I am much more of a cat person than a dog person, but Lloyd, the dog in this novel, is very endearing. Rocky, his new human, found him with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Both Lloyd and Rocky are grieving. Lloyd lost his previous human companion, and Rocky, aged 38, recently lost her 42-year-old husband to a heart attack. No kids to worry about, so Rocky quits her job as a psychologist and goes to live on a tiny island off the coast of Maine, where she takes a part-time job as an animal warden.
If it were me, going to such an isolated place when I was grieving a loss would be the absolute worst thing I could do, but everyone deals with grief in their own way. Rocky meets Lloyd, adopts a cat (which would help the grieving process) and meets Tess, a retired physical therapist who has this really amazing condition called synethesia.
Synethesia is a neurological phenomenon "in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway" (this according to Wikipedia). In all my studies of psychology, I had never heard of this. Tess sees letters and numbers as inherently colored. She also saw parts of the body as having their own colors, and days of the week had their own color and shape (Tuesday was a blue cube to her, while Wednesday was a red globe). Now that I know about synesthesia, I am jealous because I don't have it.
Rocky also meets Melissa, an anorexic teenager. Interestingly, though Rocky had been a psychologist at a counseling center on a university campus, this was not one of her areas of specialty, though she immediately knew the girl had it. Melissa also bonds to the dog. The dog, honestly, should have had his own license to practice therapy. He just seemed to have such a healing effect on those around him.
It seems to be characteristic of psychologists to personify the animals they keep as pets. Rocky had been a psychologist, and the author also is. I am a school psychologist, and it has been suggested to me more than once that I ascribe human characteristics to my cats. But, they are like family to me, in the same way that Lloyd becomes part of Rocky's new little family.
This is a wonderful novel about dealing with loss and moving on. There is also some mystery in it, as Rocky tries to solve the mystery of Lloyd's accident. So there is something for everyone--people who like stories with character development, mysteries, and animals.
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3 comments:
In college I knew someone who had that! She saw letters as different colors, and named her daughter Hannah because the n's were red and the a's and h's were white, and her name turned pink, and she liked that! It was the wife a music grad student. I've forgotten thier names, but remember the story!
PS, I'm jealous too. Oh, and I guess one of the famous 20th century composers had it, but right now I've forgotten which one.
How cool that you knew someone who had that. I am trying to remember if they mentioned anyone famous who had it in the book I read, but right now I can't remember.
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