Reviews

All My Cats by Bohumil Hrabal

davids's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

clarahd's review against another edition

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dark

3.0

loucadosgatos's review against another edition

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dark sad

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

fishface's review against another edition

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4.0

This was the perfect length of novel for me to cover the anxieties and guilt that the author explores over the morality and inevitability of his actions. Any more than 100 pages and it’d get a bit too depressing for me. I love cats, but this doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a book in which cats are killed- I mean, it’s described as descending into horror on the back what did you expect…

my interpretation as I went along of the content was that the cats are both real and also represent the narrators desire for love and companionship. As his anxieties build up over time his perception of his own desires for these things merge into the suicidal self loathing that it expressed in the killing of the kittens (a reflection of himself weak and helpless) but not quite the deed itself. Feeling overwhelmed by things you love is heartbreaking.

bergenslabben's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

3.75

starnosedmole's review against another edition

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3.0

Grim and difficult to stomach, but also languid and poetic. Heed the warnings of other reviews.

giovanni84's review against another edition

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4.0

Il protagonista, che è poi l'autore stesso, ama molto i suoi gatti, che a loro volta sono molto affezionati a lui.
E' però un amore che diventa ben presto angosciante, per le paure e le responsabilità che esso comporta, ma soprattutto per i sensi di colpa (in particolare per essersi dovuto liberare di alcuni gattini, ma quello è solo l'inizio).

A dispetto del titolo e della copertina, si tratta infatti di un libro piuttosto violento e "nero". La narrazione delle nefandezze e dei sensi di colpa del protagonista è morbosa.
Anche se ci sono accenni di ironia e di umorismo nero, il romanzo resta molto cupo.

E' il primo libro di questo autore, e mi è piaciuto. E' un romanzo intenso che riesce in pieno nel descrivere l'angoscia personale e renderla "universale".

(Mi ha lasciato però un po' perplesso l'intervista all'autore nel prologo, che è messa lì un po' a casaccio, senza riferimenti su quando e come sia data l'intervista, se è reale, e perché poi nel prologo, boh)

dom_00's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

sarahmoran27's review against another edition

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1.0

Quite possibly the most horrific book I’ve read. A happy book about cat’s it is not. Thank goodness it was only 95 pages long. Some of the horrible acts are so horrid that I cannot comment on the writing style.

arrianne's review against another edition

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2.0

This is pretty grim. Man is sad, murders some cats, somehow learns about himself and becomes a happier person in his late 60s because of this? Uncertain what I was meant to take from it.