When Mallika from Literary PotPourri announced she was hosting Reading the Meow, a week focusing on books pertaining to cats, I was keen to take part; after all, as a vegan I’m obviously something of an animal lover, and although I probably prefer dogs overall, I do like moggies too! As I mentioned in my May round-up post, I had a bit of a dig in the stacks and couldn’t find anything that obvious to begin with. I had had high hopes of something from Beverley Nichols but there was nothing obvious; and time was against a re-read of my beloved “The Master and Margarita”. However, a quick search online revealed an unexpected title, in the form of “The Cat Inside” by William S. Burroughs; the latter is an author I read mainly in my teens and twenties, although I *have* have some enjoyable encounters with his writing more recently. A rummage on the Beat shelves disclosed that I did indeed own a copy – and it turned out to be the perfect choice for the event!

Burroughs is really not the kind of author you might expect to write a book about animals; he’s known for hard-edged books like “Naked Lunch”, “Junkie” and the like, exploring the use of cut-ups for writing, and so a more straightforward work dealing with his relationship with cats is probably going to surprise some readers. However, having discovered a more lyrical side in him on recent reads, I didn’t find this so unexpected…

The ancient Egyptians went into mourning for the loss of a cat and shaved their eyebrowns. And why shouldn’t the loss of a cat be as poignant and heartfelt as any loss? Small deaths are the saddest…

“The Cat Inside” was first published in limited edition in 1986; my copy is a fuller Viking issue from 1992, and in it, Burroughs explores the cats of his life, how he came across them, the effect they had on him and the sense of loss he feels when they pass out of his life (in whatever fashion). He states early in the book that in the past few years he has become a dedicated cat-lover, and the pages are brimfull of love for Ruski, Ed, Fletch and the many other cats he has loved. Burroughs writes lyrically about his companions and in these pages, the tough writer who often wielded a gun shows himself most unexpectedly to be an animal lover – other small creatures also earn his affection and for example he robustly condemns fox hunting. He’s not so fond of dogs, alas…

Lest you should think this is an entirely saccharine book, I can assure you it isn’t; Burroughs is nothing if not a realist and there are darker parts which acknowledge the brutal aspects of nature and animals. Nature *is* red in tooth and claw, and cats are carnivorous creatures, so there is by necessity some bloodshed; it wouldn’t be an honest book about cats if that were not the case. However, an interesting angle is when Burroughs shares his thoughts on the way the natural world is going, displaying an early awareness of, and meditations on, ecological change; his references to this being a doomed planet are surprisingly timely.

As the forests fall to make way for motels and Hiltons and McDonald’s, the whole magic universe is dying.

That aside, “The Cat Inside” is a lovely, affecting read, which as well as recording the author’s love of his feline companions, also explores his past; that mingling of memories and autobiographical fragments is an element I picked up in my more recent reads of his work, and he looks back to his early years at times in the book, to his childhood, school days and life in Tangiers. It seems there’s been a cat presence around for a good part of Burroughs’ life.

I can’t be sure if I’ve actually read “The Cat Inside” before, as I’ve obviously had it a long time and I’m not sure now of the source of my copy; it may have come via a penfriend in New York, back in the day, but intriguingly my book has a very strange inclusion:

Now, I’ve seen currency being defaced quite recently, for propaganda purposes, in the excellent Richard Clay documentary “21st Century Mythologies“; and I suspect that this must have been a much earlier example of that! Not quite sure why, or what the person wanted to achieve – but it was a useful bookmark, if nothing else!!! 🤣🤣

That aside, I absolutely loved “The Cat Inside”; I’m finding that exploring Burroughs’ less well known work is always a rewarding experience, and this book was a particularly lovely read. I’m so glad that Literary PotPourri decided to host this event, as I never would have thought to pick this book off the shelf, and it was a joy to have an excuse to go back to a favourite author!