Review of If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genji Kawamura

*If Cats Disappeared. fromthe World* by Genji Kawamura (2018). Published by Picador.

As a broke graduate student and a writer living on a limited dime, I try not to buy books needlessly. While I love supporting authors, I try not to buy brand new books because I simply don’t have the money and resources to constantly be buying books. Maybe one day I’ll be independently wealthy and can support all of the authors and artists I love!

Anyways, I typically borrow my books from the library whenever I want something to read. Physical is the way to go usually, but sometimes I use my Kindle. I’ve been getting more into my Kindle again as I spend more time traveling across the world, so if you’re into travel and book reviews, this blog might be for you! Reading and traveling has been the ultimate combo as of late.

I was offered a Kindle Unlimited subscription free for three months when I was preparing to head to South Korea, and it ended the day I was supposed to come home. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to get some reading in with popular books, so I prepared to read all the books I could during this time.

That failed in many ways, but was successful in others. If Cats Disappeared was one of the books I read on the flight to Korea, so I would say I was successful in this way.

Let’s get into the review!

With only months left to live, the narrator gets to extend his days by wishing concepts and items away from existence.

We begin this novel learning some dire news about our narrator: he has only months left to live. He doesn’t talk to his family, so he has no one to share the news with really, and he goes home to his cat Cabbage. It’s almost as if he will accept his fate when one day the Devil himself appears before the man.

He’d already made a bucket list of everything he wanted to do before he kicks the bucket, but the Devil has something to entice the man with: if he makes a wish to make one thing from the world disappear forever, he would be granted one extra day of life.

Now this seems like a terrible and selfish deal to me. Make something go forever just so you can live another 24 hours? It seems like you’re going to run out of items pretty quickly that you don’t care about.

Our narrator accepts, because why not? He wants to live. He starts with more mundane things, like CDs, but he’ll find out pretty quickly this doesn’t substitute the connections he made in this world, as well as the relationships he lost somewhere along the way due to pride.

Not only is he estranged from his father after his mother’s illness, but our narrator is pretty much alone in the world in general. He kind of exists in a vacuum where only his cat looks forward to him coming home, and he’s attached to little Cabbage for reasons beyond the fact he is the only one who cares for him.

That said, when the time comes and Cabbage disappears too, our narrator has to deal with a lot of the consequences of his life and actions, as well realizing how important it might be to make up with his own father.

Each chapter is modeled after another day and item/concept the narrator has wished away, as well as him going out into the world and realizing what happened. At first, he realizes it’s like it never existed, which, in this world, it didn’t.

Overall Thoughts

This is a short and sweet novel, and I can see how someone who is more sentimental might like this kind of novel. It’s very much to the point, and there isn’t much worldbuilding involved with what’s going on with the story.

In the end, I found I didn’t care for it. There are some good themes and messages throughout this narrative, which I can appreciate as a reader. I don’t know if the translation was off, but I found the writing itself to be a bit of a chore to get through.

My taste and your taste might be different, and that’s alright! Nothing wrong with differing opinions; taste is subjective. I won’t be returning to this novel any time soon as I didn’t care for it.

Go read this one if you’re interested in the premise. Don’t let my negative review influence you too much.

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