BBC slide show narrated by Tracy...">
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Remarkable Creatures

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Remarkable Creatures doesn't have the same sure hand or intricately drawn world as Girl with a Pearl Earring, but Chevalier's own curiosity in her subject can not be doubted as you can see in this Tracy Chevalier ">BBC slide show narrated by Tracy Chevalier and this Barnes and Noble Studio beach walk interview with on Tracy Chevalier (Thanks, Eric, for sending me this link, wonderful interview). Tova is a seventy year old widow who lost her son many years ago and spends her nights cleaning the local aquarium. Marcellus is an octopus nearing the end of his life. He is a Remarkably Bright Creature. One night he and Tova forge a bond. Cameron is a wayward young man floating from job to job and lamenting that his mother abandoned him when he was young and never told him who his father was. When he finds a clue that leads to a man in Washington state, Cameron leaves California to go confront him. The other night we watched Ammonite which I understood to be the film of the book. I thought it was a travesty of both the book and of Mary Anning’s life. I now know that it’s not based on the book which is a relief but also sad because it’s unlikely that a movie will be made of the book.

Anyway, spurned by the move to Lyme Regis, Elizabeth becomes a fossil collector, too, and befriends Mary. I don't read a lot of historical fiction. I enjoy reading history enough that I worry about getting the historical fiction confused with the history. But there is a benefit: historical fiction can open my eyes, get me interested in a time, the people and events, of which I previously knew little. There is much to appreciate in Remarkable Creatures. You get to observe and consider the lives of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, their friendship, their support for one another, their jealousy of one another. You learn what an amazing person Mary Anning was with no formal education, the expertise she develops in paleontology and the reputation she earns. She and Elizabeth accomplish what they do in the face of the gender discrimination of the time that forces women into very limited, tightly defined roles and ignores them as capable of contributing intellectually. The class barriers are just as big a problem. Mary Anning, being a woman that is part of a poor, barely surviving family faces all these challenges. Mary’s mother, Molly, is in her own right just as unique and strong as her daughter. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Other main characters are Ethan, a Scotsman who owns the local grocery story, and has a romantic interest in Tova, although she doesn’t see it. A young man named Cameron comes to Sowell Bay in search of his father. He finds a job in the grocery store working for Ethan. The chapters alternate between these three characters, and while I enjoyed all three, I wanted more of Marcellus. He is a grumpy old man with a heart of gold. The best part is we are privy to his witty and snarky thoughts, usually about humans. Snark gets me every time.

I ultimately didn't love the storytelling as much as I had hoped to. I'm honstly not sure whether my existing affinity for the subjects made me like the story more than I would have done otherwise, or whether I had such expectations I couldn't help but be disappointed. I do think Chevalier is a capable storyteller, and I thought she handled the split narratives (the story is told alternately from Elizabeth's perspective, then Mary's) remarkably well. It's really a fascinating story if you are interested in the progression of people's understanding of dinosaurs and/or the conflicts between established religious beliefs and new scientific discoveries. I loved this story, the people, Marcellus, and gray Cat. The audiobook narration could not be better. Marin Ireland does her usual wonderful job while Michael Urie IS Marcellus. He's now a new favorite narrator of mine. I avoid animal stories because I usually can't handle things happening to animals but this is a story about giving life to both animals and humans and that giving makes future loss bearable. Even if we can't keep something forever, we don't want to miss the chance of the time we can spend with those we can love and cherish. If the aquarium’s oldest employee, a 70 year old cleaning lady, named Tova Sullivan hadn’t found him right as the 18 minutes he could survive outside of water was just about up, day 1,300 may have been his last. After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova loves cleaning the floors, windows, tanks, and the seal statue that was a favorite of her son when he was little. For Tova, this job is a life saver, a place for her to be, a place she is needed, welcomed, and cherished by the aquarium manager. And then something very special happens! Tova meets curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. She already knew Marcellus, just as she knew all the other aquarium creatures but she never KNEW him before she and Marcellus meet face to face in an amazing way. Thus begins a lifelong friendship between Tova and Marcellus. Lifelong considering the short length of life that Marcellus has left since he is at the end of his four year lifespan.There have been lots of books between dogs and cats forming impressive bonds with humans. But this is the first that involves an octopus and a human. Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus. And he’s nearing the end of his expected life span. Tova is the seventy year old woman that cleans the aquarium where Marcellus is a prisoner, as he sees it. She’s a widow and her 18 year old son went missing decades earlier. The author failed to give enough reasons for me to care about any of the characters. They all felt predictable and halfhearted.

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