Fifth Life of the Cat Woman

Half cat, Kat the Catwoman lives her fifth life amidst fifty felines. She avoids human contact as she has long memories of prejudice, poverty, and death at the hands of her so called superior side. Instead, Kat lives in a self-made haven secure from the feral mentality of humanity.

However, her Eden ends when a half cat male Angelo accidentally blunders into her mirage. Headmaster of a nearby communal high school, Angelo persuades Kat to return to reality by teaching the true history as she knows it, not that heroic rah-rah bunk found in textbooks. As she adapts to being welcomed and even popular, an incident shatters her mirage bringing back the true perspective of mankind when a child is stoned to death by his peers.

THE FIFTH LIFE OF THE CATWOMAN is a powerful allegory that looks at the dark side of humanity as prejudice and hatred defeats Utopia and love in everybody's life. The message cleverly implies that nine lives may not be enough to overcome the ferocious animosity that serves as man's basic reaction to anyone outside the "norm". Kathleen Dexter provides a potent indictment of intolerance and the need to emphasize the positive virtues of difference so that consensus leads to harmony.

Harriet Klausner

...to describe how this book made me feel. It is poignant, it is bittersweet, it is joyful, and it is more. The descriptions in this book were exquisite, the characters were well-drawn, the lessons were apropos to any society at any time but even more so to today's American society -- and the book was filled with cats, which is always a plus in my eyes. If you've ever felt like an outsider, I think you will appreciate this book, and I hope you will love it as much as I did. And if you've never felt like an outsider, then, in my opinion, you definitely need to read this book. It will open your eyes. I recommend this book to absolutely everyone. And their cats. :-)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a shame it has not received more publicity. Every person I loan this book to falls in love with it. Kathleen Dexter has a unique talent for teaching lessons by example without preaching. It is a beautiful story which will entertain you and make you cry yet you will feel really good when you complete the story. Make sure you start reading Friday night and be prepared to devote you entire weekend because you won't be able to put it down!

One of the great lessons I have learned from being a teacher is that students learn more from experience than from just reading and taking notes from a lecture. Ms. Dexter has reaffirmed that belief with her wonder novel, FIFTH LIFE OF THE CATWOMAN. Kat is a woman who has been called out of her world that is inhabited by 50 cats to teach history in a small rural school. For her, history is more than the dates of wars and political/religious unrest; it is also the stories of those who have suffered as a result of those wars and unrest. She challenges her students to experience first hand: hunger, loss, prejudice, and injustice. This is a must read for all teachers.

Dexter creates a magical yet realistic world, both on the "mirage" and in the classroom. The Catwoman, now in her fifth of nine lives, is hiding out on her mirage with fifty cats, fearful of the outside world because of experiences of intolerance and injustice in her previous four lives. When a mysteriously familiar man arrives on her mirage, she is challenged to do something about making the world a better place so that she will be able to live out her next four lives in peace, as well as making the world a safer place for others. She begins to teach history. But not your average textbook history! Kat teaches -- through stories to her studends -- the reality of dire poverty, the absurdity of intolerance toward people who are "different" and the violence of witch hunts, which come in many shapes and forms. Through her teaching, she learns to love and learns that living in fear is a death unto itself. "Fifth Life of the Catwoman" is truly a literary work, full of entrancing descriptions and believable characters (including 50 cats who talk to Kat!). If you care about injustice and have a soft spot for feline eccentricities, this book is for you! Look for the audio version to be out this spring!