‘Abandoning a Cat’ Review: The Poetics of Family Trauma

Haruki Murakami’s Abandoning a Cat is a reflective personal essay examining family trauma, wartime history, and intergenerational silence. The narrative centers on an unresolved childhood memory of taking a family cat to the beach to abandon it, only to find the animal had somehow beaten them home. This enigmatic event mirrors the life of the author's father, a former soldier-priest whose unexpressed wartime experiences and strained relationship with his son left lasting emotional residue. By embracing epistemological humility, Murakami resists offering neat narrative closures or moral simplifications about his lineage. Instead, the book demonstrates how national violence and personal expectations infiltrate domestic life as unresolved burdens that must be carried rather than fully resolved. Ultimately, the work stands as a poignant meditation on inheritance, memory gaps, and the art of living with the incomplete.

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