A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

A Street Cat Named Bob, James Bowen, Hodder 2012

A fun, easy read, not great literature. The book was actually co-written with Garry Jenkins, who is acknowledged on the inside and at the end of the book, though it doesn’t say this on the cover. The unpretentious style contributes to the sense of honesty that is a keynote of the book, and is one of the things that make it so attractive.

Readers – all of whom live and work in London – learnt a lot about London from this book, and about a different side of London life. The homeless become real people; you started to think about the different causes of homelessness. The same with The Big Issue sellers, and what it’s like for them. One of the bookclubbers has a friend who comes from the part of London in which part of the book is set, which makes it particularly vivid for them. You also learn how The Big Issue scheme works, and about Drug Dependency Units and prescription methadone.

It’s a very good book for young people who are just about to leave home as it has values, and it shows – and explains – clearly, how hopeless doing drugs really is. It would be equally good for people who are not very well educated but need a lift – it’s easy to read, as stated above – and for people who have jobs and money, to make them realise how the other half live. It is really frightening to see the lengths people can go to, in order to numb their feelings and avoid facing reality, avoid facing who they are.

In the book, James comes across as totally honest, without making a song and dance of it. Even when he seems to be on the verge of self-pity, when explaining the effects on him of his parents’ divorce (instability, being bullied at school, and dropping out), or the way that as a busker or Big Issue seller he is ignored by most people and beaten up by a few, he never falls into self-pity. His writing is by turns resigned, common-sensical, and determined. This is more remarkable as he started off, as a teenager, by being very angry indeed, and understandably. Another aspect of his character is the way he instantly falls into panic and fears the very worst, as soon as anything goes wrong – e.g. the times when Bob was frightened and ran away from him, and when he was accused of cheating when selling The Big Issue. A couple of bookclubbers watched a TV interview by Jeremy Vine with James Bowen and Bob. James is jerky and febrile, presumably an aftermath of his addiction; Bob was as cool and composed on screen as he is in the book.

With all of this, nothing in the book is written to give offence, and it is very easy to imagine how it could have been. It is obviously not written for children, but the grittiness of life as a drop-out, addict, busker, and Big Issue seller is depicted realistically enough to bring it home to the reader, yet without making you feel that you are having your nose rubbed in the dirt – although he has been angry, he does not write angrily. Instead, step by step, he dwells on the way his life and attitudes change as he takes in Bob and gets to take responsibility for him – and then as he sees what Bob is doing for him. It is not only the fact that people give far more money to him when Bob is there; it is the fact that James loses his “Harry Potter invisibility cloak” (p. 77), and begins to become a person again, because people look at him, talk to him, and treat him like a human being. And by the end of the book, p. 186, he realises that “Bob brought back my faith in human nature,” because he finds people being kind, going out of their way to help, and keeping their promises.

This book made an excellent contrast with our last read, The Sisters of Sinai – they had a huge amount of money and were extraordinarily well-educated; James had nothing and had a raw deal from the start. It is notable that while Bob alone made him a success as a Big Issue seller, it was the Internet – technology – that made him famous.