The Bobcat

THE BOBCAT

by Katherine Forbes Riley

 

Nomination: Center For Fiction Longlist 2019

 

Date Read: October 16, 2022

 

The Bobcat is, in my opinion, an absolutely beautiful novel about the power of nature, the power of quiet and the beauty in shared humanity. Laurelei has escaped her Philadelphia college after a rape and is now living in a secluded cottage that abuts the forest somewhere in Vermont. She is enrolled in another college’s art program and has well-worn grooves for coping with her life to ensure she feels safe at all times. For money, she takes care of a very little boy in exchange for rent.

 

Her life is changed again one day when she is exploring in the woods with her young charge and encounters the hiker. Not until the end of the book do we learn his name but you realize how little that matters. His essence is what we get to experience and it is beautiful and simple and quiet. They both falsely believe there are obstacles to them being together – his virus and her graduate school – but after spending time apart they realize those were just illusions.

 

There are so many subtle details in this novel, symbolic of the larger themes. The injured bobcat with her kittens. The parents of the young boy that are more concerned about their own lives until their son is lost. The images of the river and forest. The superhuman senses of the hiker caused by his virus. 

 

Although this novel is incredibly short, the prose seeps through your mind like poetry, painting vivid pictures in your mind. I was disappointed when I reached the end because I wished it would just continue forever.

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