Book review - The Octopus and I, reviewed by Louise Ward

The Octopus and I by Erin Hortle

The Octopus and I – Erin Hortle (Allen & Unwin, $32.99)

Lucy lives with her boyfriend Jem, on the Tasman Peninsula. Recovering from breast cancer, she has become friends with two older women, Poppy and Flo, who gather and preserve the octopuses that are currently swamping the coast, trying to find safe havens to lay their eggs.

Lucy is fascinated by Poppy's preserving skills, and the cultural heritage inherent in her relationship with the creatures. She is also still psychologically healing from the news that her cancer was also in her womb and that she is now infertile.

Lucy develops an affinity for the octopuses, feeling their stories as they wrap tentacles around her in the water.

When she tries to rescue a creature as it attempts to cross a road dividing the ocean she is hit by a car, and her recovery is halted.

A theme in the novel is Lucy's female identity, bound up with that of the octopuses.

During her reconstruction surgery she decided her breasts should be larger than before, almost out of curiosity. She is then sickened by how they come to define her, how they draw the stares of the small community in which she lives and how they matter to her boyfriend. After she is hit by the car she must undergo another reconstruction … or not. It is in this choice that she must decide who she is.

The novel investigates the psychology of healing, of how certain things can define us if we let them and how we are viewed.

Lucy's friendship with Flo revolves around their search for a respite from loneliness and loss. Flo's son Harry, recently back from the mines in Australia and himself searching for something, provides an alternative way of looking at the peninsula for Lucy, and the possibility of a different future to that she had assumed.

The Octopus and I is lovely in its descriptions of the natural world in this area, some chapters written from the viewpoint of its wildlife. It is a dramatic romance, a story of self-discovery and friendship, the forks in the road that once taken, mean no going back.

An engaging, unusual and thoughtful read.