lake) but I think they are harmless aside from scaring one to death…
Note to self: do not lie on Ontario lake docks.
b&
It’s why I don’t go anywhere near docks up north. These spiders are known as dock spiders but their formal name is Dolomedes Tenebrosus & they can deliver a painful bite too.
Here is information about them.
NOTE TO SELF! AVOID NORTHERN DOCKS! MAINTAIN A MINIMUM 100-MILE SEPARATION FROM ALL NORTHERN DOCKS!
b&
Huntsman spiders, not so much.
From
http://www.termite.com/spiders/Huntsman-Spider.shtml
“The bite of Huntsman Spiders is of low risk to humans.
Huntsman spiders are a non-aggressive group of spiders. They are very timid and will try to avoid and when encountered can move at lighting-fast speed to escape human contact.
However, a large individual can give a painful bite.”
The Sydney funnel-web spider, on the other hand…
Never encountered on of those. Never want to, unless separated by glass….
b&
I find a piece of cardboard and a upside down glass very effective for bug removal. Prevents the horror of the creature making it to my hand. Ahhh!
Yeah that is my technique as well but usually with paper. You have to be careful of the fast running spiders as the go nuts when you put them in the paper & glass trap and they are so fast they can end up on your arm! Ahhhhh!
Yes. And rather than a glass, you can use a clear plastic snack cup. Lighter weight.
That story about the cat on the M1 is actually timely…Baihu and I have been going for a few more drives to the park for walks, and he seems to have two favorite spots for the drive: either on my lap, or on top of the kitchen sink.
…erm…I should probably explain that I drive a ’68 VW Westfalia — that’s the camper version of the Type II microbus. The sink is behind the passenger’s seat, and the top of the sink is the same height as the back of the seat. He has a great view from there, as good as a human sitting in the seat.
(I should also add that I keep him on a leash that’s positioned in such a way that he can reach my lap and most of the rest of the interior of the car, but not my feet.)
So, anyway…the top of the sink is a bit on the precarious side, with not much for him to dig his claws into to get a good purchase. He still does a good job of staying in place, but I wouldn’t mind giving him something more grippable and perhaps more comfortable to sit on.
I’m sure I can improvise something…but anybody got any brilliant suggestions, ideally derived from personal experience?
Cheers,
b&
How about one of those Rubbermaid sink mats?
Hmmm…I’ll ponder that. Might be worth a try, though my thoughts were going more in a fuzzy (as in fabric) direction. Thanks!
b&
Or a scrap of rubber-backed carpeting, like what we have in the back compartment of our car for our d*g.
Another good suggestion — thanks.
I think I’m also a bit nervous about how to secure it. It wouldn’t do much good to give him something he can hold on to if said something simply goes sliding around with him on top of it….
b&
Sorry, my comment below at about #9 should have gone up here someplace.
Attach Velcro to sink top and underside of Baihu…?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist 😉
Hey, if I’m gonna go that route, I might as well go straight to the anti-gravity treatment with buttered toast….
b&
NB: I haven’t read Meowmorphosis either and am not a zombie aficionada. Just noticed it featured in a Moab bookstore and got a chuckle out of it.
Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN POLITICAL JOURNAL and commented:
We love Simon’s Cat…Listen With Caturday Simons Cat are we all sitting comfortably
“Kick Buttowski” is an animated TV show on Disney.
What a bunch of wimps we are-LOL
Just to give you a couple of ideas. If your surface is untextured, as in glass flat, I have some suction cups you could try. There is also this type of soft non adhesive shelf liner that might help with a heavy weight material on top of it, the stuff I have probably isn’t the same brand, though. Also, these hooks work good even if the surface has a light texture to it. I’ve hung wet bath towels and coats on the “Jumbo” size and they’ve held up well.
You would probably need to build a see through box if you wanted something real safe.
Thanks — that shelf liner stuff looks intriguing!
b&