Reviews

Thomasina: The Cat Who Thought She Was a God by Paul Gallico

hartsea's review

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  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

anna3101's review against another edition

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4.0

One of the best souvenirs of my childhood...

rhubarb1608's review

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emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

pamjsa's review against another edition

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5.0

This is a strange and amazing book about faith, compassion, love, and the power we have to save each others' souls. (All that in a book about a cat? Yes, believe it or not.) It starts out a little slow, but once the story was underway I really couldn't put it down. I loved the multiple perspectives, and there were several points at which I found myself in tears. Highly recommended, even if you aren't an animal person.

greycatbird's review

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

It was very Christian, with themes of finding God again. Only partly from the cat's point of view. Some old timey gender expectations and anti Romani sentiments. Very descriptive writing.

mercipourleslivres's review against another edition

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3.0

Exactly like the Disney film.

lory_enterenchanted's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense

4.0

When I picked out Thomasina to read for a cat-themed reading event at Literary Potpourri, all I knew about it was that the title character was a cat, and the author had also written Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris, a book I’d recently enjoyed. I didn’t pay attention to the subtitle (“the cat who thought she was a god”), and I had no idea I was about to get into what is basically a story of religious conversion. 

No, not a conversion to the worship of cats; nor is Thomasina really the central character of this tale, even though she is a catalyst (ha ha) for much that happens. The main emotional trajectory is that of Andrew MacDhui, an unhappy widower who wanted to be a surgeon and was forced by his father to become a vet like himself. Although he is skilled and knowledgeable, MacDhui’s anger and resentment poison his treatment of the animals he finds beneath his notice. Rumor has it that he’s a mite quick with the chloroform, and doesn’t seek to save animals he judges not worth it. 

MacDhui loves his seven-year-old daughter Mary Ruadh, but detests her cat, Thomasina. And when Thomasina is injured and brought to his office during a moment of fatal distraction, he orders what he considers a mercy killing, but Mary Ruadh considers a murder. The rift this creates in their relationship sparks a painful process through which MacDhui has to question the very principles upon which his life has been built. In time, this includes allowing into his heart his need for a loving and forgiving Divine Presence that will allow him to admit and forgive his own errors, which stem from unacknowledged pain. With the help of a mysterious young woman who cares for animals in the woods and is labelled a witch by some, a saint by others, his healing can finally begin. 

Strong stuff, you might think! And it is, but it’s broken up with chapters from the cat’s point of view, which add a whimsical note. From the outset, Thomasina says she’s going to be killed, but we know somehow she will survive — or return? — since she is telling this tale. In charming feline fashion she tells us of her likes (the smell of lavender) and dislikes (being carried upside down like a baby), her duties as a cat (watching mouseholes), her love and sympathy for her mistress, Mary Ruadh, and her distrust of the red-bearded veterinary doctor. 

After the disaster, Thomasina’s place is taken by Talitha, who lives with the Red Witch in her forest cottage and “thinks she is a god.” That is, she remembers a prior incarnation as the cat-goddess Bast in Egypt, and though unnaccountably humans no longer seem to worship her, her elemental powers slowly come back, bringing on the crucial denouement. 

The story is all about how one copes with trauma, with the agony of powerlessness, and Thomasina’s trauma, which she deals with through dissociation and escape into an imagination of divine power, is a reflection of MacDhui’s own trauma, which disconnected him from his child-self and from the innocence and living forces of nature. As his little girl comes close to the brink of death, his own soul is rescued by daring to love again, in spite of the risk of loss. He recovers the capacity to grieve and along with it his true self. And as wholeness returns, so can Thomasina, no longer to rage and punish as an angry, exiled elemental force, but to serve as the conduit and symbol of domestic well-being that is the rightful role of our household pets. 

Coming from an earlier era, the book is unabashedly sentimental and more than a bit religious, but in a vein that is certainly not dogmatic. It upholds love as the central value and ultimate goal of human endeavor, rather than knowledge, power, or righteousness, and explores the miracles that can happen when suffering leads us to embrace love instead of rejecting it. 

So although I was a bit surprised to find all this packed into my little cat story, I was very glad to have  read it, and grateful for Reading the Meow, without which I don’t think I would ever have picked it up. I can’t wait to see what others have discovered this week! 

This is also my first book reviewed for #20BooksofSummer23. See what else is on my list here.

dan78's review against another edition

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4.0

Lots of religion in here, that the Disney film obviously missed out :) good read though and got me to take stock of just how busy I've been of late not to appriciate simpler things

slytherclawgirl's review against another edition

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5.0

I have always loved the now too obscure Disney movie as a child but never picked up the book until many years later after watching it again a few years ago.

kienie's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5/5 stas.

I will need some time to sort out all of my feelings regarding the religious aspect of this book. It seems to promote a sort of individual spirituality and belief in a divinity. It offers this belief as a balm against the pain of everyday tragedies. A part of me respects this approach, but another part of me wants to bundle those people up and get them some grief counseling. The way the story is told makes me emotional, and those emotions vary from one moment to the next. Fury, pity, sadness, tears and joy.
I do not like how Thomasina's POV fits in. The tone is completely different from the rest of the novel; it's jarring. Also, is she a stand-in for fate? Chance? God's unknowable plan? I will have to think on it, but regardless, her parts seemed to belong in some different novel. Not thematically, but stialistically.
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