The Rabbi's Cat
by Joann Sfar
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joann SfarEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-22
ISBN: 0375714642
Number of pages: 152
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Rabbi's Cat
Book Review: A wonderful & enlightening book.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a one-volume, hard-cover, adult graphic novel about a Rabbi's cat who gets the power to speak. This novel was originally published in France, in three volumes, spread over three years. It's a wonderful book.
By the way, Joann is a guy's name, in France. Maybe, it's an old French spelling of John or Jean. According to the book's jacket blurb, Sfar is one of the "brightest and most talented of the younger generation of French comic artists." He has written or collaborated on over one hundred books for adults & children. Sfar received the prestigious Jury Award at Angouleme for The Rabbi's Cat.
This book will be enlightening for most people & especially for most Jewish-Americans. The three connected stories are about Algerian Jews in the 1930s, in both Algeria & France. My knowledge of this area of Jewish life & history is negligible. I
The cat in this book gains the power of speech by eating & swallowing the family's pet parrot. The cat ends up having theological & philosophical discussions with the Rabbi. The cat wants to study Kabbalah & get Bar Mitzvahed. They debate both Western thought & Jewish thought.
Through the cat's eyes we listen in on the discussions of the Rabbi's students. We learn who are studious & who are vain, arrogant & self-important. We see the Rabbi turn to his own Master with his problems; but, through the cat's eyes we see this Master as less knowledgeable than his disciple. We see a Master who spouts foolishness because he knows of his own inferiority.
We learn of the anti-Semitism faced by Jews in Algeria from the non-Jewish French settlers. Many of the Jews had been living in Algeria for centuries & had adopted Arab dress, food & customs. These Jews were turned away from French restaurants & other establishments. They usually felt more at home with the native Algerians; yet, always faced an undercurrent of nonacceptance. Even the French-Jewish establishment, centered in Paris, forced the leaders & Rabbis of the Algerian Jewish community to adapt to French ways, customs & speech. If such leaders & Rabbis couldn't pass demeaning grade school exams showing proficiency in French, they would be replaced; even though all native Algerian Jews spoke Hebrew & Arabic which had enabled them to get along quite well for those previous centuries.
Through the cat's eyes we see the title Rabbi's struggle for acceptance by the French Jewish establishment. He is a great man in Algeria & is being considered for the post of Chief Rabbi. First he must pass this silly grade school exam. Readers see his agony & self-doubt. We see his complete joy at passing the exam & his own humbleness.
We see friendship between himself & his Arab friends. We learn about Algerian Jews who have gone totally native, living like Nomadic warriors in the desert; at home with guns, knives & lions. We learn about the differences between Algerian Jews & French Jews in the pre-WWII period. We learn about street performers & Algerian Jews who must masquerade as
Arabs to make a living in France; as the French know almost nothing about Jews from Algeria who live like Arabs but are Jews.
It's a wonderful book. There is much to learn about love, loyalty, marriage, family, hypocrisy, bravery, humbleness, friendship, loss, merriment, true riches, anti-Semitism and more. All of this is contained within less than 150 pages of a graphic novel, or what the French call, an adult comic book.
Summary of The Rabbi's Cat
The preeminent work by one of France?s most celebrated young comics artists, The Rabbi?s Cat tells the wholly unique story of a rabbi, his daughter, and their talking cat?a philosopher brimming with scathing humor and surprising tenderness.In Algeria in the 1930s, a cat belonging to a widowed rabbi and his beautiful daughter, Zlabya, eats the family parrot and gains the ability to speak. To his master?s consternation, the cat immediately begins to tell lies (the first being that he didn?t eat the parrot). The rabbi vows to educate him in the ways of the Torah, while the cat insists on studying the kabbalah and having a Bar Mitzvah. They consult the rabbi?s rabbi, who maintains that a cat can?t be Jewish?but the cat, as always, knows better.
Zlabya falls in love with a dashing young rabbi from Paris, and soon master and cat, having overcome their shared self-pity and jealousy, are accompanying the newlyweds to France to meet Zlabya?s cosmopolitan in-laws. Full of drama and adventure, their trip invites countless opportunities for the rabbi and his cat to grapple with all the important?and trivial?details of life.
Rich with the colors, textures, and flavors of Algeria?s Jewish community, The Rabbi?s Cat brings a lost world vibrantly to life?a time and place where Jews and Arabs coexisted?and peoples it with endearing and thoroughly human characters, and one truly unforgettable cat.
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