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A review by cheryl6of8
The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
4.0
I was feeling frustrated by the fact that I was not managing to make any real headway in the book I have been reading. I just wanted a book I would enjoy and could finish quickly and smoothly. I scoured the bookshelf and came across this tiny book hidden away, which just happened to meet the reading theme of the month: animals.
This was a lovely story featuring a starving Japanese artist who acquires a cat and then is commissioned to paint the death of Buddha for the local shrine. Sadly, the stories of the death of Buddha say that cats are the only animals that did not pay their respects to the dying Buddha and therefore have no place in the painting, even though the artist's cat is a faithful friend and is a great supporter of the work on the painting.
I cried. Yes, really, I cried. I thought it was well-written, with a little bit of a moral lesson and some Buddhist philosophy, some history, and some culture. And a cat.
This was a lovely story featuring a starving Japanese artist who acquires a cat and then is commissioned to paint the death of Buddha for the local shrine. Sadly, the stories of the death of Buddha say that cats are the only animals that did not pay their respects to the dying Buddha and therefore have no place in the painting, even though the artist's cat is a faithful friend and is a great supporter of the work on the painting.
I cried. Yes, really, I cried. I thought it was well-written, with a little bit of a moral lesson and some Buddhist philosophy, some history, and some culture. And a cat.