If Cats Disappeared From The World
Ratings146
Average rating3.7
This book had a nice, quirky concept but its execution was weak.
Our protagonist is informed of his impending death and offered a deal with the devil: for every extra day he is alive, he needs to choose something that will totally disappear from the world. From this setup, I was expecting to read heart-wrenching moral dilemmas about the ethics of making things disappear for the whole world while wanting to eke out a few more moments out of life. I also thought I would be getting a deep exploration of grief when confronted so directly with one's own mortality. Instead, it was pretty blah.
The main character is selfish and apathetic and doesn't seem to consider any opinions, thoughts or feelings outside of his own when choosing the things that can disappear. Granted, by the end, the devil is the one choosing which things disappear (no surprise here, he is the devil after all). However, even then he should have considered what it would mean when he accepted the bargain. For example, when he is considering whether or not to make movies disappear, he doesn't seem to think about what that absence would mean for his ex-girlfriend - who loves movies so much she now lives above a cinema. What would the absence of movies mean for her? Will she forever feel incomplete? He neither considers no cares about what the answers to these questions are. The protagonists self-centredness would be okay if the book was seeking to highlight how inherently selfish humans really are, but by the end, we are supposed to buy the idea that humans are actually selfless because the protagonist cannot bring himself to make cats disappear. However, even that final decision is selfish, he doesn't decide to keep cats around because he's thinking of other people, he seems to do it because of the sentimental value cats hold for him . Besides, he hardly seems remorseful for the other things he made disappear.
Additionally, there seem to be no real-world implications for the things that disappear. How did the world not come grinding down to a halt when the clocks disappeared. What happened to all the people who worked in phone manufacturing, or in the movie industry, or even in the clock industry. Millions of people must supposedly have woken up unemployed. How did the world simply go on, when big changes had been made. I think this concept would have worked better if each bargain gave him an additional 2 months - 1 year, then he could really sit with and consider the impacts of his decisions, see how the world was different because of the self-interested choices he had made.
This book promised to deliver one man's journey of self-discovery, but in my opinion, it fell short.
Contains spoilers
came for a story about cats disappearing and the cats didn’t even disappear
major disappointment on top of flat characters -_- you can’t guilt trip me into caring about this man and his life just because he’s dying.
This at-times amusing, nearly fairytale-like novel talks about the importance of life and death and teaches you a lesson without even realizing it.
the book was cute and quirky. i enjoyed how the author discussed themes of life and death and i thought the book was quite funny too. however, the main issue with the book i had was that i felt as if the emotionally heavy topics were rushed in writing. all of the important information about his mother and father is shoved in at the end of the book and there wasn’t much of an emotional build up. this meant i didn’t really have a chance to feel my own emotions as the way they in which they were represented in the book felt hurried. it was a nice read though, sort of wholesome and concerning at the same time.
If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura
Audiobook Platform: Hoopla
Narrator: Brian Nishii
What if you were going to die soon? What if you had spent your life rarely considering others? What if the devil appeared and offered a bargain to give you one more day of life in exchange for getting rid of something in the world? Would you take the bargain?
The premise of this book is one that most of us have thought about at one time or another. If we had the chance to make things right, would we try? Would we be able to fix our relationships with others? Tell them how much we love them and what they mean to us? I think we all would like to think so. This book tells the story of how taking the devil's bargain impacts one man and the world around him. He learns what he is willing to give up and what he values most. I loved this book and the simplicity of it. It was a quick listen, with Brian Nishii's narration calming with the perfect change of tone for each character.
A good existential story about the protaganist being given several choices by the devil with each having ramifications but all in all the story was well constructed.
It's a hell of a handsell. A 30 year old postman is diagnosed with a brain tumour with days to live when the devil appears to make him a deal. He's already fashioned an end of life bucket list but it ultimately feels an empty practice, seeking novelty when that's not what he's really after. The devil instead offers an extra day of life in exchange for him agreeing to something in the world disappearing. You've read the title - you see where this is going.
It's a sweet, gauzy lensed story filled with swelling music and heartfelt tears that I'm not opposed to. I can appreciate it when it's done well, even if it's clearly manipulative —but this felt a little rote and by the book for my tastes. And that's even with the addition (or possible subtraction) of cats.
You find out you are going to die within days and every day you're given (not going into details to avoid spoilers) the choice to live one more day by making something disappear from the world, or to accept your death: what do you choose? and who do you want to say goodbye to?
Didn't expect much tbh, but it was a beautifully written (and translated!) novel. As an international student who is continents apart from both my mum AND my cat, this felt closer to home than usual TT. The pacing was great too and I was fully immersed to the point of reading it in one sitting. Solid 4*
This novel about someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness gave this reader a lot to think about. However, what I thought had nothing in common with the thoughts of a 36-year-old, Japanese mailman, the main character. Oddly enough, he was never named, which I didn't notice while reading the book.
His deal with the devil allows him an extra day of life, providing the mailman agrees to eliminate from the world an item of the devil's choosing. The mailman seems to agree to eliminate items that will directly effect friends and family more than himself. He never mentions how they will impact the world adversely. He only seems to think of ways that it will make the world a better place. Maybe, in order to live another day, it helps the mailman to think this way. For example, the first item is a phone. We can all think of ways that eliminating phones might improve our lives. However, in an emergency, what would you do without a phone?
As the title suggests, cats are eventually selected as something to disappear from the world. Amazingly, this effects the mailman directly—not to mention his cat, Cabbage.
This thought-provoking little book is definitely worth the short time it takes to read it. Your mind will wander places it never has before and maybe places you don't want to go, but should.
“Daca privesti viata de aproape, e o tragedie, dar daca te uiti la ea din departare, e o comedie”
The book is about a postman who finds out that he will die of brain cancer. The devil appears and suggests a deal: For each extra day to live, an item from earth has to disappear (the devil will pick it of course). The postman agrees and starts thinking each day about the impact of the disappearance of simple things such as telephones or clocks.
At first, the story reminded me of Faust - but only because of the deal with the devil. The story went on quite differently. The book made me reflect about the impact of the existence of items in our lives and the emotional attachments. I enjoyed it a lot.
Since I read the book in Japanese, here are my two cents from a learner's point of view. The story has simple language which fits the character well. This also makes it easy to understand even though you might not know all words. The Kanji used in the book are very common and repeated frequently so looking them up wasn't too bothersome even though it has almost no Furigana. I am around N3 and I could understand about 95% of the book (with lookups) - so it is a good challenge without causing frustration. I read the first half while listening to the audiobook. The voice actors talk in an engaging way but quite slowly so they can be understood well. They also differentiate well between different speakers by changing the voice and setting the mood with accompanying ambiance music. The audoo book and physical book matched so it is a good book for a read-along.
Un livre simple mais qui arrive à faire ressentir des émotions, sans en faire trop. Je trouve la toute fin un peu abrupte, comme si il manquait quelques pages mais rien de grave.
Oh my heart.
So, getting out ahead of the big question my friends will have – it does have a cat in it, but the cat is not a main character nor a main player in the story. I mean, it is, but it also isn't. The main character has a cat, and the cat does play a role in the last third or so of the book, but this book is not about the cat, per se.
This is a short book about dying, coming to terms with your death, and being able to look at your life in retrospect. Our narrator (whose name I don't think is ever mentioned) has been given a terminal diagnosis and left to put his affairs in order. But how do you put your affairs in order when you live alone, are estranged from family, have no real close friends, and own a cat? Who do you contact about this, when you don't think anyone would care? The question is briefly taken out of our narrator's hands, however, when the literal Devil appears to give him a bargain – one more day of life in exchange for one thing removed from the world. But like most bargains with the Devil, this one has strings.
This one tugged at my heart strings, and honestly hit a little close to home about personal fears of mine. It's a short read, but really powerful, I think, and covers a lot of heavy topics in a fairly easy-to-read fashion. It made me think a lot about what I'd be leaving behind in the same situation – though I think I'd pass up dealing with the Devil.
This took me a while to read and it's not even a long book. It is whimsical and sad at the same time. Also, I find some things lacking in terms of the plot and the exploration of the side characters mentioned but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
I first read this book in the original Japanese back in 2016 because the movie adaptation was coming out that same year. One of my favourite actors, Sato Takeru, played the lead role in the movie, which is why I picked up the book in the first place. Honestly, I don't remember much of the plot other than it revolves around a terminally ill MC. Now that it has an English translation, I should probably reread it and see if my rating still stands.