REVIEW: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
Author: Lilian Jackson Braun

Jim Qwilleran's life took a bit of an unexpected detour....divorce, alcoholism....but he's getting things back on track. He takes a job as a feature writer with a newspaper, the Daily Fluxion. Although in the past he was a prize winning reporter, he starts out a bit humbly at his new job -- writing features on local artists. His publisher wants him to smooth some ruffled feathers. The paper's art critic has published some scathing, sarcastic commentary on the work of many local artists. Jim doesn't realize how cutthroat the art world can be until a local gallery owner turns up dead. He finds himself covering his art beat, while working in some sleuthing into the darkness lurking behind the local art culture.

This book is the start to this popular series. There are 29 books in this series, plus a couple short story collections. The first three books were written in the 60's when working at a large daily newspaper meant huge rooms filled with typewriters, hanging out at the press club, etc. As a former reporter and editor, it made me smile. Jim Qwilleran is thrown into writing features on art when he knows nothing about art at all. This might seem unrealistic to some....but not to me. On my first day as a newspaper reporter when I was fresh out of college, I was thrown into covering city and county commission meetings. I had to research things like property tax and appraisals, elections and other important topics that I knew absolutely nothing about. I was thrown right into the fire on day one and had to figure it out. Totally normal.....you have to fake it til you make it. Call and ask questions, check facts multiple times, look foolish on occasion to make sure a story is on target.....reading about Jim trying to swim through his confusion about art, eccentric artists and local shows made me smile. I never had to work in a large room filled with typewriters....we had computers. But, when I first started as a journalist at a small rural daily paper, we had to print our stories, send the trimmed copy through a wax machine and layout the pages by hand. I had to take and print my own photographs in "the dungeon''....the dank and horrid darkroom on the bottom floor of an ancient building. Reading this book made me a bit nostalgic for my own "old days.'' :)

The first three books in this series were written in the 60s. Then Lilian Jackson Braun picked it up again in the late 80s....that's when I discovered this series. I got to book 8 before life interrupted and I lost track of the series. I'm going to revisit the books I read way back then.....and then read my way through the stories I missed! :) Lots of reading to do! I'm looking forward to revisiting the interesting reporter whose mustache tingles when a story is going to break and his two siamese cat companions!