Remarkable Creatures

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In this remarkable debut based on actual events, as a team of male scholars compiles the first Oxford English Dictionary, the daughter of one of them decides to collect the "objectionable" words they omit. I wish I had read this book, or learned something about Mary Anning, before I went to London. I saw her picture and the fossils she discovered at the Natural History Museum in London without ever realizing what a remarkable accomplishment it was. She was a poor, uneducated, working class girl whose family survived by selling "curies" (curiosities), small fossils found on the beach in Lyme Regis. She finds what she considers crocodiles with fins, but are really the first pterodactyl and ichthyosaurus discovered. If these had been uncovered by an educated or upper class man, he would have enjoyed fame and fortune. But, unmarried women in the early 1800s had little voice and no respect. Set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, with a lively cast of characters (human and cephalopod), engaging and well-paced narrative and a perfect combination of emotion, humor, wit and wisdom (suspend disbelief and you will enjoy the story!), Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures is a beautiful story that will tug at your heartstrings and leave you with a lump in your throat and a smile on your face. That woman, of course, is Charlotte Murchison, who many believe greatly influenced her husband’s research. It was Murchison who studied mineralogy and encouraged her husband, who was an army officer and then a fox hunter, to pursue scientific endeavors. Kölbl-Ebert wrote that Murchison later said: “It was during the years 1818-22 … that my wife was always striving to interest me in something more intellectual than the case, and began to teach herself mineralogy and conchology.” he cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis, in Dorset on the south coast of England, are fertile hunting grounds for creatures who lived in what were equatorial seas in the early Jurassic period, around 190 million years ago. Here is a look at some of the fossil types Mary Anning discovers in Remarkable Creatures:

We have 10 read-alikes for Remarkable Creatures, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member. It didn’t hurt that the book is set in my hood, a town near Seattle. I had to laugh—Tova doesn’t like to drive on freeways anymore. And she had to head to Bellingham, a (real) town two hours away. I’m the same age and I won’t drive on freeways anymore, either—and a friend moving to Bellingham was a disaster for me because I couldn’t drive to visit her. I loved that little similarity—funny that it was the very same town! Although Tova and I had age and a fear of freeways in common, I did not identify with her need to clean. But I can definitely see myself liking an octopus like she did. The other night we watched Ammonite which I understood to be the film of the book. I thought it was a travesty of both the book and of Mary Anning’s life. I now know that it’s not based on the book which is a relief but also sad because it’s unlikely that a movie will be made of the book. There are times when the stiff fabric of Chevalier’s research shows through the delicate stitches of plot and character, but she creates a convincing picture of the period. Most impressive are the portraits of individual women like Violet’s mother, made bitter and furious by grief, who either pursue their freedom in small acts of disobedience, or quietly stitch their loss into comfort and beauty for generations to come, leaving no mark or memorial other than a neat set of initials sewn into a cushion.

The book is not just an intresting feature about the ideas about the world's creation and our origins in that time, but it is about friendship between two very diffrent women and how they fight for recognition in a scientific world, dominated by men. Apart from that, if anybody is intrested in fossils and geology, this is a nice way to start.

When I heard the premise of this book, I imagined an octopus POV would be used as the jumping point for reflections on captivity, "otherness", different forms of intelligence, or respect of nature... sadly I found none of that here. Remarkable Creatures doesn't have the same sure hand or intricately drawn world as Girl with a Pearl Earring, but Chevalier's own curiosity in her subject can not be doubted as you can see in this Tracy Chevalier ">BBC slide show narrated by Tracy Chevalier and this Barnes and Noble Studio beach walk interview with on Tracy Chevalier (Thanks, Eric, for sending me this link, wonderful interview).

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To me, looking for curies [ fossils] is like looking for a four-leaf clover: It’s not how hard you look, but how something will appear different. Marcellus IS the star in the way that a “supporting actor” often steals the show! He is the thread that binds the three narratives together despite having the fewest chapters.

The story is also about a guy named Cameron, who is searching for his dad. The chapters alternate between him, Tova, and Marcellus. I loved Marcellus’s chapters the best. His observations about humans are a riot (like, why do they call him a “smart cookie”?). His chapters are short and I always wanted more; it was a jolt to move to a realistic story all of the sudden and it was always a slight comedown. God apart, the conventions shaken by these women, simply by who they are and what they are interested in, are the even more rigid ones of class and gender. Giant marine reptiles are not the only remarkable creatures in this book. Chevalier turns a warming spotlight on a friendship cemented by shared obsession and mutual respect across profound class fissures; a friendship between two women who were indirectly responsible for several male careers and ultimately (partially, very indirectly) for Darwin's insights. She also gives it what Darwin himself considered mandatory in a novel, a happy ending - or happy enough.

On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns that she has a unique gift: “the eye” to spot fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man. I wish that Remarkable Creatures were, frankly, a little more remarkable. Except for just a few moments of excitement and tension... the plot moves like a careful geologist on the beach, slow and steady, turning over lots of the same things again and again. Yes, it can be rewarding, but you have to be patient and willing to look hard. I realize that I like more edge, which I thought I would get, of course, with an octopus as a main character. The deal is, it’s realistic fiction with a dab of magical realism. It sort of reminds me of Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, which I loved. In Wilson’s book, we have a realistic story line, but it also happens to have kids who explode. Here, we also have a realistic story line, but it’s an octopus that’s the weird part. Marcellus reminds me a little of cool Charlotte the spider in the kids’ book, Charlotte's Web.