If it sounds strange to suggest that one of this summer’s most affecting pieces of writing is by a 73-year-old Indian author detailing her relationship with her cat, then it is the point at which the much-beloved lilac Burmese, Suki, starts having a conversation with the writer, Suniti Namjoshi, that signals this will be no ordinary memoir.
“I actually did check with people I respected that this book was good enough for Suki. We both put a huge amount of work into the relationship,” Namjoshi says, completely seriously.
Given that Suki died in 1997, this acerbic and quick-witted cat who, in the book, admonishes Namjoshi for interrupting her time in front of the fireplace, clearly had a tremendous effect on the writer’s life.
Namjoshi admits that it took an incredible 16 years to write the book, named after her cat, because she “couldn’t get the distance on her”. But when she worked out that she could write both about remembering Suki and letting go of her, she was finally able to complete the book. It was published in India earlier this year and this week enjoys a worldwide release.
“I know it sounds like a ridiculous premise,” she admits. “But really, this book is for anyone who has made a strong bond with someone else, be they an animal or person.
“It would have been so easy to fall into the trap of being sentimental, twee or cute. I don’t think this book is: all of us love someone or something and we lose it.”
And Suki does convey both the ache of loss and the building of fond memories via a talking cat.
This is in part because Namjoshi has carved quite a reputation as a writer of fables – Feminist Fables, her 1981 collection of famous stories given a non-sexist angle, was widely praised. Even when Suki moves into flights of fancy with a whole menagerie of animals joining the party at a retreat, you still feel in safe hands.
“I do like the sense of the absurd,’ she says, “and if I start with a creature saying something, I end up working out the implications.
“If you’re concerned with issues of power imbalance in relationships, as I am, then you have your metaphor in the relationship between a human and a cat. And then you take it from there.”
It’s not surprising that Namjoshi should bring up power imbalance – as an avowed feminist living in England, she’s made a career out of exploring and writing about the role of modern women.
And given her time lecturing in the Department of English at the University of Toronto, you might think her perfectly placed to discuss the writing of female Indian authors such as Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri.
“You know, I must confess something,” she says in a conspiratorial whisper. “I hardly read literary novels any more, either Indian or English. I have an outrageous diet of science fiction and poetry – it’s like red meat and sweets. It becomes good to be frivolous at my age, to read exactly what I like.”
Namjoshi has certainly earned that right – as she has the right to pen a memoir about her feline friend. All of which begs one question. Did she ever get another cat?
“Oh no,” she murmurs. “That would have been unfair. I would have blamed it for not being Suki.”
• Suki is out in bookstores now
artslife@thenational.ae
