Review: “Lily and the Octopus” by Steven Rowley

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🦴 If you are a dog lover, with 2 caveatsL 1) you have a Costco pallet of Kleenex, and 2) you are ok with magical realism…lots of it. 

But while it hovers around that special bond with dogs, Rowley also taps into knowing oneself, recognizing one’s self worth in a relationship, and big picture relationship topics (e.g. grief, being alone) using the dog relationship as the foundation. 

Much like “Remarkably Bright Creatures” please listen to LATO as an audiobook bc the narrator is fantastic. He goes in 110%. His Shirley McClain in “Terms of Endearment” and Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth I” had me rolling on the floor. 

🦴Why the dog relationship is so pure: it is entirely judgement-free.

🚨 🚨 🚨SPOILER 🚨 🚨 🚨

🦴 It’s clear that Lily doesn’t talk at all. She represents the delusions of a very lonely man and how far he has withdrawn from life: from family and friends, and ordinary social activities. He’s retreated to the point that he’s got Monopoly night with his dog, movie night with her, and pizza night, and so on.

Naturally, the cancer that arrives to take Lily away also talks. The octopus is evil but it pushes Ted to summon the energy to get out of his post-breakup stupor and fight back. The love and companionship of Lily are very real, but the layers of human attributes Ted has added to mask his desperate loneliness since his breakup with James, are not.

🚨END SPOILER🚨

🦴 We accompany Ted on his grief journey that actually begins the loss itself. The words ring true.

🦴 We can all stand to learn so much from our dogs in terms of living in the present and not holding on to things that don’t serve us.

🦴 I think many of us do this. We only know our parents as that: our responsible, adult parents. We never consider they may have past troubles of their own that might be even greater than ours because ours is happening to us. Our relationships with our parents would likely benefit if we bear in mind that they are as human and prone to mistakes as the next person, and accord them the grace we’d like accorded to ourselves.

🦴 Other books I’ve read by Steven Rowley.