The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun: A Parody

Rating:
Summary: Should have left it where it belongs
Review: This alleged parody of Lilian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who..." series belongs in the litter box. Sure, the LJB franchise has been going downhill for quite some time, but not nearly deserving of this dumper. It's not parody - it's a lame excuse for porn. Adolescent boys might get off on it, but other than that, it's catty and pointless and puerile and prurient and stinks worse that the other stuff in the litter box. Reviewed by TundraVision

Rating:
Summary: Gratuitous scat
Review: I'm no prude, but when the stuff is gratuitously disgusting, I stop reading...

Rating:
Summary: OUTRAGEOUS AND OUTLANDISH
Review: I read a review of this book in the Toronto Globe and Mail which called it "outrageous, outlandish, and laugh-out-loud funny." The book was exactly that. I cried with laughter.

Rating:
Summary: If you hate LJB READ this if you don't STAY AWAY!!
Review: It's this simple if you loath the cat who books and the woman who writes them and enjoy GRAPHIC sexual descriptions and no holds barred bad taste THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU! If you do not feel that way and enjoy The Cat Who.. books there is NOTHING here worth wasting your time on. I enjoy the books but would not mind a well written parody of the series. THIS IS NOT IT!

Rating:
Summary: Nauseating
Review: Amazon needs a zero star category for bools like this! I have a sense of humor, and can appreciate someone poking fun at some of the absurdities of LJB's book series, but this book was disgusting. It wasn't even a parody! All it was to me was an excuse for the author to talk about the male reproductive organ at every opportunity. That requires no imagination. The author more than made up for the lack of sex in LJB's novels, and sent me rushing back to them to clear my mind of the mental images left from his book!! I think perhaps the author hates LJB for some mysterious reason! YUCK!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: LJB fans stay far away from this!
Review: A clever parody imitates an author's style but this so-called parody is more like a personal diatribe against Lilian Jackson Braun. Makes me think of the line in Hitchcock's Rear Window, spoken after a woman discovers her little pet dog's been strangled. She shouts at her neighbors, "Why'd you have to kill him? Was it because he liked ya? Just because he liked ya?" I think Lilian Jackson Braun likes her readers and wants to give them something pleasant and fun to read. Kaplow's world doesn't allow for this, I guess.

Rating:
Summary: Unlike Anything You've Read
Review: I ordered this book when I saw the ad in The New Yorker in which Susan Stamberg called it "mercifully short"! OK, it is short, but the Publisher's Weekly review is also right when it says Kaplow's "shotgun approach shatters his main targets and does a lot of collateral damage as well." This book is a wonderful free-for-all. It's like one of those old double-page cartoon spreads from Mad Magazine where every inch of the canvas is filled with jokes, and the more you look the more you find. It's fast, it's completely crazy, it's dazzlingly inventive, and in a strange way it's also kind of poignant. When the insane novelist is dying at the end, you really feel, for a moment, a pang of loss. (The scene is so crazy you really shouldn't feel anything but comedy, but there it is. I think Kaplow's a good enough novelist that even his dying crazy writer deserves a moment of our sympathy.) And in the same way, when James Qakfa, the novel's oafish and mostly clueless sleuth, says a final goodbye to Sally his undergraduate assistant, it's an appealingly bittersweet little moment. We've come to really like these two improbable friends. And we look forward to their meeting again in some new adventure. This is remarkable little book. I can't compare it to anything. All I know is I spent a week reading it sitting at a picnic table on the LSU campus, and I fell in love with its insane view of the world.

Rating:
Summary: VERY INTERESTING...
Review: Just finished listening to the audiobook version of THE CAT WHO KILLED LJB, and it's riotously funny. I nearly drove off the road twice. The box doesn't say "read" by Arte Johnson; it says "performed" by Arte Johnson, and that's the perfect word for this tour de force. It's a one-man show in which Johnson (of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" fame) performs about thirty different characters: men, women, gay, straight, old, young, famous, infamous. And in a wonderfully rich piece of irony, there's a running joke about "Laugh-In" in the novel, so eventually Johnson gets to play himself playing the famous Dirty Old Man on the Park Bench sketch! One of the highlights of the recording is a long monologue about Houdini trying to outwit a spiritualist in the 1920's, and it's all delivered in the manner of Sidney Greenstreet playing the Fat Man in THE MALTESE FALCON. It's a perfect piece of mimicry, and Johnson sustains that remarkable voice for a good ten minutes. Miraculous! If there was a Tony Award given for best audiobook acting, then Johnson should get Best One Man Show. I was laughing outloud for four hours.

Rating:
Summary: The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun: A Parody
Review: This book doesn't rate any stars. It is an insult to a gifted writer who has shared her talents with those of us who appreciate a good mystery that we can share with anyone in our families. This book's dialogue centers around a 4-letter vocabulary. I will gladly pay postage to return this book as I don't even want it in my house, let alone on the same shelf with Ms. Braun's wonderful books.

Rating:
Summary: HILARIOUS!
Review: I recently read Robert Kaplow's, The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun, and absolutely LOVED IT. Extremely funny. This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone who has read and enjoyed The Cat...series by Lilian Jackson. She is subject to a little mystery herself...finally. Kaplow's creativity through the wild adventure will keep you going till the end of the book. Ten thumbs up.