Recent Reads: If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

(Spoiler warning!)

If Cats Disappeared From the World is a 2012 novel written by Genki Kawamura, its English version translated by Eric Selland. The story depicts the last week of life of a 30-year-old man recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Having been told that he has little time to live, this nameless narrator will try anything to extend his time on Earth—even consulting whom he believes to be the devil himself.

“The real devil doesn’t have a scary red face or a pointy tail, and there’s no pitchfork in sight! The devil looks just like you.”

While it’s unlikely the narrator’s interactions with this “devil” are actual supernatural events, but rather an illusion serving as a catalyst for the confrontation of mortality and the value of human life, “the devil” offers the narrator a deal: he may live an additional day for each object that he agrees to “make disappear from the world” as a Faustian bargain. For several days, the narrator avoids his imminent death by allowing the devil to erase smartphones, movies, and even clocks. It’s improbable that anything actually vanished from the novel’s world; these events instead metaphorize the narrator’s process of remembering and facing his past, to which each of these objects are closely linked. Through this process, the narrator learns that it was not those objects that were of value to him, but his memories associated with them. However, when the Devil demands that he allow cats to disappear from the world, in exchange for one more day of life—the narrator does not believe the deal is worth it, and instead must accept his death. These events reveal to the character– and, in turn, the reader– the roots of life’s meaning. 

The novel delves into themes of grief, grappling with one’s mortality, the complexity of human relationships, and the idea that having regrets is a part of being human. It ties together neatly in the end, without sparing the reader of the narrator’s grieving process, not only for his own life, but for past connections severed, the fragmentation of his relationship with his father, and the loss of his mother.

Overall, this novel illustrates how a single life, regardless of its length, contains an endless amount of memories, motifs, and loose ends which may not ever be tied up; by confronting morality, one may be forced to realize which aspects of life truly matter to them. 

 "Over the last few days, I've come to realise that there is certain beauty in those regrets, they are proof of having lived.”

“Like love, life is beautiful because it has to end.”