Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: A review

Marcellus McSquiddles - a name to reckon with. And it belongs to a creature to reckon with, a giant Pacific octopus who is one of the main characters and the narrator in Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures. What a pleasure it was to get to know Marcellus and what a pleasure this book was to read.

Marcellus is a captive in the Puget Sound Sowell Bay Aquarium and he may be a genius among octopuses. (Or maybe he's just average; who knows?) He is clever enough to squeeze out of his tank in the aquarium and go roaming for a late-night snack. He is also sensitive enough to maintain a kind of relationship with the 70-year-old woman who cleans the space at night. Tova Sullivan is recently widowed and has volunteered as a cleaner at the aquarium. As she goes about her duties, she carries on a "conversation" with Marcellus who is her favorite.

Tova likes things to be just so, a place for everything and everything in its place. She is an assiduous cleaner. Her life has not been an altogether happy one. In addition to the recent death of her husband, thirty years before she had suffered the death of her 18-year-old son, Erik. Erik's body had been found at the bottom of a lake and his death was ruled a suicide but Tova has never believed that verdict.

A second line of the narrative follows a thirty-year-old garage rocker and odd jobber named Cameron. His mother had left him with her sister in a California trailer park when he was nine years old. She left him there and never returned. His life since has been one failure after another. In the hope of turning things around, he decides to search for his father in Sowell Bay and try to get money from him.

Cameron's story is compelling in its way. He finds a job at the aquarium where he meets Tova, and at this point in the story I began to suspect how it might end, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment of it.

More compelling for me though was Tova's story. She is one determined woman. She has decided that it is time to check herself into a nursing home and she proceeds with getting rid of her belongings and selling her house, the house that her father built. She has no children or grandchildren and, although she has devoted friends, she knows she must make decisions about her future herself. She is resolved that she will not allow herself to be a burden to others. She has an ally in Marcellus who it turns out may be able to help her resolve one of the mysteries of her life.

I have nothing negative to say about this book. I found the narrative thoroughly engaging as Van Pelt crisply moved her story along with no wasted asides. In fact, when I first finished reading the book, I had rated it as a 4-star read. But that was several days ago and on reflection, I believe it is worthy of a 5-star rating, my first one of 2022. And of all the characters I have met in books this year, Marcellus and Tova are definitely my favorite couple!

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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