A friend recommended this novel, which I put on hold at the library. Then, when I learned that Remarkably Bright Creatures was being adapted into a film on Netflix, my impatience grew. Accidentally, I dropped into my local book store (you know where this is going) and sighed when I picked it up. True confession, I have a weakness for books with sprayed edges. Purchased in a blink of the eye, cancelled my library hold, and started it that evening.
Tova Sullivan works as a cleaner at an Sowell Bay Aquarium in Washington state. A 70 year old widow, she doesn’t need the money, but does the nightly cleaning job to fill her time, time which seems empty these days. Tova has been widowed for five years, but the loss of her son thirty years ago is what haunts her.
Marcellus is a giant, sixty-pound Pacific octopus who was a juvenile rescue and then installed in a tank at the aquarium. He dreams of being free and back in the ocean — “[he] can still taste the untamed currents of the cold open water.” Turns out, Tova and Marcellus, have an inexplicable bond. She talks to him and wrangles him back into his tank when he escapes to explore at night.
There is another important person in this story and it’s thirty year old Cameron Cassmore, a man who has never really grown up or found his place in life. He’s never met his father and his mother abandoned him when he was nine. Cameron has a lot of growing up to do, he’s been fired from every job, never learned to pick up his own socks, and never been a man anyone could rely on. He’s come to Sowell Bay to try and find his father and learn the secrets of his past, all while hoping what he finds will profit him financially.
Remarkably Bright Creatures tells each of these characters stories separately at first. Marcellus tells his own in short pithy chapters and the wise old octopus turns out to play an unusual detective in discovering answers to Tova and Cameron’s past. Don’t worry, the Marcellus narrations don’t feel at all contrived or anthropomorphized — which usually sets my teeth on edge.
Their connections in the coastal town of Sowell Bay, also play a role the story. Tova has her ‘Knit-Wits’, a group of several other women her age who get together once a month to share their lives. She also has the small grocery store owner, Ethan Mack, who cares for her, but she doesn’t want to get too close to him. Cameron finds a relationship with a local woman and he finally starts to shape himself into something resembling a grown man.
I read this book in just a few days, and while a bit uneven in several places, overall I very much enjoyed this unusual, yet compelling novel.
I’ll quote one of the review blurbs from the book:
“Remarkably Bright Creatures is the rarest of feats: a book that manages to be wry and wise, charming and surprising, and features one of the most intriguing and satisfying characters I’ve encountered in fiction in a very long time—Marcellus the Octopus. I don’t know how Shelby Van Pelt managed to make this uncommon tale sing so beautifully, but sing it does, and I defy you to put it down once you’ve started.” – Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company and The Nest
The film is now streaming on Netflix – but as I just finished the book I may wait a bit to watch it. I don’t want to disrupt the images and characters which linger in my imagination. Although Sally Field cast as Tova, is just as I pictured her.
