innimaro 's review for:

Mornings Without Mii by Mayumi Inaba

4.0

emotional reflective slow-paced

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Mayumi Inaba’s feline friend-focused memoir Mornings without Mii, readers are delightfully introduced to the author and her cat companion without the use of words. Looking at a small grayscale portrait of Inaba and Mii, their frozen expressions don’t tease their heart-swelling encounters as written by Inaba very well. While not an effortless read, getting through this memoir you are rewarded with opportunity to reflect on life lived with close company. You pad through Mii’s life from Inaba’s perspective as she documents Mii’s terrible toddler years to her last aged breaths. Towards the end, many cat lovers and/or havers are sure to connect with Inaba as she dreads the next day, her first morning without Mii. As she soothes herself with the thought of feeling Mii in the rays of sun, you can’t help but feel the warmth in your chest too. Having a cat myself, I made sure to give her extra scratches behind her ears after reading about Inaba’s labors of love for her Mii. Subject matter aside, Inaba does well to detail her emotion with clarifying yet imaginative imagery. The translator Takemori manages, but I wouldn’t say she excels with expressing Inaba’s figurative world. Nonetheless, and with a few rereads of passages, I appreciated this memoir for its effect on my own love for my cat, Angel, my quiet companion in life. I hope to love and provide for her, and have her know how much I love her like Mii surely knew Inaba loved her. When one of us decides to beat the other into a higher place of existence, I hope whoever is left grounded can similarly feel the other in the sunlight.