Fabulous Fiction Firsts #808

Tue, 06/14/2022 - 8:12pm by muffy

Remarkably Bright Creatures * * * by poet and short-story writer Shelby Van Pelt (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is “an irresistibly wonderful, warm, funny, heartbreaking first novel…” (Library Journal)

70 year-old Tova Sullivan works the night shift at Puget Sound's Sowell Bay Aquarium cleaning. Recently widowed and still grieving the disappearance of her son Erik 30 years ago, the quiet, solitary work suits her. Then she crosses path (literally) and saves Marcellus, the aged giant Pacific octopus: a 60 lbs, three-hearts, nine-brains escape artist, hopelessly tangled up during one of his midnight snack runs, and so begins an unlikely friendship.

Meanwhile in Modesto, CA, de-banded rock musician and unemployed handyman Cam(eron) Cassmore finds a Sowell High school class ring and a photograph among his mother’s possessions, and heads to Sowell to confront the father he never knew. Broke and homeless, Cam talks his way into being Tova’s temporary replacement while she is sidelined by a work related injury. As Tova takes Cam under her wings over the cleaning routine, it is the ever observant Marcellus who sees the obvious, and it will take every trick up his eight-tentacled sleeves to unearth the truth for Tova and Cam before time runs out. 

“As Van Pelt’s zippy, fun-to-follow prose engages at every turn, readers will find themselves rooting for the many characters, hoping that they’ll find whatever it is they seek. Each character is profoundly human, with flaws and eccentricities crafted with care. But what makes Van Pelt’s novel most charming and joyful is the tender friendship between species, and the ways Tova and Marcellus make each other ever more remarkable and bright.” (BookPage)

For fans of My Octopus Teacher. winner of the 93rd Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature.  Watch a trailer.

 * * * = 3 starred reviews