A Cat Abroad

August 2, 1993
The line between cute and twee is easy to cross when writing a cat book, and Gethers steers a precarious course between the two. Then again, that may be the cat's doing. Norton, Gethers's Scottish Fold, lacks most of the feline foibles that would give him a certain universal resonance. The cat is told just once not to scratch the furniture in the 300-year-old house that Gethers rents for the year with girlfriend Janis and thereafter (remember, Crown classifies this as Nonfiction/Pets), Norton does not scratch the furniture . Norton runs away one time--but waits for Gethers to trot down the block and pick him up. For readers with real cats--psychotically territorial, determinedly sedentary and often a tad snitty--Norton will seem like a small dog who has had a lot of plastic surgery. On the other hand, Gethers sans chat is often funny, self-deprecating and loves food, which makes him a fitting guide to the over-chronicled byways of Southern France. As the former head of Villard and Random House editor-at-large, Gethers's recollections of the publication of his earlier book, The Cat Who Went to Paris , makes interesting reading for publishing types.