The woman and the cat

In this novel, the Kuwaiti novelist "Laila Al-Othman" tells us a special story, based on a psychological approach, through which she explores the repressed unconsciousness of her characters. The behaviors of the characters in this novel, including cruelty and deliberate injustice, resulted from bitter experiences that happened to them during their lives, especially the young man Salem, the domineering aunt, the submissive father, and the oppressed wife; through these groups, the novelist excelled in weaving a social story with a police-oriented twist wrapped in mystery. At the beginning of the novel, the young man "Salem," the prisoner accused of killing his wife "Hessa," appears, and the accused denies this, but the lawyer reminds him of the need to prove the opposite to establish his innocence. Salem then collapses psychologically and begins hitting the wall. He does not only deny but also asks the lawyer to bring his aunt so he can kill her, as he believes she is the one who killed Hessa, just as she killed her beautiful cat Dana. "I didn't kill her. I didn't kill the cat Dana. My aunt is the one who did it. She is the killer." As the hero's health deteriorates, the lawyer requests to transfer him from prison to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. There, in the hospital, Salem begins recalling the events that shook his life at the hands of his aunt. He describes his father: "He was always mute, lacking willpower. I was deprived of him and even deprived of visiting my mother, whose tenderness was never absent. My father never dared to take me to visit her." Here, we notice that the novelist has adopted symbolic language as a means, as she combines different discourses. We discover in the course of the novel an intertwining of romantic and realistic discourse, using artistic flashbacks, associative style, as well as confessional and inner dialogue techniques. She also pays attention to dreams in the style of romantics or symbolists. Then, the events in the novel continue until the hero marries "Hessa," whom his aunt chose to be a obedient wife to him and herself, with much boldness describing the details of their relationship and romantic love. The hero remained committed to his wife despite his aunt and father's request to divorce her due to her "pregnancy," which raised suspicions within the family and ultimately led to her murder at the end of the novel. But who killed "Hessa"? We will discover that together in this exciting novel, with its detailed, meaningful, and defending the woman's right in our Eastern societies, which view family honor as a primary criterion in evaluating women, just like the story of "Hessa," the innocent girl who didn't know how she got pregnant or why she was killed. An open question in the novel, but incomplete, which is what distinguishes Laila Al-Othman's works. The novel, in general, is about seeking risks. Did the novelist succeed in pinpointing the wound? And was she able to delve into the dark and frightening depths of the human soul, which only a brave writer like "Laila Al-Othman" dares to explore? Certainly yes, the novelist excelled as she does in all her previous works.