Jennie (Collins Modern Classics)

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I was sent scurrying to a re-read of this following a chance post by a fellow blogger about fictional books with a cat-focus Interesting Literature. I’m afraid, despite of course knowing the story well, that I sobbed in all the places I had ever sobbed before – perhaps partly because of memories of the first sobbing, aged somewhere around 9 or 10, but also, because some quite deep themes are being explored – particularly loss, friendship, betrayal of trust, death. It is definitely one of those incredible, somehow saturated books that capture you and inspire you to just get beyond yourself and strive to be better, no matter how hard it might be. On waking, he is astonished to find that he has turned into a cat… The world is a dangerous place for him, but luckily he is rescued and befriended by Jennie, a kindly stray tabby who has been abandoned by her owners.

Inevitably, he awakens on board from his 25-minute coma to find the terrible and beautiful memories of the past forty years were caused by a special mental probe of sorts from an extinct people. Starving, chased away, stepped on by unaware people because he lacks the cat sense to get out of the way, Peter is almost killed by a ferocious territorial feral top cat. Although the protagonist is a little boy, this is by no means childishly written, nor does it just offer whimsicality about cats. I was sent scurrying to a re-read of this following a chance post by a fellow blogger about fictional books with a cat-focus.If he does get transformed into a human being, does his friendship with Jennie survive this transformation?

Paul Gallico's descriptions of cats and their lives is quite detailed and it looks like they were based on real observations.

Sadly events work toward a climax which neither of them can avoid, and it really is a heartbreaking conclusion.