A short book of 153 pages translated from the Japanese in 2022 by Ginny Tapley Takemori.
The story follows a cast living normal lives in urban Japan. The (excuse me) twist in the tale is the presence of the cats and one dog, who have the lions share of the parts.
The theme is the title times four with four human/cat pairs, beginning with Miyu and Chobi, providing the interrelated stories and contrasts between the individual people, cats and the pairings of each. The melding of human and cat lives and life cycles is clever, aided by a sinuous writing style, in which the mutual incomprehension of animal and human translates via dependency and affection into something else in shared domestic space.
Plot development moves from a sequence of to parallel stories in which the humans make life choices in a micro society determined by the cats territorial geography. The writing reflects a simple style that projects the determinist and uncluttered thinking of the animals. This has interesting results in the view they take of humans and the use of language and communication between the characters. The people, meanwhile, are often pre-occupied and have an emotional need answered by the cats, who they partly know and partly imagine, or suspect.
It is a gentle and considerate story, which does not shy away from issues and challenges, but is essentially on the side of the characters. Not one for those who dismiss talking cats, or talking to cats. Some of the incidents might be the product of imagination, but they are grounded in everyday events happening naturally. This just shows that the book is a well formed creative piece, worth reading.
Mark's Reviews 