Another Insane Devotion: On the Love of Cats and Persons - Paperback

by Peter Trachtenberg (Author)

From "a genuine American Dostoevsky" (The Washington Post): a dazzling, funny, bittersweet exploration of the mysteries of relationship, both human and animal.
When his favorite cat Biscuit goes missing, Peter Trachtenberg sets out to find her. The journey takes him 700 miles and many years into his past--into the history of his relationships with cats and the history of his relationship with his wife F., who may herself be on the verge of disappearing. What ensues is a work that recalls travel narratives from The Incredible Journey to W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn. Trachtenberg ponders the mysteries of feline intelligence (why do cats score worse on some tests than pigeons?), the origins of their domestication, their terrible treatment during the Middle Ages. He also looks at the riddle of why any of us loves whom we love and all the unforeseen places to which that devotion leads us.

Author Biography

Peter Trachtenberg is the author of The Book of Calamities and 7 Tattoos: A Memoir in the Flesh. He is the recipient of Whiting Writers Award, a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, and a Bellagio Residency. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh.