Reader Response

                                                                           The Rabbi’s Cat

I absolutely loved the book the Rabbi’s Cat by Joann Sfar. It is a graphic novel that talks about the clash of tradition and modernity. The book fallows a cat who is owned by a Rabbi and his daughter. The cat can talk for awhile and he starts to learn to read some of the holy stories. The daughter gets married and the cat is no longer important in her life. In the end many of the characters who were traditional end up becoming modernized.

I think it’s very interesting because this book connects to a lot of things I’ve learned about in the world. I’ve read a lot of stories about colonization and the Rabbi’s Cat also talks about colonization. The Rabbi, the cat, and the Rabbi’s daughter all were traditional in the beginning. The cat was just a regular cat who couldn’t talk. Then, all of a sudden he could. He started to lean towards modernization because of colonization. The Rabbi was very traditional at first too. She didn’t eat anything that wasn’t kosher. He did everything that he was supposed to do. However, when he went abroad he ate a huge meal that wasn’t kosher. He broke a lot of Jewish laws abroad because he was starting to become colonized.  The daughter also was very traditional at first. She did everything her father told her to do. She followed all the Jewish laws also. She wasn’t very materialistic. Then, when she went abroad, she became colonized. She wanted her husband to buy her a bunch of new things.  She also defies her father a few times which defiantly isn’t traditional.

Personally this book was very interesting to me because we do see colonialism and modernity all over the news and in all different types of other media. I really enjoyed this topic and I thought that it connected well with another book I had read called Nervous Conditions. This is because the characters in both books are traditional and then they turn colonized.  Also, in both cases the main character(s) go abroad and that’s when things really start to change. In both cases the main character(s) also like the fact, in most cases, that they are becoming colonized.

I liked that the Rabbi’s Cat was a graphic novel. It was easier and faster to read. Sometimes it’s hard for me to be able to actually picture what is going on. The fact that the pictures were actually drawn out helped me a lot. I also liked that the pictures had symbolism in it. It made some of the meanings deeper and I really enjoyed that.  I’ve always really like graphic novels so I enjoyed reading this one a lot.

I did think that the story was interesting too because it focused on not just colonization and modernity, but also the Jewish religion. I could tell that the author had to be very careful when trying to right about it without offending anyone. The aspect of religion also made the story enjoyable.
I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I think that anyone who likes graphic novels, African literature, religion, or just a good story should read this book. I defiantly think that more people should read it and I would love to read more from Joann Sfar in the future.