I had planned to skip Rebecca West’s ‘Why my Mother was Frightened of Cats.’ Essays about mothers are normally too mawkish; combine mothers and cats and nausea is inevitable.
The brilliance and humour of the three previous essays from The Essential Rebecca West carried me forward to, “He [Lord Roberts] would turn and run if a cat walked towards him on the parade-ground; and I quite realised that if Lord Roberts could not control this terror my mother could not be expected to do better. So there was no ill-feeling between us.’ Without shame or embarrassment, I admit I finished this essay about mothers and cats. It is a first.
Geoff Dyer shoved me toward West, with the gentle encouragement of Emily at Evening All Afternoon and pages turned.
Time's Flow Stemmed 
>I know what you're saying. I too was surprised to not only finish but very much enjoy this essay. Also, the opening one about Chaplin and Pirandello, with the "Your horse is pregnant" scene? Priceless!
>I liked even more than West only referred to Chaplin as The Film Star. Except for the compiler's footnote, that detail would be lost to us.