tomcat murr

From E.T.A. Hoffmann—the writer who brought you The Nutcracker—wrote this strange gem. The book tells two stories. The first is about a cat is writing his autobiography, and other assorted journally thoughts. It’s something like Tristram Shandy but with a cat. Murr (the cat) uses the backside of papers from another novel written about Kapellmeister Kreisler, so the narrative suddenly stops and continues with the other story. It’s charming and odd and a very dense read. Some day I’ll actually finish the thing.