First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Lucky Lee has everything – wealth, charm, money, good looks – and does very, very little with it. He’s content. He’s happy. He takes for granted that life is good and always will be. But then his sister, the go-getting, successful, famous TV chef Pearl Lee, dies, horribly and suddenly. Lucky is devastated. As he struggles to live without the big sister who’s always been the dominant, often relentless force in his life, the inconceivable happens – her cat begins to talk to him. It wants to know where Pearl is. It questions his eating habits, his outfit choices, his life. It hogs the TV. It tells him stories. Now grief-stricken Lucky has a major problem: he may very well be mad.

Happy Friday everyone! Technically, it is already Saturday. Regardless, it is the last day of the workweek, at least for those who follow the conventional workweek; the Middle East works from Sunday to Thursday. With the workweek coming to a close, I hope everyone is ending the workweek on a high note. I hope everyone accomplished all of their tasks and undertakings for the week. But for those whose goal was just to make it through the week or just to survive and make it from one point to another, kudos to all of you as well. With the workweek done, it is time to shed those corporate attires and don more comfortable articles of clothing. It is now time to dive into the weekend. I hope everyone gets to spend the weekend resting or pursuing their passions. It is also a time to complete household chores. Regardless of how you spend the weekend, I hope everyone is doing well in body, mind, and spirit.

With the workweek coming to a conclusion, I realized that today is the second day of the year’s fifth month. How time flies! We are already a third through the year. Time for sure takes its natural course sans any regard for anyone. With this, how has the year been so far? Has it been treating you well? I do hope that the year is going great for everyone, or at least it is going the way you wanted it to. I hope that you are already headed to your destination. However, if you are still figuring it all out, it is still fine. Take your time and don’t be in a rush. If your year is going otherwise, I hope you experience a reversal of fortune. I hope positive energies, blessings, and good news flow into your lives in the remaining months of the year. I hope you are get to achieve your goals this year. Speaking of goals, I have several, reading-wise. I am glad to say that I am making headways on these reading goals. My 2025 reading journey is in full swing.

To open my 2025 reading year, I spent the first quarter reading works of East Asian literature. Following its conclusion, I then pivoted toward the rest of the Asian continent. It is a vast world but one that I admittedly haven’t explored as extensively as I wanted to, like my own Southeast Asian region (even my own Philippine literature). This brings me to my current read, Yeoh Jo-Ann’s Deplorable Conversations With Cats and Other Distractions. My first encounter with the book was late last year. However, I dismissed it thinking it was a collection of short stories. Earlier this year, while choosing books to include in my East Asian literature adventure, I decided to obtain a copy of the book. You see, I thought that Yeoh was Korean. Imagine the rush of embarrassment when I realized that she was Malaysian. But the book found a second purpose when I made it part of my ongoing foray into Asian literature.

Admittedly, my venture into Malaysian literature is quite limited so I was looking forward to reading Deplorable Conversations With Cats and Other Distractions. I guess this is another addition to my growing collection of feline fiction. Anyway, at the heart of the story is Lucky Lee. He was born to an affluent family whose fortune was built on coffee. Growing up, Lucky was made fun of by his peers because of his name. Nevertheless, his family’s affluence allowed him to live a charmed life. However, he was not much use in any respect although he did complete a degree in architecture; he never practiced it. Already in his late thirties, he lives rent-free in the family home which is an architectural marvel. He has also started multiple business ventures which almost always ended as failure. The only business that flourished is Caffiend, an independent cafe located in his late father’s Joo Chiat shophouse. He established the cafe along with his friends mainly for fun.

Lucky has an older sister, Pearl Lee, who is a renowned TV chef and food critic with her own recipe books. She was the antithesis of her carefree brother. Nevertheless, the siblings grew up close and were already orphaned. Lucky’s life was irreversibly altered by a horrific accident that resulted in Pearl’s untimely passing. Lucky, devastated, found himself the new parent to Coconut, Pearl’s pet cat. Gripped by grief, Lucky spirals into a slump. He was undone by both grief, lost in a wave of nostalgia, and swept away by memories of childhood. Coconut simply watched him as he slowly digressed. Then out of the blue, Coconut started talking to Lucky, breaking him out of his prolonged lethargy. They started conversing as Lucky slowly found himself waking up from what was virtually a long slumber.

The process of overcoming grief, however, can be a long one. It might even take forever. Conversations with Coconut helped Lucky get out of his slump. However, he still has a long way to go. It did not help that his own way of coping with grief was a little eccentric. Playing a germane role in this process is Coconut. For a book that navigates the course of grief and loss, the book is rather thick. I am not going to be surprised if it will suffer from the traps of repetition although I find the writing accessible. The relationship between Coconut and Lucky is also quite heartwarming although they are still in the process of building rapport. I guess cats can have an interesting impact on people. They can be cute but also nonchalant; it is no wonder they are ubiquitous in the ambit of Japanese literature.

I am already midway through the story. I am looking forward to how Yeoh will further build on the story. I guess I can expect a journey to understanding one’s self because the book seems too thick to limits itself to merely an exploration of grief. Lucky’s happy-go-lucky attitude opens the door for a story about finding one’s purpose or a trace of a coming-of-age. I expect there will be a lot of introspection. There How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!