My 500 Weeks

My 500 Weeks posts are a place for me to think about who I am and what I treasure and to share a little of that thinking with others.

I recently finished reading Shelby Van Pelt’s novel Remarkably Bright Creatures.  I generally prefer reading nonfiction to reading fiction these days, but this piece of fiction was well-written and a pleasure to read.  The first “chapter” is a kind of diary entry offered by the giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus who laments his captivity at the Sowell Bay Aquarium.  Thereafter it becomes a kind of dialogue between the octopus and the main human character, Tova Sullivan, the nighttime cleaning woman at the aquarium.  The story expands to include other characters (humans) who figure in a kind of mystery eventually solved by the end of the book. I see that there is now a film version of the book starring Sally Field as Tova. I usually prefer reading the book versions of popular stories more than seeing the movies based on them, but if you are interested, here is a trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b14IFe4an5k