Rating: 
Summary: hilarious and poignant!
Review: "i and claudius" is my new favorite book. it is a must have for anyone who considers their pets to be family members (and not just cats, i have dogs and cats). the book is very touching, and funny enough to make you laugh out loud while reading. it's a must have!
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Summary: A fine journey across the USA
Review: A humorous adventure across the southern sweep of the USA by a young British woman and her 19 year old Burmese cat, Claudius. De Vries writes with wit, keen insight and a frenzied combination of neuroses, paranoia, fear & loathing, and humor that makes the book enjoyable and an all-too quick read. (Claudius, for his part, takes it all in stide, acting as the Voice of Reason and Wisdom.) In typical Road Story fashion both De Vries and Claudius come to terms with each other's strengths and weaknesses and to the greater meanings of love and life. A highly recommended book!
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Summary: Stranger on the road
Review: After loosing her mother Clare De Vries questions her life, and the answer is to travel across the U.S. with her aging philosopher cat Claudius.As she travels she meets various people, experiences some adventures, sees very interesting places, but she is not satisfied at all. It becomes clear that living her dream does not change her , she can not escape herself nor the realities of life. It is a sincere, funny, sad, sometimes depressive book, and I think an informative one for the ones who intend to travel across the U.S. by car.
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Summary: Made me want (briefly) to take a road trip with my cat.
Review: Although Clare de Vries is a bit too snarky for stretches of this book, she is more often an extremely gifted writer and chronicle-maker. I bought I & Claudius because of the quotes on the cover -- more the "Thelma & Louise with a cat" than the "Hunter S. Thompson + Bridget Jones" one -- and then hoped it would be more like Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. And it was. Claudius, the venerable cat of the title, is a natural traveler, with plenty of attitude. And Clare, as his keeper and court scribe, does him considerable justice. I could have done without a lot of the Men Met On The Road information, but again, she more than made up for it with her sweet, splendid descriptions of Claudius and the changing landscape both of her heart and of the American roadside. There were also some incredibly funny moments having to do with both Clare's own wackiness and her Brit-out-of-water encounters with Americans. If you like cats or road trips, or especially both, this book will do you well.
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Summary: Edgy Brit with very cool cat drives the US of A
Review: At age 28, journalist Clare de Vries of England decides her life needs shaking up, so she embarks on an auto tour of the United States with her pet Burmese cat of 19 years, “Claude”. I & CLAUDIUS is their on-the-road story as they start out in Connecticut, then head south through New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, then west through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Nevada to the Pacific at Los Angeles, then finally north to the San Francisco Bay area. As Clare describes it early on, her route is a smiley face on a map of America. Clare can be endearingly ditzy. At one point, she all but admits not knowing that cars need regular infusions of motor oil to run. She drives west ignorant of the difference between Las Vegas, NV and Las Vegas, NM until she arrives at the latter and can’t find the bright lights and casinos. She carries on imaginary conversations with Claudius, the back-and-forth repartee of which is recorded in the book as if she was talking to another human. She can also be infuriating. An understated need of her journey is to find Love, or at least Lust. Yet her taste in men is so abysmal that she consistently attaches herself to Complete Losers. .... She blames it on a fear of commitment. Only Claude has her heart. Claudius, on the other hand, is the coolest feline on the planet. Perhaps it’s mellowness due to his advanced age (133 in human, biological clock years). I can’t even imagine my own cat, Trouble, sitting quietly on my lap for the entire duration of a western rodeo. Or on my lap in a 4-seater, light plane flying over the Grand Canyon abyss. Claudius manages every experience with aplomb, though his serene composure did crack a bit when faced with a bear noshing from his food dish. I & CLAUDIUS is a touching and amusing travel essay, though the smiley face on Clare’s map is a bit forced at times due to her angst over what she expects to be her pet’s sooner-than-later demise. (He is, after all, 19 cat-years old.) Occasional crises, real or imagined, in Claude’s health are interspersed with droll car, motel (“No Pets Allowed”) and man problems. Indeed, it’s a minor miracle that Clare found time to enjoy any of America’s attractions. (Claudius apparently did. While on the road, he became addicted to KFC – regular, not spicy.) One of the funniest incidents is that of the Tarantula-Under-the-Car-Seat. (I was tempted to peer under the seat of my own sedan after that anecdote!) And the montage of color photos on the inside of both the front and back covers of the paperback edition is a very nice touch. I unreservedly recommend this book to any cat owner whose pet is also a true pal. ....
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Summary: Clare Storms America
Review: Clare De Vries - Intelligent, beautiful and just a little bit crazy. Claudius - Clare's alter ego. A wise old philosophising cat. One of the few sane males in the entire book and the only male that Clare loves unreservedly. Running away from her past (the death of her mother) and unwilling to face the future (the inevitable demise of her cat), Clare embarks upon a cathartic journey across America, accompanied by her old and ailing cat, Claudius. With a typically British arrogance when abroad (in her case endearingly so), and not caring about local custom or etiquette (When In Rome, and all that), Clare is feisty and outspoken. Willing to stand up for herself and not at all bothered as to whom she upsets. In all her audacious escapades Clare's basic attitude throughout is - Just go for it. Dive in with both feet and damn the consequences. Possessing a very savage wit, with irony and sarcasm thrown in for good measure, Clare takes no prisoners. Of the Americans Clare meets, most fail to realise what has hit them before it is too late. They are bemused by her antics, unsure of how to deal with her, and are certainly at a loss to understand her humour. Which leads to some very funny scenes and glorious misunderstandings. Clare's journey consists of a) staying in some of the most disgusting and roach infested Motels in America b) getting totally off her face as often as possible, and then picking fights and causing arguments with anyone and everyone c) obsessing about sex with the perfect male and being always on the look out for her Adonis d) meeting psychos (see previous). As well as attracting the seriously deranged Clare actively seeks them out - Obsessed People, oddballs, the dangerously psychotic and out and out Loons. Constantly worrying about Claudius' progressively ill health, Clare suffers violent mood swings, despair and deep depression. There are moments when you cannot help feeling that Clare is wildly out of control and self destructive as she careers across America from one crazy disaster to another. You are transfixed by the increasingly bizarre and often extremely dangerous adventures that Clare manages to get herself into. But Clare is not stupid. Using all her feminine wiles and beguiling charm she manipulates men and suckers them into doing her bidding. And with a strong survival instinct, plus a little luck, Clare manages to extricate herself from sometimes violent and potentially lethal situations. By turn's laugh out loud hilarious, moving, hair-raisingly reckless, madcap and scary, this is a wonderful book and a cracking page-turner. Edge of your seat stuff and a joy to read. If you are open to high adventure, decidedly weird people and strange encounters, then Clare is your ideal travelling companion. Although significantly different in style this is the best travelogue across the American Heartland since Martin Fletcher's 'Almost Heaven'. Highly Recommended. More Please.
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Summary: Clare and Claudius = Ying and Yang!
Review: Clare De Vries has decided to take her 19-year-old Burmese cat -- who has been with her since age 10 -- on a jaunt through the southern United States before he inevitably dies. She ships herself, Claudius and her Italian sportscar from London to New York. (The car promptly breaks down before they barely start, forcing her to buy an all-American Buick.) And they're off! Clare is a typical 28-year-old as she travels -- doesn't really like most of the people she meets because they're different, judgemental about the USA, willing to risk her life with strangers in order to go to a party. But she is intuitive enough to temper her writings with insights from Claudius, whom only she can hear. When she has a rant and rave about the malling of America destroying nature, Claude pipes up that she won't give up air conditioning so who is she to talk? They encounter many strange adventures along the way -- an Amish wedding in PA, a fight in Texas, where Clare has to slap a stranger because the crowd is yelling at her, throwing catfood at a bear in VA in an attempt to get away. Clare also weaves in stories of her own past --- including her mother's recent unsuccessful, apinful fight with cancer a few months beforehand. It's a great book, and if you have ever really loved a pet, you will identify with her and enjoy it all the more! But even if you have been petless all your life, you will still get a kick out of this witty little memoir.
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Summary: A Wild Ride Across America - Clare de Vries is Brilliant!
Review: Clare is an enchanting woman and reflects it in her new novel! I and Claudius is a no-holds-barred look at America through the eyes of a gutsy Brit. This is a story of fun and high adventure. It is related by, perhaps, the most unlikely of chroniclers, and her (also most unlikely) cat. This is also a story of a young woman finding the path to her future, and excorcising the ghosts of the past. She is an inspiration for all of us. You will find yourself splitting your sides laughing one moment, and have tears rolling down your cheeks the next. A must read, and very difficult to put down! I had the good fortune to meet this brilliant woman during her travels. Her insights into the "heart" of America are warm, thought-provoking, and absolutely precious.\ Do not miss this one!
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Summary: Marvelous! and strangely uncanny...
Review: Clare's relationship with Claude is priceless and gorgeous, and though perhaps the future customer probably doesn't really care to read about the reviewer, my experiences are directly related to my love of this book, and frighteningly uncanny...she's right on the mark with this one and I know there are more out there who'd agree.
Just as Clare was, I am 28 years old, lost my mother to cancer , and had travelled across North America with my beloved cat, Sampson, twice when I read this book.( I would like for the record to state that he is equally as magnificent as Claude) and like her, I am terrified more than anything in the world to lose him. Clare's relationship with Claude is painfully sincere, and I feel less of a maniac to hear that someone else was as obsessed and driven by her fears and dependance on shopping as her own retail therapy.
Her confused love for America and Americans, as well as road tripping is hilarious and well shared by this reader. Though I cried buckets,laughed out loud more than once and am still somewhat heartbroken (there is one small paragraph that brings sobs to my throat just to think of it-beautiful), it moved me immensely and all I wanted to do was get home to my boy when I finished it.
For anyone who loves their pet (any pet) like a child this is your reminder why you do. Marvelous, Clare!
Is there anywhere we can write to her? Does anyone know?
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe I'm just not a cat person
Review: Everyone really seemed to love this book so I thought I'd check it out, but besides being easy to read I didn't find much merit in it. In the end she just really annoyed me. Her generally snippiness was people made me cringe, and she never seemed very aware of her surroundings (although I give her props for the incident in the bar in Texas, I believe it was). As a traveler, I could never imagine trusting total strangers like she does. Sure, I know that if you don't take risks you miss out on a lot, but the fact that she lived to write this book is amazing in and of itself considering the huge amount of trust she puts in total strangers. Perhaps not being a huge cat lover was also problematic. I couldn't relate to her rantings about Claudius. I think my biggest beef with the book, which I notice other people really enjoyed, was Claudius's insights. I found it very distracting how she'd experience something, and then Claudius would chime it with its historical value. There were amusing parts, such as her time in Las Vegas, but all in all, I wouldn't recommend this book. Well, maybe to a cat person.
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