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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5944
EAN num: 9780375714641
ISBN number: 0375714642
Label: Pantheon
Manufacturer: Pantheon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 152
Printing Date: May 22, 2007
Publishing house: Pantheon
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 33995
Studio: Pantheon
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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 humour 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 very 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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
This has just about everything. The rabbi, of course, is learned and devout, even if his schooling causes some nervousness. The cat becomes fantastical when some mystery grants him human speech. The visit abroad captures all the distrust of the alien that the most insular of small-towners can summon. And, around all of that, the monotonous drama of life unfolds: loves, losses, and changes that no one knows how to ride out.
Comics have moved well past the BamPow genre into many other idioms - this might border on chick lit, but much less than some. If reality and fantasy remain negotiable for you, with deep family devotions and deeper (or shallower) personal ones, the ragged lines of this comic might touch you.
-- wiredweird
Rated by buyers 
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I started going to the comic book store with my husband who's a life-long die-hard fan of all things related to comics, graphic novels, whatever you prefer to call them. Perusing on my own, I found The Rabbi's Cat, and lured by the art and a short preview, I bought both volumes. I ended up completely engrossed and read through them both in three nights.
These books are for grown-ups, not children, although I understand Mr. Sfar also creates books for young readers. I love his drawings and panels. They're loose, energetic, rich in texture and color, and impart the feel of the settings and the life-force of the characters. The dialogue is lively and smart. There's a lot going on in these stories connected by the presence of The Cat. The story and environments change; sometimes the characters are excited and welcoming of the changes and sometimes not. I hated to see one story line end, but then the subsequent one would pick up and I would be carried along by it engrossed and curious to see what happened next. It's a very human story set in a complex place and time. The characters struggle to keep their faith and balance in the midst of it all. They succeed, fail, learn, and are forged.
And the cat is very, very true: smart, self-possessed, jealously devoted to his "masters," and on equal or better intellectual footing compared to the human characters.
Rated by buyers -
This is the most beautifully illustrated graphic novel I've ever seen,
The story is intriguing and magical. From now on I'll buy any book
illustrated by Joann Sfar. He is an amazing artist.
Edward Sorel
Rated by buyers -
The artwork here was fantastic and original. At the back of the book there is a photograph of the author and his cat and you can clearly see where he gets his inspiration.
Please be aware, though, that this book is not for children.
Rated by buyers -
Many others have reviewed this material, better than I could. Suffice it to say, Sfar's work is consistently enjoyable, often provocative, and always entertaining. It may not be everybody's fruit (there is nudity, profanity, challenging topics... like life itself), but this is certainly among the best in graphic story-telling. Read and enjoy!
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