For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
My rating: 3 of 5 stars An Entertaining (but maybe forgettable) Cat Lovers’ Fantasy “For He Can Creep” (2019) has a splendid concept for a “novelette”: write about Christopher Smart's cat Jeffrey trying to save the 18th-century poet's soul (and the world) from the devil's machinations while the poet is confined in an insane asylum. I love Smart's poem "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey" (part of his long poem Jubilate Agno [c. 1760]), so full it is of comical and sublime, realistic and spiritual observations about his feline asylum companion’s daily life. Like, For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest. For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion. And like For by stroking of him I have found out electricity. For I perceived God's light about him both wax and fire. For the Electrical fire is the spiritual substance, which God sends from heaven to sustain the bodies both of man and beast. For God has blessed him in the variety of his movements. For, tho he cannot fly, he is an excellent clamberer. For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped. For he can tread to all the measures upon the music. For he can swim for life. For he can creep. And Siobhan Carroll writes a story suitable for an eccentric, 18th-century literati-illuminati like Christopher Smart, from the point of view of his cocky cat: "Nevertheless, the devil made a grave mistake when he annoyed Jeoffry. He will pay for his insolence." She also writes a cool devil, tricky and seductive and powerful and malevolent, but not a bad sport, in his way. Like this: "'Is anything truly ours?' The devil sighs and examines his claws. He is simultaneously a monstrous serpent, a mighty angel, and a handsome black cat with whiskers the color of starlight. The cat's whiskers are singed, the serpent's scales are scarred, and the angel's brow is heavy with an ancient grievance, and yet he is still beautiful, in his way. 'But more of this later. Jeoffry, I have come to converse with you. Will you not take a walk with me?'" The story soon has Jeoffry and friends (including a formidable "cat" called the Nighthunter Moppet) taking on Satan while the cat's earnest but rather clueless and ineffectual master works on a poem... It was a fun read! Cat lovers should love it! Poetry lovers, too--though I wish there'd been more of Smart's poetry or Carroll’s pastiche of it and less action. Perhaps the best part of the novelette is the title, which is the last line of Smart’s poem about Jeoffry. I also think that confirming that Smart is not insane (the devil IS out to get a poem out of him) leaves the story less ambiguous than I’d have liked. And I have to confess that I forgot reading the story until two months later (now) when Amazon suggested I write a review of it. The Kindle version was more than worth its cheap price (.95 cents). View all my reviews
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Jefferson Peters
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