Particularly Cats (1967) is the third book by Doris Lessing that I’ve read – but nothing in the dystopian Memoirs of a Survivor or the grim The Fifth Child would have led me to expect something like Particularly Cats. It is 108 pages of absolute joy for a cat lover.
In a way, it’s like Elizabeth von Arnim’s All the Dogs of My Life, in that it is a memoir that concentrates on cats that Lessing has owned, or who have owned Lessing. But though it mentions various cats from different stages of Lessing’s life, it’s really about two – known as grey cat and black cat.
Before we get to their lives, we do get a whistle-stop tour of Lessing’s experience of cats in her Zimbabwean childhood – there are many, living unbridled lives that interweave with those of wild cats. Sometimes domestic cats mate with wild cats; sometimes they become wild. They are at the mercy of hawks, and they are many miles from the nearest vet. It is a tumultuous environment to have pets.
Then Lessing fast forwards to cats in London, and particularly to the black cat and grey cat. At the time she is writing the book they are only two and four years old respectively, and so very much present concerns – and they cannot abide each other. Lessing’s descriptions of their ongoing feud, and the forms it takes, is more fascinating than any battle I have read about.
Writing about cats can be tricky. Lessing is beautifully successful – because she is loving without being sentimental, and observant without being fanciful. She clearly understands cats deeply, and never tries to credit them with any anthropomorphism that doesn’t fit. And, at the same time, she recognises the nuanced and varied behaviours that different cats have. Lessing describes them with an anthropologist’s fervour, and with an affection that knows they can never be fully understood by a non-cat.
To love Particularly Cats as much as I did, you probably have to love cats as much as I do – or at least find them as fascinating as I do. I would happily read about cats’ doings and habits for many more pages, but I’ll leave you with just one moment. If cats don’t interest you, this wouldn’t be for you – the book would be far less enjoyable for me if it were about dogs, for instance. But if you’re a felinophile, and can cope with the reality of nature red in tooth and claw, then I urge you to get hold of a copy.
As a kitten, this cat never slept on the outside of the bed. She waited until I was in it, then she walked all over me, considering possibilities. She would get right down into the bed, by my feet, or on to my shoulder, or crept under the pillow. If I moved too much, she huffily changed quarters, making her annoyance felt.
When I was the making the bed, she was happy to be made into it; and stayed, visible as a tiny lump, quite happily, sometimes for hours, between the blankets. If you stroked the lump, it purred and mewed. But she would not come out she had to.
Definitely one for me.
Hurrah!
Well, I dislike cats so I don’t think this one is for me. However, her Adore was really good (which is also a novella), and I’m a bit surprised I haven’t tried to read anything else by her. After I read it, they made it into a TV series, which was a pretty good adaptation.
I haven’t heard of Adore – thanks for the mention.
Obviously the perfect book for you, Simon! :D
Absolutely!
I’m very much a cat person (though also a dog person), so this is certainly something that’s going on my list. I’ve come across but not read On Cats by her which seems on similar lines.
Interesting that her cats were also at each other’s throats–I thought it was only mine :)
It is definitely a gamble to have more than one cat in the house! I wonder if On Cats is the same thing under a different title?
I’m not keen on cats, but I have a dear friend who is so I think I’ll try and find a copy of this for her:).
If he/she is warned that it is a bit gruesome at the beginning, then I think you’re onto a winner!
My cat before last, Dot, used to love getting into the duvet cover and then flattening herself down. Our catsitters once really thought they had mislaid her till I said to pat all over the duvet cover and retreat when the claws came out!
Haha! Yes, we had a cat who loved hiding there, and it was always a gamble to sit on the duvet.
I absolutely love Lessing on cats. She gets it.
Hello fellow reader,
It was nice experience to read your views on Lessing. I have so far read only one story by her. An old woman and her cat. Here you can find my review on the story.
https://novelnnovels.blogspot.com/2024/06/lessing-doris-old-woman-and-her-cat.html
thanks for sharing!