Bono: The Rescue Cat Who Helped Me Find My Way Home
By: Helen Brown / Narrated By: Heather Bolton
Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
A feel-good listen, even if I spent the first 1/3 wanting to throttle her
So sue me, I must admit that I have little patience for people with little patience. And that’s how Helen Brown comes off during the first oh, I dunno, maybe third of Bono. She’s a woman of a certain age who’s just done. Period. After the ups and downs of a bout with cancer, life has become ho-hum. Kids? Loves ‘em, but they aren’t really around. Marriage? Twenty-two years, but actually? The husband has turned into someone vaguely akin to her dad, and who needs that? Locale? Down under, but perhaps she should be living somewhere else, somewhere more glamorous.
So Brown decides to do a sort of publicity run in New York City. And while she’s there, she’s talked into fostering a cat for a month. She’s basically shamed into it, and the only way she can say yes is by picturing a placid female feline, one easy to live with, easy to ignore. But that’s nooooot what actually happens.
Enter Bono, a refugee and survivor of Hurricane Sandy. A skittish boy who also has severe kidney disease and only a few years to live. Brown does NOT like this at all, thank you very much. And he’s so shy, spends so much time hiding, that she’s ready to return him, but her daughter shaaaaames her into keeping him for the duration of her stay, shaaaaames her into giving the boy a chance.
And pure love blossoms.
It’s a good story, as I do so love a good animal audiobook. Bono is adorable, and you really want the best for him, especially since he has only maybe three years given his condition. And Brown grew on me because she let Bono grow on her; she let her own life grow on her, learning to love it, learning to accept it. She learns what it means about the whole: home is where the heart is thing.
Heather Bolton’s performance is beyond serviceable. I only lower my rating for her because her American accents are a bit off, but given that she’s a Down Under woman, she actually pulls them off decently. At least only a few people sounded obnoxious, like stereotypes of New Yorkers. I mean, the place is, after all, a little United Nations of a city. And I liked the wry humor in her voice too; it helped me to cut Helen a bit of slack when I wanted to just shake her and shout, “Grow the heck up! Settle down, for cripes sake!”
Bono was definitely good enough that I now want to listen to her earlier book Cleo, which OF COURSE I have! I think she captured the bonds we have with our animals quite well indeed, and NATURALLY? I’ll let you know how that book turns out…
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