This reviewer is emphatically not a cat particular person. So it’s a testomony to my religion in Lucy Knisley that I eagerly picked up Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair.
The comics included right here shall be acquainted to the bestselling writer’s quite a few social media followers; over a few years she chronicled the misadventures and plenty of (many) calls for of her charmingly grouchy cat Linney as webcomics. Now, they’ve been collected right into a single quantity for the primary time. Readers unfamiliar with Linney will profit from Knisley’s introduction, by which she explains why her drawings of Linney don’t look precisely the best way one would possibly count on a cat to look: “A lifetime of making an attempt to attract cats ‘nicely,’” Knisley writes, “has proven me that it’s a lot better to attempt to attract their persona, moderately than an correct visible illustration.”
In Knisley’s art work, Linney is a vaguely cat-shaped being with persona to spare. She is the colour of butterscotch pudding, with a fluffy tail, no nostril to talk of, and eyes and a mouth which can be expressive past perception. Her inexperienced eyes can go large and attentive, or squinty and sly (and in not less than one case, they’re lit with the hearth of devilry); her one canine tooth stands proud when she yowls in despair or simply for consideration.
Knisley’s comics chronicle dynamics that shall be acquainted to pet house owners, and cat house owners specifically: the pet who whines loudly for meals solely to show up their nostril at what’s on supply; the toddler whose fur-pulling affection is barely tolerated; the long-suffering partner who grudgingly indulges the cat’s foibles. Because the real-life Linney handed away in 2020, Knisley additionally chronicles the inevitable ache of shedding a beloved member of the household in sections that can undoubtedly have an effect on readers emotionally, whether or not they’re cat individuals or not. The person cartoons are brief and intelligent, however collectively, they compile a humorous, touching saga that explores what it means to look after a beloved four-legged companion by thick and skinny.