Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 2022. Harper Collins. 360 pp.
This debut novel is light and sweet: not too light (it carries a message) and not saccharin sweet–but an easy read. Its plot, though interesting, depends on a series of unlikely and not very believable coincidences. The focus of the plot has to do with an octopus who relates his thoughts to us, and who manages to be an active participant in human goings-on despite living in an aquarium tank.
First, we meet Tova, a 70-year-old widow whose son Erik has mysteriously drowned many years before. Tova works at the aquarium and establishes a relationship with a ne’er-do-well young man, Cameron, whose mother deserted him at birth and who has been raised by his aunt, whom he loves but also takes advantage of. Fortunately, he has a conscience. He is hired to clean the tanks in the aquarium when Tova is injured, and in getting to know her undergoes a change for the better.
We meet a series of other characters: Ethan, a storekeeper who is not so secretly in love with Tova; Jeanne, the benevolent aunt who has raised Cam; Avery, Cam’s latest girlfriend; and various others in minor roles. With the help of the octopus Marcellus, the mystery of Ethan’s death is solved in a most robust way, thanks to the happiest of happy endings. A bit too good to be true, but of course the entire plot requires a “suspension of disbelief,” to quote the poet Coleridge (until I checked, I thought it was Keats!).
If you need a break from more serious stuff and enjoy a soothing tale (as we all do from time to time), this book is for you. There will be a Zoom discussion with the author in September; see the library website for details.