Among the great cats of fiction, we have to include the cat in Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. She enters the novel in it's final quarter, after having been nearly burned to death in a trashcan. Almost immediately, Eleanor sees herself in the cat: both know their own mind and scorn the conventions of polite society -- and she names the cat Glen, a tribute to her favorite vodka.

As far as cats in literature, Glen is one of my favorites. 

Within only a few pages of Glen's entry into the narrative, Eleanor is entirely smitten. She observes:

"The thing about Glen is that, despite her offhand manner, she loves me. I know she's only a cat. But it's still love; animals, people. It's unconditional, and it's both the easiest and the hardest thing in the world."

So many things are like that--both easy and hard, both a duty and a privilege, something to work at yet entirely natural. The book gives nuanced treatment to the tension in these dualities. 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the first novel the author published, and I hope she'll publish more and include a cat in each of them.