This week: the extraordinary bond between humans and cats in Caleb Carr’s “My Beloved Monster” and a Mulan-inspired story of defying society’s expectations in K. X. Song’s “The Night Ends with Fire.”
Books & Culture is edited by Vanessa Sekinger
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My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me
by Caleb Carr
Published by Little, Brown & Company (April 16, 2024)
Hardcover $22.13
Audiobook $22.83
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
This is the first review I’ve ever written where I needed a box of tissues by my laptop. Anyone who loves cats, or any animal, will react in the same way. Anyone who has had to put a beloved pet “down” will understand. I was grabbing tissues when I read the book’s dedication.
Caleb Carr was a well-known author, famous for his book The Alienist as well as several other novels and works on military history and strategy. He had several cats during his difficult life. From childhood on, they were a source of comfort and amusement to the little boy who was brutally abused by his father. He faced a variety of health issues for years, most from the beatings his body took as a child. Around 2005, Carr drove from his home in rural New York to the Rutland County Humane Society in Vermont. His vet suggested this shelter, where he saw a young female cat with long golden fur and golden eyes. While other cats cowered in their cages, this one stared at him. And he stared back. The shelter workers put him and the cat into a room and watched with awe as they interacted. No one else had been able to get near that cat.
It turns out that Masha, as she was eventually named, had been abandoned in an apartment by her previous owners, who left her with little food or water. The cat screamed and cried until a neighbor called authorities, who brought her to the shelter. Trusting humans was not in her nature. Until she met Caleb.
Masha was a Siberian Forest Cat, with heavy fur and a love of the outdoors. Carr gave her outside time (and acknowledges that this may dismay some animal lovers). But the breed, and her previous circumstances, dictated that she be allowed to prowl the extended property, as long as she came when called. Carr kept her inside most nights, aware of predators in the area. But more than once Masha disappeared and he found her in dire straits.
The book is simply a love story between a man and his cat. It is a requiem for an amazing animal by an amazing writer and worth the emotional angst that readers will experience. Carr says from page one that Masha rescued him, not the other way around. They created a bond, with Carr promising that neither would leave the other – knowing that would be impossible. Readers know with this book that he had to say goodbye. His greatest fear, near the end, is that Masha would not be waiting for him “on the other side.”
The man and the cat shared their lives together for 17 years. Masha died in April of 2022. The book was published in April 2024. And Carr died of cancer on May 23 of this year at age 68. I believe that Masha was waiting for him.
Penny A Parrish is a long-time book reviewer and artist. Learn more about her by visiting her page at Brush Strokes Gallery, which is in downtown Fredericksburg.
The Night Ends with Fire
By K.X. Song
Published by Ace (July 2, 2024)
Hardcover $27.00
Audiobook $19.69
Reviewed by David Arndt
Nothing is going right in Meilin’s life. Her widowed father has turned to opium and gambling, selling off the family’s assets to cover his increasingly expensive and destructive lifestyle. Her mother drowned herself in the local river after living a life communing with spirits. Finally, in an effort to take his daughter off his hands and enrich the family coffers again, her father has betrothed Meilin to a wealthy, yet cruel, man with a notorious reputation. Surrounded by all this familial drama, she takes the one chance that presents itself and runs away to join the army, disguised as a man, to fight her country’s enemies. Thus begins K. X. Song’s The Night Ends with Fire.
Meilin’s departure from her home is bittersweet; though she longs to escape the sinister influence of her father and husband-to-be, she finds herself missing her step-mother and half-siblings. She manages to find the courage to enlist by focusing on the opportunities that it will provide her. Meilin may be weaker, smaller, and slower than her fellow initiates, yet she discovers that through hard work and dedication she is able to surpass them and prove herself in their eyes. Her dashing commander, Prince Liu, notices the recruit’s enthusiasm and goes out of his way to help her train. Playing a dangerous double game and knowing that if her gender is revealed she would be disgraced and worse, she manages to flourish under his tutelage, becoming a competent and respected soldier.
Meilin also begins to discover and cherish the mystic ways of her mother. Although her life and death were covered up to protect the family’s honor, Meilin comes to realize that the spirit world her mother connected with is real and incredibly powerful. Armed with a jade trinket from her mother, she slowly begins to explore the wonder and magic of this otherworldly place.
A Mulan inspired novel, Song’s The Night Ends with Fire is a wonderfully captivating and romantic work where a young woman defies the social norms and restrictions to embrace all that life truly has to offer her. Meilin learns to temper her bold and brash actions while accepting her mother’s tragic fate, allowing them to come together and strengthen her talents and abilities. She comes to truly understand the notions of love, friendship, family and honor, all so incredibly important and central to her character.
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