A New Series: One Minute Reviews of
Books by Vermont Authors
Laura's column "One Minute Reviews" has appeared bi-weekly in Wilmington, Vermont's Deerfield Valley News since 2015. In April 2018, she found that no Vermont periodical consistently reviews all commercially published fiction and non-fiction by Vermont authors, so she started a series to fill that void. Published reviews from that series and some earlier reviews of local authors are listed with links to a scan of the printed copy. Reviews still in queue are listed without links until they appear in print.
The books reviewed in this series are available through Wilmington's Pettee Memorial Library, the Whitingham Free Public Library, and locally owned Bartleby's Books in Wilmington.
Deerfield Valley News, 1/2/2025
Magical Realism for Cat Lovers
Syou Ishida, We’ll Prescribe You a Cat. Translated by E. Madison Shimoda. Berkley, 2024
Ishida’s book belongs to a genre of Japanese fiction that describes events revolving around a single place: in this case, the Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Hovering on the fine line between a novel and a series of interconnected short stories, it tells the story of five different citizens of Kyoto, all so stressed by their lives that they visit the Clinic, having only overheard word-of-mouth recommendations. Its location is puzzling: East of Takoyakushi Street, south of Tominokoji Street, West of Rokkaku Street, north of Fuyacho Street. There is no street number, and the building can’t be found on any GPS. When the Clinic appears (which it does not do consistently), it’s in an old building hidden between two others in a narrow alley; it requires a five-floor walkup and the will to deal with a heavy door that’s occasionally difficult to open. Inside the immaculate office is Chitose, an unfriendly receptionist, and the unexpectedly young Doctor Nikke, who listens sympathetically to his patients’ problems and prescribes them a remedy: a cat, to be taken with a pet carrier and care instructions for a designated period, usually a week.
The chapters/stories are organized according to the cat the Doctor prescribes, each one portrayed by a charming sketch. Bee, a mixed breed 8-year old female, is prescribed to Shuta, a young man who, like others in the prestigious company he works for, suffers from constant fear of public humiliation by his (embezzling) boss. Margot, a black mixed breed 3-year-old female, is prescribed for Shota, a patriarchal man in his fifties whose insomnia and nightmares are related to the enthusiastically positive comments of his new female boss and his alienation from his wife and daughter. Koyuki, a white kitten, is prescribed to Aoba, a ten-year-old who is struggling with fourth grade cliques and with her mother, Megumi, who dismisses her problems as ridiculous. Tank and Tangerine, American Shorthair and Ragdoll, are prescribed to Tomoka, a talented handbag designer who is losing her staff to her perfectionism, and is beginning to realize her easy-going boyfriend will never be able to hold down a job. And Mimita, a Scottish Fold, is prescribed to Abimo, a geisha who has been grieving for the loss of her prior cat, Chitose, for over a year.
The considerable charm of the stories lies partly in the unsentimental portrayal of the cats, who simply do what cats do: purr, meow, shed, scratch materials, engage in “zoomies” at night, escape, pose for Instagram pictures. The stories of the cures are humorous and, to an alert reader, revealing studies of the pressures on middle class Japanese people, who are exhausted, keenly aware of accents, social status, and competition in business and afraid of judgment by their peers. The most fun of the stories, however, is their magical realism, as readers begin to wonder not just about the location of the clinic, but its relationship to the Suda Animal Hospital, the confusion of a geisha and a receptionist, the connections between the Clinic and pet stores—not to mention, the mysterious identity of the Clinic’s owners. The casual, humorous portrayal of the intersection of magic and reality has the kind of charm that touches Hayao Miyazaki’s film My Neighbor Totoro. Ishida’s cats make wonderful, relaxing reading, not just for cat lovers, but for anybody who is looking for an amusing way to relieve holiday (or other) stress.