The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat: A Novel

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

Aug 2011 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this ebook

"I came into the world like everything else that is born, willy-nilly."  

So the wise old housecat Foudini begins the delightful story of his life. It is the tale of his orphaned kittenhood; of how he was rescued, cowering and spitting and hissing, from a damp city basement and lured into the lives of the couple he came to call Warm and Pest ("All cats like to make up strange names for things" ). It is the story of how Warm and Pest became "his  people" ("Human beings must be excellent mousers; they have such patience" ); of how he learned to tolerate and then to love "his"  dog, Sam; and of his adventures at Cold House in the city and Mouse House in the country (he prefers Mouse House, for obvious reasons). With feline equanimity, he tells how he was saved from a racing, swollen river; of how he lost the most unlikely and dearest friend he had; and of how he gained a cat family of his own. And he regales us with news of the ghost cats who visit him in his dreams--the cats of Cleopatra and Freud among them--bringing him their ancient cat wisdom, which Foudini tries, none too successfully at first, to impart to Grace, the sleek and beautiful gray country cat new to the household. As Foudini sees it, Grace is desperately in need of his guidance, but being young and willful, she has other things on her mind . . .

Yet even Grace comes to understand that Foudini M. Cat is well worth listening to. Warm and witty--and possessed of a surprisingly sophisticated narrative manner--Foudini is a cat with truly irrepressible, and irresistible, feline flair.

Ratings and reviews

Our daughter was 9 when we got the cassette audio tapes at our library. It was 1998. We listened to this book in the car, in the house and at her grandparents. I forgot the name of the book over the years, but never, ever forgot David Hyde Pierce's wonderful voice reading about "his dog" and "the map of smells". I actually gasped when I saw it in a search I made. I'm chuffed beyond belief to have found it again. I'm sure, when my daughter and I listen to it together again (she turns 30 in '19)like an old friend you haven't seen in awhile, we'll be right back sitting on the couch laughing ~ and crying. *sigh*

About the author

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer was born in Brooklyn and educated at the University of Chicago, where she received her Ph.D. in 1966. In addition to The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat, she is the author of ten other novels and five volumes of poetry, one of which, Granite Lady, was nominated for a National Book Award. She lives in New York.