Sleeping with Cats: A Memoir

by Marge Piercy

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Marge Piercy, a writer who is highly praised as both a poet and a novelist, turns her gaze inward as she shares her thoughts on life and explores her development as a woman and writer. She pays tribute to the one loving constant that has offered her comfort and meaning even as the faces and events in her life have changed -- her beloved cats. With searing honesty, Piercy tells of her strained childhood growing up in a religiously split, working-class family in Detroit. She examines her myriad friendships and relationships, including two painful early marriages, and reveals their effects on her creativity and career. More than a reminiscence of things past, however, Sleeping With Cats is also a celebration of the present and the future, as Piercy shares her views on aging, creativity, and finding a lasting and improbable love with a man fourteen years younger than herself. A chronicle of the turbulent and exciting journey of one artist's life, Sleeping With Cats is a deeply intimate, unforgettable story.… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)

I copied out chunks of this book as much resonated with my own life. Her relationship with her mother, what she found upon her mother's death. The deaths of her cats. The rest that I had nothing in common with was well described and interesting and though there were bits that were hard to read (mainly the realization that all that energy and time spent by so many passionate, involved women has gone for naught as the political climate has changed again and women are being regressed to chattel). I wondered as I finished the book what the writer thought of the present day at age 85. (

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Karen74Leigh | Feb 10, 2022 |

Piercy's characterization of her cats is wonderful! Her life experiences are so different from my own, and she tells her history with the acknowledgement of memory's fallibility and an interesting admittance of her own faults. I wish she had talked more about her works of poetry and fiction and how they fit into her life. (

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amaraduende | Mar 30, 2013 |

Memoir of a talented and important American author (

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madlibn | Aug 24, 2008 |

Hell of a life! I cried when cats died. Amazing experiences. (

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zina | Jun 1, 2008 |

Piercy has crafted a well written memoir that is political, feminine, literary, but most importantly human and universally touching, with her feline companions at the center of it all. A brilliant recollection by a gifted writer. (

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poetontheone | May 14, 2008 |

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Epigraph

ATTEMPT AT AUTOBIOGRAPHY
A tango among the potsherds
in bare feet, soon bloody.
Ah, bitch memory, you tangle
me in your barbed hair.
How can I tell enchantment
from fact, lies from promises?
You sing to me in my own voice
but on key with harmonics
that make my bones quiver
The familiarity of your face makes
me trust where I should close
my eyes till I see spark.
You persuade me of scenes I cannot
have witnessed, you sing ballad
of deeds only daydreamed. I am
your fool, your lover, your liar.

Dedication

FOR ALL THOSE I HAVE LOVED,
TWO- AND FOUR-FOOTED

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Do I have faith in my memory?

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Marge Piercy, a writer who is highly praised as both a poet and a novelist, turns her gaze inward as she shares her thoughts on life and explores her development as a woman and writer. She pays tribute to the one loving constant that has offered her comfort and meaning even as the faces and events in her life have changed -- her beloved cats. With searing honesty, Piercy tells of her strained childhood growing up in a religiously split, working-class family in Detroit. She examines her myriad friendships and relationships, including two painful early marriages, and reveals their effects on her creativity and career. More than a reminiscence of things past, however, Sleeping With Cats is also a celebration of the present and the future, as Piercy shares her views on aging, creativity, and finding a lasting and improbable love with a man fourteen years younger than herself. A chronicle of the turbulent and exciting journey of one artist's life, Sleeping With Cats is a deeply intimate, unforgettable story.

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