“A Whimsical Tale both Traditional and Unique”: A Review of The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat (The Worley Village Mysteries, Book One) by Carole Elaine Borgens

 

(Serene Publications, 2016). ISBN: 978-0-9949968-0-0

As a lifelong creative and professional storyteller, I have very fond memories of a whole host of animated, narrated stories that kept me enrapt as a child. There is Sebastian Cabot and the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and friends, the Rankin and Bass Christmas specials (with narrators like Fred Astaire and Burl Ives), the animated Tolkien adaptations, The Secret of NIMH, and my favorite, The Flight of Dragons. Their pacing, color palette, themes, music, tensions, and A-list voice talent all worked together to transport, educate, challenge, and comfort me. Perhaps most importantly, they inspired me to do the work to which I have devoted my life.

Carole Elaine Borgens’s The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat, from its opening illustrations (by Ros Webb Design) and very first enticing words (“… And thus began the journey”), immediately brought me back to those days of my childhood and early teenage years. The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat begs to be read in a special, secluded (even sacred) space, in your favorite chair, with your favorite tea in your favorite mug or porcelain cup or saucer, preferably by a fire.

The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat is a chapter book you can read (and should!) to your favorite young people, perhaps drawing inspiration from the narrators who worked on the films above for the voices of the characters and, most importantly, the narrator. What I hear most clearly is a more whispery, magical version of Sebastian Cabot or the mesmerizing voice (without any change at all) of the brilliant Helen Mirren.

Flossie, who is really two Flossies (this is not a spoiler… the cover lets us know) is just the kind of curious and stealthy feline that could have easily, effortlessly emerged from the jet black ink of the pen of TS Eliot in his book of Practical Cats. This fantastical feline has quite a bit on which to keep on top. There is the Worley Village of the series title—a miniature town (with a very BIG existence!) nestled within the kind of department store essential to stories such as Miracle on 34th Street. Borgens’s writing mingles with the abundant illustrations to give us the very personal view into the village that so en-tranced Robert Duvall’s character in the 1963 “Miniature” episode of The Twilight Zone. There is a wonderful hustle and bustle that happens in the store, especially in the Sweaters and Socks department, where constant sorting, straightening, and selling makes or breaks the clerk on duty on any given day.

The humans (a noun all too limited in its classical description here) are as mysterious as the ever-evolving landscape. Revelations abound around them, and their names are wonderfully evocative: for instance, Sergeant Blue Tunic, Mr. Gust, and Miss Lacey.

The plot is perfectly pulled along by the machinations and obfuscations occurring within the village and elsewhere. Borgens’s matryoshka-like plot construction boasts mystical, mysterious surroundings (including a lake), the department store, and the larger world in which they exist (at least in part), all of which unfold in a subtle synchrony, an undulating wave of whimsy, with the narrator working overtime to keep us abreast of a complicated universe (or piece of one) whose rules are ever-changing. Within this pleasant place of portals, humans become mannequins, mannequins become mermaids, and the inhabitants of the various sectors of this charming and churning landscape of mini-societies evolve, intermingle, and instigate in a quantum physical dance where anything at all can happen… and quite delightfully does!

Don’t let the energetic and manifestational complexities I am describing put you off. Our narrator from above (and all around) and our Flossie(s) on the ground keep everything in a clearly delineated Victorian–Edwardian order. The narrator is especially helpful in wayfinding, foreshadowing, and exposition, turning phrases on the lathe of story such as “time will show us more,” “what we didn’t know,” “we will retain this story for a later date,” and “moving ahead in time, we can tell you…” My favorite aspect of the narrator is that they are as en-tranced by this whimsical unfolding as is the reader: “My goodness, it was a wonderland!” or “How odd was that?”

Like any good fairy- or fireside tale, The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat is mythopoetic enough in its layered dynamics to invite numerous readings on multiple levels. There are several growth arcs, Place as a character, and complex themes exquisitely delivered.

If you enjoy The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat as much as I did but still find yourself on the fence about reading the second in the series, Whistling Swans and Mermaid Magic, Borgens enticingly provides you with its opening chapter.

With the temperatures dropping and snow falling steadily outside my office window here in the Creative Cottage, I can think of no better literary fare for you and those you love than The Curious Adventures of Flossie the Cat.

 

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