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Community Corner

Have you read The Cat Lady of Highland Park?

In a new memoir, former Eastwood Avenue resident Robert Blaine Putman writes about his crazy life there with an eccentric aunt, her immature husband, and their 35 cats. In 178 quickly read pages, the book chronicles his arrival at age 13 through burying his aunt’s ashes.

Readers will encounter crazy scenes such as his coming home from school to find his aunt taking an axe to the kitchen, chasing an escaped cat named Fuzzy Butt through the neighborhood, his aunt’s explosive rage when he sets free a stray cat and how his aunt and uncle lost two homes through delusional decisions. They will learn what drove the author's aunt to rescue all those cats, look inside the complex love-control relationship between the author and his aunt, and watch this attractive, talented woman slide from eccentricity into delusion and ultimately dementia.

As any good memoir, The Cat Lady… draws you into its strange new world, where you’ll find yourself pondering questions about your own relationships. You’ll recognize familiar Highland Park settings and other northwest suburban locales. Readers have called the book “Enthralling,” “Humorous,” “Potent,” and “A great writing voice.”

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Mr. Putman, a graduate of the Fiction Writer’s Workshop program at the University of Iowa, has published hundreds of articles and stories in numerous magazines and edited several dozen books. His book is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. You can find a copy in the Highland Park Library.
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