Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

 

I missed Pelt's visit at the local library this summer and afterwards, kept

hearing about her book. Now that I've finished it, I wish I had read it earlier

and met the author.

 

A 30-ish screwedup young man in Modesto California had all but given up when his

aunt, who raised him, handed him a bag of his absent junkie mom's memorabilia. A

few photos and a granduation ring sparked his fantasy of tracing down his

likely father, now a Seattle real-estate tycoon, whom he had never known he had.

 

Meanwhile, in Sowell Bay, Washington, an elderly woman (Tova) "with a curved

back and birdlike bones" was about to retire from the cleaning job at the local

aquarium and found an unlikely friend in Marcellus the giant Pacific octopus who

was smarter than any would give him credit for.

 

So there you have it. A troubled young man, a retiring 70-year-old lady, and an

octopus in a tank near the end of its life are the main characters of the novel.

 

According to a video, Tova was prototyped after Pelt's maternal kind but private

grandma with an unyielding streak of Swedish stoicism. The name of the senior

group, the Knit-Wit, was directly from her life. Ethan, the local store-owner

was created to be the antagonist who was not exactly a villain. All the major

characters were stuck and through friendship they became unstuck, the author

said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL-HtTBnj_w).

 

The plot was simple and suspenses were baked in smoothly. I was thankful for the

tight-knit story line and it was a relatively easy read. I enjoyed the language,

however, very much! I knew most of the words and expressions but it was a thrill

to see vivid idioms carry out figures of rhetoric woven in the flowing text to

build a delightful reading experience.

 

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, my friend, very much for reading and pointing out the errors. I appreciate your help!

[暖冬cool夏]

A simple but great book review. I wish that you had met her in person.

Do you think that it is "woven" here "in the flowing text"? See below the link I found. It reminds me of "shined" and "shone":)
And a typo here for "photos".
But don't get me wrong. I make much more mistakes in my writing, seriously. Just cannot help.:)

https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/weave#:~:text=%E2%97%8A%20Wove%20is%20the%20usual,past%20participle%20for%20sense%203.&text=She%20weaves%20cloth%20on%20her,basket%20(from%20the%20branches).