Particularly Cats
by Doris Lessing

Among the works of science fiction writer and social commentator Doris Lessing’s novels is a very slim book called “Particularly Cats.” It’s not so much a novel as an account of her life with two cats in a London flat. If you read it, consider:

Lessing’s book opens with her childhood encounters with cats on the family farm in Africa. What distinctions did she make as a child about domestic and feral cats? Do you make the same distinctions? What does this say about you?

Lessing seems to have a philosophy of cat ownership (if that’s not an oxymoron!). How would you describe it? How does it differ from yours?

If you had to select a famous person MOST like each of the two cats, who would it be? Explain why?

Instead of judging whether her cats make nice pets, Lessing judges them by how successful they are as cats. How does her approach make you see cats in a new or different way?

Select three observations Lessing makes about her cats that seem to ring true of all the cats you’ve known.