The Rabbi's Cat, by Joann Sfar

The Rabbi's Cat is another graphic novel (as Maus) that was one that influenced Marjane Satrapi and I got interested o read for this project.

The story is told by a rabbi’s cat that, by swallowing a parrot, can speak and wants to convert to Jew. It questions be beliefs of the religion. The rabbi, his daughter and the cat go from Algeria (where they come from) to Paris and encounter the differences.

It is very interesting and funny (the cat is very nasty sometimes).

My highlights:

“Western thought is a prehensile, predatory and in the final analysis destructive machine (…). It put names to things, labels, as if to say ‘theses things are part of my system, I have understood them.’” (Rabbi’s dialog, p.25)

“But the time you’ve finished naming a thing, it has already changed and the name you gave it no longer defines it exactly, so you end up with empty words in your mouth.” (Rabbi’s dialog, p.25)

[Link to the book]