This chapter is really losing me. Both the racism and exoticism when music and instruments are described but also overall. This is so different from the rest of the book and I want to get back to the plot.

I absolutely love the cat in this book.

Then she hears Pearl's miaow.

The sound is coming from the garden, but Pearl is an inside cat. She is more vicious than she lets on, and when they used to let her outside at night, she would hunt possums and mice and rats, bringing them home, half-dead and writhing, to play with in the laundry. Heloise hopes Pearl hasn't escaped. It could only be through the bathroom window - all the others have bars across them that Pearl can't squeeze through. She is a well-rounded cat, they feed her too much. She loves to eat, and they spoil her, to spoil themselves, and for peace and quiet. Pearl likes to talk, and she says a lot when she is hungry. She couldn't be outside, surely. She is too fat, and there is no salmon in gravy out there, or pork-flavoured tidbits.

• from page 16

As someone who is obsessed with possums I’m going to ignore the fact that precious Pearl would hunt them. It’s only natural, of course, but I’d rather not think about it lol Pearl reminds me so much of my own cat: an indoor cat but an excellent hunter, chonky but somehow able to liquefy herself, talkative, spoiled. It doesn’t say so in this section, but Pearl is gray (or at least has gray paws) and my cat is gray; Pearl likes to drink the residual water after her humans get out of the shower (p20) and my cat loves any source of water in the house too. While my cat has lost some weight due to getting older, she used to be a big ole potato like Pearl 😻

I've never read nor heard of this book prior to the readalong; however, my first thoughts are that he almost seems as though he is an outsider explaining a story, rather than one who is living it. His mannerisms and the way he speaks gives a sense of numbness to the reader (if that makes sense). The way he describes people and events as if he doesn't care about what happens or will happen makes me suspect that he may become either A. an unreliable narrator because of this detachment or B. someone who recognizes the true value of emotions. I do find his mentality interesting with the title of the story though because that is exactly what he is - a stranger in this world he's living.