Junji Ito’s Cat Diary And My Ramblings
I have not read a single book this year until I met this one. It is neither a brag nor a call for pity. It’s been hard for my brain to consume information. As a chronically ill person I am mindful about the things I consume as it directly correlates with my overall health. So I stay away from the books that I used to enjoy in my pre-covid era, and it mostly feels like a previous birth one vaguely remembers.
I have heard about manga art, but as a non-visual person I didn’t care about it much. Anyway, this book was recommended by a new friend as I was fond of the felines. Anything apart from human is my choice for loving. But when I checked the author’s bio, he is famous for horror — a genre that I avoid as much as crime and thrillers, not because of fear, but the sheer resistance offered by my autistic brain. I confirmed with the friend again to see if it’s a horror one. He reaffirmed me that it’s a simple manga novel any cat lovers would appreciate. So I added this to my wish list. Then forgot about this.
There is another friend who is a collector of graphic novels and she purchased it. At the same time, she needed me to take care of her pet cats. I have lived with them long and they both are comfortable with me. One kind of adores me and have a sweet way of coming to me for his pampering. They were my source of joy in my darkest times.
A couple of days with them and my usual knitting/crocheting works — it was kind of a vacation for me, although traveling and shifting places with this body is hard. I picked up this book and tried to read. It’s a short book and it was supposed to be finished by an hour maximum. But somehow this one was not making sense to me. I tried like I always do until my day of return. Somehow I was not ready too abandon the book. So I carried it to my place even without the permission of my friend.
Once I settled back in my place, I carried on with my other projects until my hands started hurting. I knew I had to take a break from knitting and crocheting. So I returned to this book again. It still was not making sense. After some time, I flipped through the book and accidentally found out the index page at the end of the book. I was surprised. How come the index page is at the end? Isn’t it weird? Like any other person, I asked googled and much to my dismay I found out that manga is read from back to front and not like the rest of the books. Imagine my disappointment. How many hours I have wasted just because I have no clue about manga.
It was read in one sitting and could relate to Junji It’s experience. The love for cats grew on me once I started living with them. This had a direct impact on how Ito drew, his drawings of cats look cuter now since his entire perspective had changed after living with them. All the incidents and anecdotes mentioned in the book are extremely relatable to anyone who had spent considerable time with the cats and love them. It is such a well-depicted ode to the relationship between and cats and human beings. A lovely read for all the cat lovers!
PS: Don’t tell anyone about my manga mishap.
