Cats – jumping on the bandwagon?

A review of “The Truth About Cats” by M0lly Brandenburg

By Ruth Ingamells

We are the cat obsessed generation, and this book caters perfectly for us. As a cat lover myself this book jumped out in its furry glory – could this be the next ‘Simon’s Cat’?

The illustration is solid and stylised, not too complicated but unique – redolent of Edward Monkton from whom we’ve all bought birthday cards and mugs. It is charmingly childlike, like the art of David Shrigley, making it fun and accessible; its simplicity alongside handwritten text gives it a sort of home-made feel. The rough technique of the drawings give them a life and energy that less stylised drawings would have lacked. Some of the drawings would be perfect as large prints or posters.

That said, the concept would work better as greeting cards, posters and prints, not a book; snippets of the life of cats rather than a book that seems to have little continuity. Bits of it are funny but because the book follows no recognisable form in narrative or character and the chapters seems rather hastily put together and rather pointless. I struggled to understand why the comics were so random. Much more humour would have been derived from character – as it is the truth about cats, and they have character. Cats have personality, something which the content of the book lacks.

However, it is clear that this is a book is meant for quick reading and is ideal as a gift for cat-lovers globally. It does not pretend to be high-brow or complicated but is instead undemanding and great fun for those fluent is cat.