The Rabbi's Cat

There are thousands of words that come to mind when reading this book.  Just after the first seven pages my immediate thought was, "This book is the weirdest book I have ever read!"  The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar is a remarkable graphic novel that is packed with so many words, panels and more color than you know what to do with.  This book is considered an easy read, until you try to understand the reason for every meaning of every detail in every panel, quote, color or character detail.  That's when you become so overwhelmed you have to read it multiple times paying attention to one detail at a time until you become accustomed to reading this abnormal novel.

This story is directed toward the fantasizer and the heavy thinker.  Zlabya's character is certainly directed toward the "grass is always green on the other side" believers.  The no named cat relates to the the mischievous and slightly unpredictable readers.  Zlabya's character is probably the most predictable and common character that we can relate with many other stories we have read not only in class, but also your typical romance novels where the woman is completely content with who she is and what she knows but then this charming dapper fellow comes into her life and gives her an experience she has never had then suddenly she wants to be part of his world and blah blah blah we all know what happens after that.  Completely prophesied fairy tale we all know and want to hate but can't help but to love.  Zlabya just floats through life doing what she is accustomed to do and doesn't seek opportunity until it is handed to her.  Note that many people try to succeed through life this way, they always want what they can't have but also they don't realize they want something until it is present to them and some tend to think it will just happen for the sake that they want it.  Wrong, the grass is not always greener on the other side, but sometimes it takes falling on your face on the "greener" side to realize that.

The cat, however, is almost the complete opposite personality wise that is his character still has just as much predictability as Zlabya.  The cat has many personality revelations throughout the book.  He definitely starts off selfish and arrogant because he knows more than his mistress but gets to keep her all to himself.  When the cat is able to talk he questions others intelligence in comparison to his own and seems to mock and criticize is doing so.  As the book goes on the cat becomes more selfless when he sacrifices his ability to speak so the Rabbi will pass his dictation.  But then he gets all selfish again when Zlabya gets married.  I know what your thinking, "how on earth is this predictable?"  Well that's simple, you know how in every really bad teen movie there's always the one mean girl(s)/guy(s) who decide being mean is not all it's cracked up to be?  That's the cat!  Stay with me on this one.  The cat starts off on top of the world, he's better than anyone.  Then Jules takes his mistress away and he's not too happy about that so he begins to hate him for it.  Then he realizes everything is okay with this change and moves on with his life.

I personally loved this book.  The storyline was interesting and predictable but by reading into the detail you realize why it was done the way it was.  There is so much to get out of this book that I'm sure even after reading it for the hundredth time you'd find a new discovery about a certain detail you didn't think of before.  I will forever be a Disney girl and whenever I come across something that has a remote possibility of relating it to a fairy tale...especially one where everyone live happily ever after...I'm almost guaranteed to love it.

Nervous Conditions

Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga, is a great book that follows the life of a girl named Tambu.  This book presents the great differences between Shona life and colonial life.  Tambu loves her life on the farm but when she receives the opportunity to enter the colonial life, she gets a new perspective on the everyday things we, in America, take for granted.  One of the greatest issues of this book is gender.  In America everyone both men and women have every opportunity to go to school and get an education.  However, this presents the exact opposite in Rhodesian culture.

In this culture men have every opportunity to gain an education, whereas women are not encouraged to gain an education.  Tambu's father was not excited at all about her going to school because this meant that whatever money she would make would end up going to her future husbands family rather than his own.  Why go to school to improve family riches if the riches go to another family?

The high school I graduated from encouraged students to succeed, however, it was aimed toward white males in particular for success.  I had stood out against the norm by being a woman who was able to find success in this school even though it was not directed toward my success in particular.  In terms of family, my family was supportive in whatever I did.  However, it did seem like no matter how well I did I could always have done better.  Every time I had a test my mom always wanted to know how I did, but sometimes after telling her she would ask "How come you didn't do better, you know this stuff better than the grade you got."  I feel this relationship I had with my mother is similar to Tambu's relationship with her father.  Not in the direct sense that our situations are the same but the fact that neither of us were doing exactly what our parents wanted us to do.  We were going to do what made us happy even if our parents may not have been.  Tambu's parents always told her she would only fail and she proved them wrong  and I proved mine wrong by showing them that I was happy with how I was doing and they should accept me for me.