REVIEW: Cat by Rebecca van Laer

Reviewed by Rae Pagliarulo

When I received a review copy of Cat (Bloomsbury Press; 2025) in the mail, the latest in Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, I was immediately romanced by the stark cover, the small size, and the absolutely lovely design. What I didn’t know was that I’d inhale this book over the course of two days, unable to put it down whether I was getting a pedicure, doing laundry, or eating lunch.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, I love cats, and yes, this is a book written by a person who loves cats about cats. That’s unavoidable, so if you’re not a lover of the species, then perhaps read one of the other books in the Object Lessons series (I’m particularly excited to get my hands on Egg, Bookshelf, and Swimming Pool, similarly small and deep explorations of everyday objects).

However, if you are anything from a cat lover to a mere cat appreciator, you will find what I did in this book: pure delight. I’m not one for saccharine reports of the Chicken Soup variety, so I was really happy to dig in and discover that each chapter of this small tome offers both honest, funny, and witty stories from the author’s personal life, as well as research and information that supports the story being told. I love a narrative with factual threads running through it.

Example: The first chapter of the book, “Cats vs. Dogs,” van Laer tells us, “I’ve heard it said that this is the key difference between pet owners: dog people wish their dogs were people; cat people wish they were cats.” What follows is fascinating research from texts like The Common Species Manifesto, an exploration of exhibitionism, and methods of nonverbal communication. Each chapter feels like this — a charcuterie board of reflection and research.

Another example: Chapter 4, called “Cats with Jobs,” begins with a story about a rodent infestation at the author’s home, and dives into the background of the idea that cats are meant to hunt small rodents, especially in their owners’ homes. This, it turns out, is a popular falsehood. While cats hunted like fiends when they were wild, their reputation for being relentless mousers died down once they got accustomed to the benefits of domestication, like ridiculously expensive wet food twice a day and nonstop head scritchies.

But right when you think this book is just about cats, van Laer reminds you what it’s really about.

“Is this really what other people want? To work? To strive toward excellence? I want to live in a world without work, or at least a lot less of it.”

It’s here, and at key points in each taut and brief chapter, that van Laer tells the real truth of the cat — that our love of this animal, which rebukes our directions, which does what it wants when it wants, which has its own boundaries and its own understanding of time, is more about our own desire for meaning, acceptance, and love than it is about the animal itself.

“…Toby sits on my desk, blocking as much of my monitor as is possible with his furry little body. He asks, What are you doing? He says, You’re wasting your life.”

The cats in the author’s life — and I suppose in our own, too — are mirrors meant to reflect back our deepest desires. That we might answer only to ourselves. That we might really, truly take our time. That we might find a way to love with abandon while still protecting ourselves.

With only nine chapters covering 105 pages, Cat is a quick but deeply satisfying read. It’s not just charming, or informative, or funny, or well-researched — it’s also beautifully written, with lines and paragraphs that sing with their own music. This book not only made me feel proud of my status as a cat lover, it also made me ravenous to read the rest of the Object Lessons series from Bloomsbury. If this series can make me feel so emotional, so uplifted, so inspired by a furry little creature, what else can it do?