The Cat’s Pajamas: Stories

Ray Bradbury is, indisputably, one of America’s greatest storytellers. The recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, he ranks among the most beloved — and widely read — of American authors. In The Cat’s Pajamas, this “latter-day O. Henry” (Booklist) takes us on an amazing walk through his six-decade career, presenting twenty-two tales — some old, some new, all but two never before published.

Here you will find stories strange and scary, nostalgic and bittersweet, humorous and heart-touching, ranging from the not-so-long-gone past to an unknowable future: a group of senators drinks a bit too much — and gambles away the United States; a newlywed couple buys an old house and finds their fledgling relationship tested; two mysterious strangers arrive at a rooming house and baffle their fellow occupants with strange crying in the night; a lonely woman takes a last chance on love. The final piece in the collection is a story-poem, a fond salute from Bradbury to his literary heroes Shaw, Chesterton, Dickens, Twain, Poe, Wilde, Melville, and Kipling.

The Cat’s Pajamas is just that — the bee’s knees — a touching, timeless, and tender collection from the incomparable Ray Bradbury, and a anoramic view of an amazingly long, rich, and fertile creative career.