Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life

Former academic Gray (Straw Dogs) takes an unconventional, not entirely successful, feline-focused work to exploring a wide array of philosophical concepts, from morality to death and the afterlife. Gray writes that he believes cats have more to teach humans about life than most modern philosophers (whose work Gray memorably describes as “the practice of elucidating the prejudices of middle-class academics”). This intriguing premise falls flat, though, as Gray spends considerable space on such philosophical heavyweights as Montaigne and Spinoza rather than on elucidating “the nature of cats, and what we can learn from it.” Gray does entertain with his anecdotes of cat-inspired thinkers, such as Samuel Johnson, who, tormented by lifelong depression, admired cats’ capacity to “spend much of their lives in contented solitude.” Elsewhere, Gray describes novelist Patricia Highsmith’s great sympathy for animals, which extended to once declaring that “if she could discover who docked the tail of a local black cat she would not hesitate to shoot them—‘and to kill.’ ” However, this intermittently witty and intriguing work likely won’t be enough to keep cat-loving readers from prowling elsewhere for more satisfying insight into their four-legged companions. Agent: Rebecca Nagel, Wylie Agency. (Nov.)