Books: Lily and the Octopus By Steven Rowley (2016)

 

“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.