A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

Review ebook A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets

Please don’t think me churlish, but I will kick off by saying that this book is not terribly well crafted – it’s repetitive and poorly copy edited. So, if you’re snobby about writing, I suggest you give it a miss. That said, it’ll be your loss, as it is a heartwarming book with an important message, for reasons other than its prose.

Bowen describes how he was `invisible’ when he was homeless, and the difference it made when he found Bob and took him busking with him. Suddenly people – the public Please don’t think me churlish, but I will kick off by saying that this book is not terribly well crafted – it’s repetitive and poorly copy edited. So, if you’re snobby about writing, I suggest you give it a miss. That said, it’ll be your loss, as it is a heartwarming book with an important message, for reasons other than its prose.

Bowen describes how he was `invisible’ when he was homeless, and the difference it made when he found Bob and took him busking with him. Suddenly people – the public – saw James, interacted with him, respected him. Having Bob humanised the man who was with him, and helped James turn his life around.

It echoes why this book matters: were it entitled `A Man Named James’ I strongly suspect it would be invisible too. I doubt it would be published, let alone topping the bestseller charts, with James on TV sharing his experience. As a cat lover, it was Bob that made me gravitate to the story, and I’m sure I’m not alone (he is a particularly fine feline for all sorts of reasons) but there’s so much more to this than fluff: through telling us about Bob, James is also able to share what it’s like living on the streets, to busk, to sell the Big Issue and to come off drugs – all things most of us would otherwise shy away from reading about.

James Bowen isn’t a writer, and he acknowledges at the end that he had some help in putting his story together anyway. But whilst A Streetcat Named Bob might not be great literature, it increases our understanding of people who often don’t have a voice, and for that deserves its plaudits. …more