About a week ago I headed to the library with the intention of picking up a Frieda McFadden book at the suggestion of my sister, but the new and featured section at the front of the building caught my attention instead. One that called to me without even knowing anything about it was Syou Ishida’s We’ll Prescribe You a Cat.
In picking it up briefly, I’ll admit that I had no clue if this was a book of anecdotes about people who get a cat, but it did turn out to be fictional once I started reading. Of course, Ishida managed to capture the true aura of cats even if the stories were mainly focused on the people who acquired them. In this book, the chapters were few and only notated by a new cat, but each o these stories focused on people in Japan who felt they could benefit from psychiatric help. Eventually they all ended up ata facility that they’d only heard about distantly through many people. Though these stories all took place in Japan, I was glad to hear that talking about mental health wasn’t as taboo as it usually is.
In all of these stories, the people are susprised at how small and almost dark the location of the clinic is, and then they are surprised again at how small the actual clinic is. Both in size and in staff. It’s just a doctor and a nurse, and after only a short bit of listening the doctor declares that he’s prescribing the patient a cat. Bewhildered, these patients accept with almost no questions due to their utter confusion. Though even when they’ve had time to let it sink in, they still don’t immediately turn around to return these living creatures. It makes me feel that even though these are not pet owners, they must all like cats at least a little bit. I think the fact that this takes place in Japan makes it more believeable to happen.
The first man is stressed at work, and somehow this cat manages to make him lose his job. In the process though, he finds something he’s better suited for. The next person feels a bit lonely within his nuclear family, but the cat helps him reconnect with them, as well as recognize a similar loneliness in his new boss. The next helps a woman finally connect with her daughter, while the next woman learns she’s been too rigid in her worklife and not open enough in her personal life. The final cat focuses on a woman who sheds a more supernatural light on the clinic. It appears the people working it are also the cats themselves. It’s evident that their main objective is to help the cats, but they are atuned to figuring out how people and cats can help each other.
This was a unique read, but as a fellow cat lover, I really enjoyed this book! While I don’t think getting a cat can be a solution for everyone, I think the overarching theme could be that we need to take a step back from things sometimes to reassess. I highly recommend!