Reviews
(4.20/5)September 4, 2023
July 16, 2023
I enjoyed this overall, but found it a slow and difficult read that I only got through at perhaps half the speed I can read a more average novel. The cat, as narrator, loves complicated sentences, and never uses a simple word when a more obscure one is available -- expect to be doing a lot of dictionary lookups (and the amount of furigana provided depends a lot on which edition you're reading). It might be among the hardest books I've managed to actually finish.
The other source of trouble here
May 26, 2021
This is a lot harder than people seem to think it is. It's not so bad if you just want to understand on the level of "the narrator is a cat haha - some funny stuff happens with his owner and his owner's friends." That is to say, the basic plot - to the extent that it even exists - isn't too hard to follow. The soul of the book, however, is in the humor and the references, so if you don't follow those (and I often didn't, e.g. because I don't know the names of Imperial Japanese admirals or histor
February 8, 2024
July 10, 2023
Gradings
Why can't I grade this item?
Interesting stories, if you can wade through them.
First off, the language is quite difficult and dense, it may not be worth it to use this to learn Japanese. Much of what is written in this book will not be spoken in any conversation; and a lot of difficulty comes from the kango and by extension kanji usage which for me is incredibly interesting, but for the regular learner might not be. for example, grammar, which in modern Japanese is rendered almost fully in kana is in its full glory in kanji; an example from the first chapter would be 加之 wh