Author Marta Ketro (this exquisite-sounding pseudonym is only an anagram of the familiar “subway map”) comes from the Internet: for more than two years, her blog has been read by more than seven thousand people every day.
But unlike most disembodied network characters, Martha has not only a nickname, “nickname”, but also a face, and a very real biography, and a husband, and a cat, and friends, and real, “paper” publications … Balancing with ballet ease on border of two worlds – virtual and real, in her texts she combines the best features of both: relaxedness with observation, reckless frankness – with education, intelligence and accuracy in details. The essays and mini-novellas that make up the current – third in a row – book by Marta Ketro are united under the subtitle “manuals” – instructions. Indeed, most of the texts in the collection “Women and Cats, Men and Cats” contain recommendations, for the most part concerning the relationship between the sexes. Martha writes about the meaning of the signs that men and women send each other, about how simple mistakes can distort the most idyllic romance, and about the a priori love and self-respect that should underlie any relationship. Playing with stereotypes, mocking and bringing recognizable situations to the point of absurdity, Marta Ketro makes you think about things that seemed obvious.
AST, 218 p.