Synopsis:
'One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.' Thus begins The Meowmorphosis--a bold, startling, and fuzzy-wuzzy new edition of Kafka's classic nightmare tale, from the publishers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Meet Gregor Samsa, a humble young man who works as a fabric salesman to support his parents and sister. His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and discovers that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten. His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills to pay? And how can Gregor be so selfish as to devote all his attention to a scrap of ribbon? As his new feline identity threatens to eat away at his personality, Gregor desperately tries to survive this bizarre, bewhiskered ordeal by accomplishing the one thing he never could as a man: He must flee his parents' house.
Review:
Gregor Samsa wakes up as an adorable kitten, and Kafka's famously surreal story becomes even more brain breaking. Samsa's fate is especially poignant, and his family's treatment of him is all the more inhumane, now that he's cute and furry. Cook ( a pseudonym for a popular fantasy author) creativly draws from Kafka's other works to apd the original short tale to novel length. With a biographical note alleging that Kafka was stalked all his life by sinister cats untill he became obsessed with them, and a plot that weaves a new narrative about a group of formaly human cats who run a nonsensical and arbitary court, the book seems like an artifact form a peculiar and troubeling alternate universe. Jane Austen mashup fans won't know what to do with this one, but it's highly recommended for connisseurs of the bizarre. --Publishers Weekly, March, 2011----Well, why not take a well-known classic like Kafka s Metamorphosis and rewrite it in true mash-up style so that rather than waking up one morning and finding that he s been turned into a beetle, Gregor Samsa wakes up to find he is now a cat? The Meowmorphosis is a strange book, for although the concept is not a little ridiculous, it makes some quite serious points and goes on to incorporate elements of Kafka s The Trial and other works too. Its surprisingly rather good and in addition, its a nicely produced book with some intriguing full-page illustrations to enliven what is already a fairly lively text. This book is just one of a series of mash-up or remix novels in the Quirk Classics series. Other titles in the series are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and perhaps the best title, Android Karenina. I like to think that Kafka in particular might have rather enjoyed The Meowmorphosis and it certainly carries on his tradition of providing an oblique perspective on life and allowing his readers to see the inherent zaniness of familiar human behaviour...But the book soon departs from mere parody, and while the author retains many of the elements of Metamorphosis, he allows Gregor to find his own cat-like destiny with its own feline charm and interactions in the society of street cats who turn out to be a definitely Kafkaesque bunch of animals. Gregor s family seem to accept his transformation, their main concern seeming to be the loss of his earning potential because his job as a fabric salesman had enabled him to support his parents and sister. His mother cannot bear going into his room to look at him, but Gregor s sister Grete takes quite easily to looking after him by feeding and grooming him and cleaning his room. But of course, life in one room is no life for a cat and eventually on a snowy evening, Gregor manages to escape into the city streets. He discovers the delicacy of his sense of smell finding that when he investigates a rubbish heap he can 'discern haddock from cod . . . what other creatures had visitied the alley before him, what sorts of moods they had been in and whether or not he could expect rain later this evening'. Once he has left home he finds himself not at all concerned for his family, for it is int he nature of cats to be only interested in where the next meal is coming from and where a warm spot to sleep can be found.When he encounters the community of other cats, he finds himself in the world of Kafka s The Trial. He encounters the Academy of Cats is arrested and imprisoned, accused of unknown crimes, but as the investigation progresses, he finds himself more confused than ever, for his accusers seem surprisingly disinterested in finding an actual crime committed by Gregor, but more interested in a sort of universal guilt in which he has become complicit.-a Common Reader,May, 2011.'Kafka's Metamorphosis given 'OMG so cute' makeover Meowmorphosis is latest literary 'remix', transforming tortured hero into a fluffy kitten --The Guardian, May, 2011
This is oddly compelling and disturbing at the same time--FantasyBookReviw, May, 2011--Coleridge Cook s writing fit in really well with the essence of Kafka and consequently, the story has a good flow to it. There were some pretty humorous moments as well. This is, after all, a story that happens from the perspective of a cat and while a lot of the story was about what was going on around Gregor, there were moment s of very cat-like interjections (you know, ear scratching, pouncing, kneading, all that stuff that cat s adore on their schedule of course). Gregor s night on the town and seeing the different perspective of Josef K and Franz (other men-turned-cat s) made for some good moments as well. The Meowmorphosis is a fresh take on an old story joined by those ridiculously awesome illustrations that Quirk novels always have, an fairly hilarious Appendix titled The Curious Life of Franz Kafka, author of The Meowmorphosis, and what I think are some of the best discussion questions I ve ever seen in a book. Basically, I consider this one definitely worth checking out--Among Stories, May, 2011-- The story still retains the same existential angst as the original book, but the tongue-in-cheek humor of a man suffering through these crises as a cat instead of a bug is truly hilarious. Cook, along with his writing partner Kafka, also uses this technique to espouse philosophy from the mouths of cats, exploring what it is and what it means to be a member of their species. As someone who is not at all a cat lover (I have terribly allergies, and they know I have terrible allergies, so they like to screw with me), I was endlessly entertained by having an eloquent cat postulate about the things that make them superior to humans (because, as we all know, cats do think they're better than us). But Cook & Kafka manage to articulate why cats might feel this way, from their own point of view, and while the end result is humorous, it's also quite insightful. There were a few points in the book where the long-winded philosopher-cat ramblings carried on a bit too long, but for the most part, I was impressed by Cook's ability to get into the minds of an adorable kitty in such an amusing manner. -- --The Daily Genoshan, May, 2011
...this offering is another splendidly silly example of the incraesigly popular new genre that is mash-up fiction. Combining Franz kafka's original nightmarish classic novella about one man's sens eof alienation and the nature of exsistence with his sudden transformation into a cute kitten - well, why not? - this title alcks none of the surrealism of teh seminal masterpiece that serves as its inspiration. While this is porbably not one for the literary purists out there, it's great fun and provides a refreshing escape from the norm. --The Cat magazine, September, 2011
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