Review: Lily and the Octopus

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review is also found on Goodreads! :)
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Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
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I almost didn't finish this book. Not because I was heartbroken from what was happening to Lily, but because Ted's fixation with the octopus and his bizarre (crazy?) interaction with it was just bewildering. Let me be blunt: the magical realism put me off. I am not a fan of it in books. For me, magical realism is better translated in movies rather than in my mediocre imagination. However, the end (Infinity) brought me to tears. It was written in the most fragile way. That was the only part of the book where I actually felt the "heart" of it, without the confusing imagery and delusions.

I understand that Ted handled (um, spoiler?) Lily dying in a very different way, as with how each of us handle dying in unique different ways. Ted is a lonely, depressed man whose greatest love is Lily, after all. I know this response towards Lily's sickness is common to other people, but translating it to page the way Rowley did was complicated, and distracted me from the raw emotions that make up Ted and Lily's relationship. I would have loved reading those emotions in a way unbridled and unadorned with scenes that did nothing but throw me off from the teary-eyed feels that had been built-up by previous chapters.

The book is written with utmost adoration and love for Lily--that is evident from start to finish. However, I think it focused more on how messy Ted's life was. It felt lacking. I would've been pulled deeper into their relationship if it weren't for that few pages of adventure in the Fishful Thinking; it almost made me quit reading it. Maybe other people were able to peel the layers off of that part of the story the way Rowley intended, but I just couldn't.

Rowley writes beautifully, undeniably so. Below are lines I found so beautifully constructed, it resonated. But the way Lily's story was written was just not enough to bring out the intense waterworks I was expecting. I know this may sound really rude, but I wanted more of Lily's story and less of Ted's (and definitely less of that stupid doggone octopus).

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"I think of how dogs are witnesses. How they are present for our most private moments, how they are there when we think of ourselves as alone. They witness our quarrels, our tears, our struggles, our fears, and all of our secret behaviors that we have to hide from our fellow humans. They witness without judgment....It is said that if dogs could tell us all they have seen, it would magically stitch together all the gaps in our lives."

"There is no one equal to a mother."

"Because dogs live in the present. Because dogs don't hold grudges. Because dogs let go of all of their anger daily, hourly, and never let it fester. They absolve and forgive with each passing minute."

"If you spend your entire life trying to cheat death, there's no time left over to embrace life."

"Dogs have pure souls. Dogs are always good and full of selfless love. They are undiluted vessels of joy who never, ever deserve anything bad that happens to them."

"All dogs go to heaven."

"A heart is judged not by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others."

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