Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Remarkably Bright Creatures

I loved Remarkably Bright Creatures. Some consider the main character to be Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus in an aquarium in Washington state. He was an important character, but not the main character. And while I did learn a good amount about giant Pacific octopuses, this was not a book about them.

Tova has been working as a cleaner at the aquarium for years. Keeping busy after the mysterious death of her son has always been important. She has her Knit Wit friends but otherwise keeps to herself. Somehow, she develops a relationship with Marcellus. And perhaps he holds the key to figuring out what happened to Tova's son.

Cameron is a young man dealing with one crappy thing after another and he's going to use his time of unemployment to find out a little more about his past. He believes that he might be able to learn more about his mother and find his father if he travels to Washington where her mother went to high school and where he believes he was conceived. 

The audiobook is narrated alternatively by Tova, Marcellus and Cameron. The voices of each were just perfect. The pace of the novel was wonderful. I enjoyed every minute. 

And then... I was mesmerized when I went to the Florida Aquarium a week or so after finishing the novel and spent a good amount of my time staring at their giant Pacific octopus. If only I could have gotten a better photograph of her. The reflections, the light (or lack of light), the water, the glass all contributed to making this a very hard photograph to capture. Watching her gave me such pleasure and made me think of Marcellus. How did she wind up in the aquarium? Did she long to be out of the aquarium and in the wild?




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