Stephanie Jane reviewed A World Without Color by Bernard Jan
Painfully emotional
5 stars
I initially spotted A World Without Color when author Rebecca Gransden reviewed it on Goodreads. She loved this memoir and I had loved her books so I hoped Bernard Jan's writing would appeal to me as much as it did to Rebecca. It certainly did!
A World Without Color is Bernard Jan's intensely emotional memories of his cat, Marcel's, last three days and nights of life. Jan's writing is raw with grief yet also beautifully sentimental. He remembers happy moments in Marcel's life and how this cat became as much as part of the family as if he were human. I found myself sometimes welling up as Jan's words brought back memories of my childhood cat. I did often feel upset as I read his words and it's a measure of his delicate touch as a writer that, despite the heartfelt emotion displayed throughout A World Without Color, the memoir …
I initially spotted A World Without Color when author Rebecca Gransden reviewed it on Goodreads. She loved this memoir and I had loved her books so I hoped Bernard Jan's writing would appeal to me as much as it did to Rebecca. It certainly did!
A World Without Color is Bernard Jan's intensely emotional memories of his cat, Marcel's, last three days and nights of life. Jan's writing is raw with grief yet also beautifully sentimental. He remembers happy moments in Marcel's life and how this cat became as much as part of the family as if he were human. I found myself sometimes welling up as Jan's words brought back memories of my childhood cat. I did often feel upset as I read his words and it's a measure of his delicate touch as a writer that, despite the heartfelt emotion displayed throughout A World Without Color, the memoir is ultimately uplifting and I came away from it almost with a sense of peace at having worked through more of my own bereavement losses, both animal and human.
Readers should be aware that this memoir is likely to trigger negative thoughts and perhaps care should be taken not to read it if one is too close to a bereavement of one's own. However, in the same way as reading A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness), I actually found being given such unrestrained access to Jan's grief was beneficial in dealing with my own.