This is a pleasing, fun book that has an interesting history. According to the NYT, sales of it began to pick up well after it was published in May 2022. For the Christmas season buying of 2023 more people were asking for “the book with the octopus.” It seems that enthusiastic word-of-mouth and bookseller recommendations changed the trajectory of the sales.
The characters include an octopus who gives us the scoop on the human characters, including what they do not know about themselves. And being an octopus, Marcellus regularly escapes his enclosure at the aquarium in a small town near Seattle. He has befriended Tova, the 70-year-old woman who cleans there. Tova doesn’t really need the job, but after her husband died, she did need the activity and Tova does love to clean. The third character is Cameron, a 30-year-old fellow whose friends are not surprised when he calls at 11:00 pm needing a place to crash. The story that unfolds describing the unexpected connection of Tova and Cameron is told from the points of view of each of the three.
You must suspend belief, but once you hear the voice of Marcellus, you have either abandoned the book or you’ve signed on to the fantasy. Two additional characters in the mix are the town’s shopkeeper Ethan who believes everyone should know everyone else’s business and he’s there to make that happen in his Scottish brogue. The other is Avery, a tough, smart single mother who owns a surf shop and who is charmed by the hapless Cameron.
It’s an interesting phenomenon that some books seem to catch on through readers’ enthusiasm. My own assessment of this one is that while I enjoyed it and was pleased to listen to a book featuring a 70-year-old woman, I can’t say I would be certain that others would like it. I should add that several factors have made me grateful for the distraction of this book: the incomprehensible political situation and the unusual heatwave. A book with no venal characters and a trajectory that is pleasant is welcome.
Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures, Ecco, 2022, 360 pages (I listened to the audiobook). Available in the public library.