Episode 4 - The Cat Who Turned On and Off
Book Three already!! This is not my favorite of the early books and was admittedly a bit more of a slog to read and summarize compared to the first two books. But forward we shall go.
Qwill keeps having to move every book and it is already wearing thin. I have to wonder if she had remained in the city setting if he’d spend a book without the cats because he couldn’t find a place to live...which would not have ended well. It would have been interesting to see how many identifiable parts of town she could come up with (fine artists, interior designers, antique dealers...what next?)
Once again, Qwill meets a young and attractive woman he lusts after (Mary Duckworth/Duxbury - see, I told you that name would come back!) and a dumpy but kind woman, with a "nymphomaniac mixed in for good measure.
Mary Duckworth - Rich, sells actual expensive antiques and likes to wear a blue kimono while working in her shop. She's also described as having long black hair and almost Asian eyes. So she's embracing the orientalism that came back through America in the 60s. I'm still trying to decide if that's her idea of a disguise since she's trying to establish an identity outside of her very wealthy family or if she has an idea that submissive appearing asian-esque women sell more 18th century English antiques... Drinks good Scotch, and has a tendency to jealousy, as do many of the women LJB writes, now that I think about it.
Iris Cobb - it’s as if someone wrote a doormat made human and gave it a lace collar and reading glasses, plus heavenly cooking skills. Qwill bemoans that “not every woman can be born with a perfect figure” and then spends the rest of the book gloriously describing her cooking... She's actually an expert in antiques and is really the brains behind hers and her husband's antique business. Has a need for "He-man" type men who are usually sloppy and good eaters, even if they aren't always faithful. Despite being a really loving character, she’s consistently unlucky and described as very needy. After losing now two husbands to unfortunate circumstances, I kindof understand the need to liked and held.
We also meet her son Dennis from her first marriage (CC was her 2nd husband) who will play a role in a later book. This is the first of many appearances of Mrs. Cobb’s famous Apple Pie. Her walnut brownies however, seem to only be mentioned in this book, which is a sad waste in my Walnut brownie loving opinion. Apple pie is good to, but brownies...
Cluthra - the middle of the Three Weird Sisters (another antique store in Junktown) who is the resident Nymphomaniac, as she is described by both men and women through the book. This is a very '60s persepctive, where a woman doesn't get to just enjoy sex, but has to be manipulative about it. Because in this case, I think LJB is actually writing about a female sexual predator - She actively pursues married men, and when Qwill comes to her apartment, she gets him to drink her "special" chokecherry syrup that makes him dizzy and overly warm. Cluthra is foiled in Qwill’s case by Koko, as she turns out to be highly allergic to cats! (The man brought his cat on what she was trying to turn in to a date - he REALLY doesn’t like being pursued).
Speaking of cats, both Koko and Yum Yum continue to become even more cat-like in this book. They prove adept at hiding and finding toothbrushes and Yum Yum catches her first mouse. There's also this great line about cat ownership - “No one ever owns a cat - you share a communal habitation on a basis of equal rights and mutual respect. Although the cats always seem to come out ahead in the deal.”
The item being turned on and off in the title is a light switch, which is a bit boring but the Cat Who Stole toothbrushes from hidden rooms was probably too long for the publishers.
Once again, there are a couple of one-off scenes to fill out the atmosphere or give Qwill information he needs to solve the murders. My favorite is Mrs. Katzenhide, a rich widow who runs a shop specializing in Camp (Wit, whimsy and a gentle Thumbing of the nose - you either “dig it or you don’t”). She has one scene, gives a whole slew of information and then never talks again.
In this book, we have a lot of firsts - it's our first mention of Qwill's mother (Who was a Mackintosh) and the first appearance of the Scottish Coat of Arms supposedly from a Mackintosh castle. The Motto - "Touch not the Cat Bot A Glove" is noted as the motto of Clan MacPherson as well, according to Wikipedia, and is the first to come up when you search it, but there is plenty about Clan Mackintosh if you search that name specifically. This is also the first incident of the coat of arms doing bodily harm to someone who is threatening Qwill and it's a fun Deus ex Machina.
There is the first focused mention of a sensation in the roots of Qwill’s mustache - this is where he gets his hints that something is not quite right or that he's on the right trail and causes him to identify with Koko and his 60 whiskers on more than one occasion throughout the series.
Luke described this book as a filler - it's there to sew a lot of seeds that bear fruit later in the series. We'll see what fruit it bears as we go forward!
One of the things I always remembered about this book is the swan bed!
ReplyDeleteThe swan bed, the dentist chair, the roll top desk, Cokey’s crates covered in upholstery samples... you could do a whole episode on just the furniture in this book!!
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