The Three Lives of Cate Kay

When both Kim and Sarah raved out how they loved The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan, I put it on hold at the library. When it came in on a Saturday morning when I was feeling sort of crummy, I immediately started reading it instead of reading my super long, super unappealing book club book (which I would have DNFed if it weren't the fact that it's my book club book). Did I then sit on the couch and read it in a few hours? I DID.

Cate Kay is a bestselling novelist. But no one knows who she is. Cate Kay is a pseudonym. She doesn't do interviews or book tours. But now she's going to publish a memoir and the truth about who Cate Kay is will soon be revealed to everyone.

I'm going to be 100% honest here. There are some tropes in this book that should have made me dislike it. There's so much miscommunication. There's some information a simple Google search could have helped with in solving that miscommunication. There are so many POVs and sometimes we're only with a character for two or three pages. There are a lot of times when people complain about how hard it is to be rich and famous, which is a guarantee eyeroll from me. 

But, look, no. I loved this book. I loved these characters. I loved the two-page chapter on Carl Kosakowski and think the book would be worse off without it. I loved the miscommunication. Sure, your cell number was changed without you being aware of it. Crazy managers, amirite? Sure, someone is going to FLY TO SEE SOMEONE and when they are not there, they'll just FLY BACK without trying to find them in any alternate way. GUESS WHAT? I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO THESE CRITICISMS. 

I loved being in this world and I loved this book. 5/5 stars

The only note is that someone should have had a dog. Or a talking cat. 

Lines of note:

...morality is a delicate ecosystem. (page 255)

There is no ethical consumption in a capitalistic society. I am struggling more and more as the days pass, friends. 

Kathryn, it's not surprising that it's your name at the start and end of this book. You're the most important thing in my world (+Ragnar, of course). We're the best story of all. (from the Acknowledgments, page 294)

If you aren't reading the author's acknowledgements, you miss the sweetest things. Ragnar is their dog. I want to know their love story now. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

A vintage 1988 NCAA championship tee, black mesh trucker hat worn backward. (page 40)

That first night she was wearing a knee-length winter coat, cream sweater underneath, knit hat, just effortless smoking her imaginary cigarette. (page 80)

"I'll wear a baseball hat and we'll be super low-key." (page 187)

I wore my Kansas Jayhawks hat with the brim bent around my eyes. Actors always go out with Dodgers or Yankees hats. It makes me laugh. As soon as anyone sees someone with one of those caps in LA the first thing they do is look closer like, Wait, which famous person is that? But a Jayhawks hat? Nobody is double-taking a team from the Midwest. (page 188-189)

I was trying to keep my eyes hidden under my hat. (page 189)

The only hat I owned was this hideous army-green safari thing with a pull cord under the chin, a necessary purchase for a hike two years prior. On the coolness scale it was a zero. But it provided two layers of protection: the hat itself was a disguise, and its ugliness provided additional motivation to keep myself hidden from Ryan while wearing it. Imagine the story we'd have to tell people: "The reeds were blowing in the breeze when I saw her across the water wearing a bucket hat..." (page 235)

Carl, my man, had on a John Deere trucker hat that seemed a size too small...(page 267)

...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pleased that Carl - post-office-working, John Deere-trucker-hat-wearing Carl - knew me and my books. (page 267)