“Ted—a gay, single, struggling
writer is stuck: unable to open himself up to intimacy except through the
steadfast companionship of Lily, his elderly dachshund. When Lily’s health is
compromised, Ted vows to save her by any means necessary.”
As Ted explains, “It’s
Thursday the first time I see it. I know that it’s Thursday because Thursday
nights are the nights my dog, Lily, and I set aside to talk about boys we think
are cute.…We get into long debates over the Ryans. I’m a Gosling man, whereas she’s
a Reynolds gal.” The thing Ted notices that fateful Thursday is an octopus
(which, of course, is a metaphor for a tumor). For most of the novel, the thing
over Lily’s eye remains an octopus, because Ted (through writer Steven Rowely)
cannot fathom the reality that he will be losing his faithful companion. Ted’s
friends and his therapist do call him on this, but eventually they know this is
Ted and Lily’s journey. The plot falls into magical realism, which works for a
good percentage of the time. It can be laugh out loud funny as well. For lover’s
of animals, this book may make them weep, and non-animal lovers will continue
to be baffled by how these pets become so in grained in our lives.
Lily and the Octopus is defiantly a quirky book
and while I love quirky tales, I did feel the book could’ve worked more as a
novella than a full blown novel. But I liked Rowely’s The Guncle, so I thought I
give this a whirl. It’s a rather quick read, as well. I'll read his second novel, The Editor, sometime in the coming weeks.
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