Richard J. Bing

Fifteen Lives and a Cat's Story Richard J. Bing

These are stories about people and a cat. Several of these stories dwell on youth and its passage into later years, how events in early life impact on our later years, fill them with the sweet glow of remembrance or the bitter taste of nostalgia. They are moving frames, not static pictures. One story, The Interview, is a parody on the life of a dull, unimaginative scientist, and to his shameful obedience to authority. Another story, Murder Most Foul, is dedicated to a friend of the author who became a victim of the early Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930's. Murder in the Institute is a crime story playing in a famous scientific institute where murder was committed as a result of scientific ambition and greed. Another story is told by the wife of Socrates, Xanthippe, who had an undeserved reputation as a shrew and who tried to be a loving wife but was repulsed by her husband whose interest was not his home but the agora. Two stories, Paradise and Beyond and Inferno are part of A Not So Divine Comedy written in Dantescian rhythms. They portray a trip into hell and heaven, populated by today's evildoers and saints. The author gave the final word to his cat, Louis, and let him speak about the people around him, their opinions of him and his opinions of them. As compared to humans, the cat appears to have a more healthy and realistic attitude toward life. The reader will notice that many stories have some relationship to the authors' profession, that of a physician and scientist and a composer of music.