Customer Reviews

The Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It: Over the Edge and Back with My Dad, My Cat, and Me

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best books I have read on dealing with grief and loss. Any person going through the grieving process will appreciate Geneen's warmth and humor. Cat lovers will find this book to be a necessary addition to their library. Highly Recommended! Diana

I read a review of this book in Oprah's magazine. Thought it sounded interesting and feel like I could really relate. Geneen Roth seemed to see straight into my heart. I loved her sense of humor and loved her cat. Reading her book was cathartic and cleansing for me. I have been grieving my cat's death and, interestingly, my father's death for a long time. I hope this book grabs your heart the way it did mine. I had it read in less than 24 hours (on a work day). I cried until my eyes were swollen but needed that cry tremendously. I would recommend this book to any cat lover who views his or her "fur baby" with adoration. Many of Geneen's statements about how her cat gave her love were so much like my cat that I felt like she was with me again. Okay, enough of this. Just buy the book and enjoy.

Dee, Bob's mom (my female cat)

Okay, I admit it: I'll pick up almost any book with the word "cat" or "dog" on the cover. I'd never read Geneen Roth before, and I didn't expect to like this book very much. But this book won me over the way Blanche won over the author: slowly and subtly.

Roth was in a position to be a great cat-owner. She lived in a city with access to alternative veterinary medicine as well as cat therapists, groomers and more. So when Blanche entered her life, Roth's love spilled over. And it couldn't happen to a nicer cat.

I must admit I turned the pages a little faster when Roth panicked about losing her cat. Blanche is tougher than he looks, I wanted to say.

Many people will find parallels with Roth's family in their own lives -- or their friends' lives. Roth tells the story movingly, but matter-of-factly, without self-pity.

But Blanche remains the hero of this book and Roth's life. Perhaps the most telling passage comes when she writes that, "Blanche is like food once was -- he doesn't talk back, he doesn't hit, he doesn't go away...also, and I think this is important, he doesn't have any calories."

Blanche really does fill a hole in the author's heart but, unlike food, Blanche helps Roth grow and accept new relationships. Roth acquires not only a husband but also a dog. And she takes on a spiritual teacher, distinguished from a therapist in one of the best sections of the book. A therapist, says Roth, helps you heal the damage from what was done to you. A teacher helps you heal from the way you reacted to what was done to you.

The perfect gift for a sensitive cat lover. Then again, what true cat person isn't sensitive?

I fully expected Geneen Roth's book to be moving and interesting - as are all of her books. But this book took me to new places. As the father of an adult daughter, the book brought me to a completely unexpected place of love and compassion for my child. Through her deep and personal disclosure, Ms. Roth has informed my own relationship - the need for honesty and transparency, interpersonal integrity, and, above all, extreme sensitivity to my child's needs and view of me. This book should be required reading for all men.

I wrote this review for my enewsletter (www.StressEating.com)

I guess it was no accident that I read Geneen Roth's new
book on the way to visit my dad. "The Craggy Hole in My
Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It" captured my heart, as all
of her books have.

This book, however, is not about emotional eating per se,
but rather about the emotions and the stories that can
drive the eating.

No matter what role food plays in our lives, it is inextricably
linked to our desire for love and acceptance . . . and you
usually don't need 6 degrees of separation to get there.

Geneen addresses these issues better than anyone I
know. She has lived her life untangling them and teaching
the rest of us how to do the same.

For example, in regard to her fear of her beloved cat's
death:

"It occurs to me that I can spend the rest of my life (and
his) in low-level panic, or I can take a leap into the
suffering, and make friends with fear, pain and sorrow. It is

the same juncture I reached with food, when I realized I
could keep being frightened of going off the diet and eating
so much I'd end up weighing a thousand pounds, or I could
stop dieting and discover if there was a bottom to my
hunger."

Again and again Geneen lays it all on the line - this book
is fresh, vulnerable, edgy and funny. In it, she confronts
the honest, raw truth of her life, of her relationships . . . and
takes us all along for the ride.

And what a ride it is!

Geneen tells us the story of how she sold her soul for the
love of her father, how she learned to love (with 20-lb. cat,
Mr. Blanche in tow), to BE loved and to confront the truth.

In coaching, I sometimes ask my clients, "What's the lie?"
meaning - where are you lying to yourself? With integrity
and courage, my clients learn to face the truth by shedding
the lies.

In shedding her lies, Geneen also sheds the skins of her
childhood. Psychological researchers now believe that we
do NOT have to be prisoners of our childhoods.

As human beings, we are amazingly capable of rewriting
our childhood stories. Geneen reminds us that "unless we
question them head-on, we believe them for the rest of our
lives."

So I appreciate THIS visit with my dad even more,
savoring family memories, and feeling just a bit more
capable of facing the truth and the inevitable.

Through Geneen's example, we learn that we can rewrite
our stories to better serve us as adults, so that we can
flourish in our relationships and in life.

Through her openness, we learn how to handle even death
without emotional eating. It makes us feel as if anything we
think or feel is ok . . . someone else has felt the same . . .
or worse.

Now there is a lesson learned.

Here's to facing your truth,
Carol

This is a extremely well written book that is sensitive,feeling and very moving. If you have ever lost someone you loved dearly this book will touch your heart and soul...it is poignant, intuitive, filled with humor and honesty...its fluidity of style and grace make it a wonderfully easy read....I adored every minute of it.

This is an amazing book - one that changes your life because it is about the very essense of life and love. After several friends and I read the book, we gathered for dinner to discuss. WOW! It lead to deep discussions about father-daughter relationships, money and love, on and on. I highly recommend that both men and women read this beautifully touching and insightful book.

A beautifully written account of poignant, deep feelings..Anyone who has ever experienced the sorrow of loss will understand the depth and honesty of this book...the book has it all....humor, love, the reality of life. Roth's writing is fluid, easy to read and reaches down to your very soul.

A poignant visceral elucidation of the emotional volcano that touches the reader when a extremely talented writer spares no idiom portraying her senses when her aged cat, who only loved her and never failed her dies, at the same time her father who spun a web controlling her, and then deluded her, dies. Ms. Roth is able to take a painful experience and give the reader a breath-taking flight on the wings of her pen.

Geneen Roth is one of but a handful of writers who I will purchase a book she wrote sight unseen. She has a way with words, and thoughts and feelings that is beautiful and insightful and touching. This book did not disappoint. Having lost my mother a few years ago, and getting to the age where I realize life is fleeting, the message was very timely for me. Anyone who ever lost (and who has drawn a breath that hasn't?)something or someone they loved will surely relate to the well of feelings that are exposed here. I couldn't put it down....read it cover to cover and will go back with my highlighter pen for passages I want to revisit often. Reading Geneen is like being with a best friend. A very wise and loving best friend.