We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by You Ishida translated by E. Madison Shimoda (book review).
East of Takoyakushi Street, south of Tominokoji Street, west of Rokkaku Street, north of Fuyacho Street, Nakagyō Ward, Kyoto. These vague directions might lead you in a circle, or they might lead you along a dingy alleyway to the Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. The door might seem locked or stiff, but if you need it and want it badly enough inside, you find a doctor. A strange doctor that you heard about from a friend of a client’s sister’s neighbour. A doctor that has helped other people find happiness and cure. A doctor that prescribes you a… cat?
These five linked stories all revolve around new patients of the Clinic for the Soul and their prescribed cat. What would you do if a therapist listened to your story, nodded, and then handed you a cat? That’s what a bullied finance analyst, a harassed single mother, a stressed handbag designer, and a trainee geisha all get from the clinic. Each protagonist grapples with an unexpected cat in their lives in unique ways, and each discovers their buried troubles rising to the surface for resolution, all thanks to their assigned cat.
As a cat lover who read this book with a snoring elderly tortoiseshell on my lap, I loved the first story; I didn’t mind the second, but, by the end, it felt a little ‘been there, done that’. The small hints of the doctor’s backstory were somewhat tenuous. The book provided ample fodder for idle contemplation after finishing it, yet it failed to captivate me with the diverse ways a cat transforms lives. However, I did read this in one session, so the feeling would be less for those who take in their fiction in sips rather than gulps. The novel does tread over familiar ground. The movie ‘The Unicorn Store’ with Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson was the story that came most into my mind as I was reading, but there are many examples of sudden and unexpected pets or people changing someone’s life in fiction.
This book’s translation was extremely well done. I tend to be hesitant to read books in translation because they often feel somewhat ‘foreign’ to me, with the word choice feeling slightly unnatural to my eye. Shimoda has maintained the feeling of being in Japan without making the English stilted or obviously translated. I don’t know who will be reading this book in the original Japanese, but I am curious how things translate across if anyone cares to comment!
This book is lovely, especially, I suspect, when not binged. A warm reminder that no matter what we think is happening in our life, things can change through the love of a pet and caring for something outside of ourselves. ‘Legends and Lattes’ by Travis Baldtree and ‘The Teller of Small Fortunes’ by Julie Leong may be more literary, but don’t let that deter you. If you liked the magical realism in Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Ocean At The End Of The Lane,’ definitely try ‘We’ll Will Prescribe You A Cat.’ This will, I think, be on the Christmas shopping list for a friend or two.
LK Richardson
October 2024
(pub: Berkely, 2024. 304 page hardback. Price: $25.00 (US). ISBN: 978-0-59381-874-9)
check out website: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763041/well-prescribe-you-a-cat-by-syou-ishida-translated-by-e-madison-shimoda/