Customer Reviews

Aquarium

Aquarium is an addictive read that hooked me early on, shocked me as the story progressed and made me wonder whether emotionally wounded individuals can ever truly heal.

The story opens in 1990's Seattle, where 12-year-old Caitlin lives in a tiny apartment with her mother Sheri. Sheri works long hours at the local container port to support the two of them. Together their life has been built on routine. They wake early, have breakfast, and then mom rushes off to work and Caitlin goes to school. She is always the first kid to arrive at school. Mom works overtime whenever possible, and Caitlin goes to the "aquarium" after school until her mother is done with work. This arrangement was cheaper than childcare, but Caitlin doesn't mind, she loves her time spent at the aquarium, and is fascinated by all of the exotic fish she visits with each day. She hopes to study the science of fish when she gets older. When day is done Caitlin and her mother collapse together or talk briefly, unless Sheri has her boyfriend over, and then Caitlin is off to her room.

One day Caitlin befriends an elderly man at the aquarium, the two talk about the fish. Soon every time she goes to the aquarium, the man is there as well and soon they begin to talk about more than just fish. Caitlin likes the man and is unafraid, so when he asks a favor of her, she thinks nothing of telling her mother. No way could Caitlin have anticipated how her mother would react, and the horrific consequences that would result as a result of the situation which has been set in motion. The mother/daughter relationship will forever be changed.

I loved everything about this simple, but well crafted story. Caitlin is such a strong, and brave young girl. She's smart, inquisitive and longs to be loved. Despite the situation over which she has no control, she displays a childlike determination to make things right.

The book contains lovely color photographs of exotic fish which is such a nice touch. Readers who enjoy stories about dysfunctional childhoods or coming of age stories, this is one of the best of its kind that I've read in a long time. Be prepared to be shocked! A word of caution -- a few reviews out there give away some significant spoilers, do yourself a favor, and just dive in, too much detail will spoil the experience for you. So far this is my favorite read of 2015.

5/5 stars

I feel completely inferior to express my deepest appreciation for this book. My body is still buzzing. All my senses have been intensified.

As soon as I was finished reading --I started for a 2nd run-through. My husband is home recovering from a serious Mt. biking accident -both arms in casts & challenges with eye focus from the head concussion, so I read "Aquarium" to him. Paul's rating is also a solid 5 stars.

I can name 'quickly' a few of my FAVORITE (meaningful to me) books I've read in --say the last 4 or 5 years -- Name 5 or 6 books FAST --Books I ALWAYS keep in my thoughts ---and "AQUARIUM" is now one of 'these' types of books for me: A STRONG FAVORITE!!!!!!

I read many books worthy of 4 and 5 stars --but this book is beyond STARS. Its a book that just should be read by 'everyone'!
MEN, WOMAN, TEENS (male/female teens), People from ALL WALKS of LIFE with a wide variety of interests can find value in this very creative beautifully written novel.

There is one scene in this book that will floor readers. I was soooooooo on the edge --as in dying on the edge --I couldn't believe what I was reading! NO NO NO --I kept saying to myself --'can't be'! --
YOU MUST READ THIS to find out what I am speaking about!!!

Twelve year old Caitlin, who wishes to be an ichthyologist one day, and prays to "The Golden Fish" gives the heartbeat to this story. Every character in this story is fully developed. I'm already casting -in my head- for the movie!

Since I don't want to give much away, I'll share some powerful-provoking quotes from the story:

1) "What do we owe for what has come before us, the previous generations?"

2) "A terrible moment in childhood hovers with a kind of eternity, unbearable."

3) "This is what I loved about a city, all the world's hidden away inside, largest of aquariums."

4) "I was jangly from lack of sleep, buzzing inside. My spine alive as a sea horse fin, fluttering."

5) "And she was far above me, in class, family, intelligence, and sophistication and knowledge and beauty, and we didn't yet consider those things, and I couldn't yet feel inadequate in the adult way, really, even in the terrible shame of that day."

6) "Anything is possible with a parent. Parents are gods. They make and destroy us. They warp the world and remake it their own shape, and that's the world we know forever after."

Powerful, Highly recommended!

elyse jody

“Like a leaf giving birth to stars………..Body of small green leaves, veined, very thin, its fins painted in light cast from elsewhere, but from his eye out his long snout, an eruption of galaxies without foreign source, born in the fish itself. An opening in the small fabric of the world, a place to fall into endlessly.”

Aquarium is the fifth full length novel by American author, David Vann. It is set in 1994 and narrated by twelve-year-old Caitlin Thompson. Caitlin’s world revolves around three important elements: her hardworking single mother, Sheri; her best friend at school, Indian émigré Shalini Anand; and her afternoon visits to the Seattle Aquarium. The year is drawing to a close, class involves making a paper-mache Divali Reindeer and Sheri has finally met a decent man, Steve, when Caitlin encounters an old man at the Aquarium, an old man who seems as fascinated by the fish as she is. And who seems very interested in her life.

Vann gives the reader a very diverse cast of characters: the effervescent Shalini; the admirably balanced Steve; the damaged and resentful Sheri; the earnestly repentant Bob. Of course, Caitlin, with her optimism, her love and her capacity for compassion, outshines them all. Their interactions are sometimes funny, sometimes decidedly uncomfortable, sometimes shockingly raw, but fans of Vann’s work will know not to expect a novel filled with sweetness and light. His work has been described as confronting. The plot takes a few unexpected turns before arriving at a startling climax.

While readers may find the lack of quotation marks for speech irritating, this is more than compensated for by the gorgeous descriptive passages, especially, but not only, those about fish. “You’re in trouble, Shalini whispered in my ear, leaning close. All the little hairs stood up on my neck and I had goose bumps. Shalini could make me shiver, as if my entire body were a bell that had just been struck” Another excellent offering from David Vann.
4.5 stars

A heart wrenching, wonderfully written book that was so unexpected I'm slightly in shock. It was revoltingly beautiful. It was about a sweet girl who had the worst mother, or was she ? She was angry, she was violent, she was majorly screwed up by her history. I saw bits of some of my own childhood, some of the ugly bits and was blasted into some acceptance of where I came from, where my mother and grandparents came from and the events that made me, me. Life is never black and white, sometimes it’s red and angry. This is not a happy book, it is a book that will make you sick and open you up to the horrible pain of several people who collide and burn. Still I thought it was beautiful, a horrible ugly beauty.
What worked in tis story very well was Ambrose. He was a complex character, smart and he had decent lines. He carried the book, he was tough, troubled and new.
This book, Arguh !!! It was so beautiful with the fish and the descriptions of their peaceful world. The resemblance to human beings and our complicated issues. The story starts with the simple life of a girl who loves the aquarium, the undersea life. She absorbs every detail, from the shades of the water to the texture of the fins. Being a huge aquarium junkie I can relate to her need to be there. It was a safe place for her, because she had few places that she felt safe.
Then is was the ugliest thing. Her mother, a young uneducated, angry, hateful, vengeful, single and screwed up by her history lashes out at her daughter at the world and anyone who gets in her vision. She is a difficult person to read about, she was truly viscous, and disgusting. I couldn’t imagine her getting worse at the half way point, she did, much worse. It was so horrifying I was in tears. I hated her, wished for her to die, life would be better without this person. Yes, a truly awful character. The author never tried to make her better, to see the light, but he did make her understood. I did understand her, I still hated her, I never forgave her. This character went farther, darker then any I’ve read before.
The desperate feeling of the lives written on the pages filled me with sorrow, hope and so much hope for them. The moments with the fish and an old man, tied the lines between the worlds and left time to breath and recover from that ugly thing happening.

David Vann takes his readers to dark places. I've read every single one of his fiction books and have gasped aloud at his ability to tackle this toughest of question: "What do we owe for what has come before us, the previous generations?" I know in his own life, he has wrestled with his father's suicide when he was a pre-teen. Similarly, his protagonists - who are also often pre-teens - address this issue in its many shapes and forms.

Twelve-year-old Caitlin, the first-person narrator of Aquarium, is another such character. She lives alone with her mother Sheri, a docker at the local container port, with little knowledge of her extended family (including her father and grandparents), barely getting by. In this microcosmic world - in this aquarium - Caitlin struggles to relate to her very damaged mother, who, in turn, is struggling to overcome the rage of her own abandonment.

"Anything is possible with a parent. Parents are gods. They make us and they destroy us. They warp the world and remake it in their own shape and that's the world we know forever. It's the only world. We can't see what it might have looked like otherwise." So writes David Vann and as Caitlin ricochets between her unstable, twisted mother and the magical lure of the aquarium, she tries to forge her singular place in the world. The unexpected appearance of a third important character helps her recognize that one's destiny is indeed a blueprint that's at least partially inescapable: "...somewhere there's the shape of my life, and I had the chance to choose a few variations, but not far from the pattern."

A type of present day fairy tale with real live demons, there are times when Mr. Vann pushes his metaphor a little too far (in just one page, we hear that the world is the "largest of aquariums", that "a person might take any form, as varied as fish", that "we can be like fish", and so on.) But just as this was building in my consciousness, the story swerves into darker territory and I began following breathlessly, thoroughly submerged in the story.

It's worth nothing that this is the first time that this author has written from the perspective of a young girl (as opposed to a young boy) and it's also the first time that despair is vanquished by release and redemption; characters are taken to the precipice but are given rudimentary tools to save themselves. In this aspect, it's a particularly satisfying read.

I typically don't comment on the look and feel of a book, preferring to limit my review to content only. But Aquarium is worthy of comment. Similar to Richard Flanagan's novel, Gould's Book of Fish, this elegant book contains thicker-than-average page stock and 15 vividly colored illustrations of fish at crucial places to aid the reader in visualizing the fish that are described throughout. 4.5 stars.

Caitlin is twelve years old. She visits an aquarium after school each day. She visits different tanks while she waits for her mother to pick her up after work. A man becomes a friend for lonely Caitlin at the aquarium. Caitlin is careful with her new friend, but does like the attention. Home is a safe and secure place with her mom their, until her mom talks about her own childhood. At school, Caitlin has a best friend, Shalini who lives in a house and has family. Caitlin would like to have that instead of living in an apartment. Why? Caitlin and Shalini find a love that is not discussed but discovered. Caitlin and Shalini are happy with it but her mom isn't while others are. After all, she is young and exploring, learning about herself. However, the aquarium gives her strength as she imagines a different world to live in. How?

The author writes a novel that touches on many subjects that occur today in "real" life. It shows a picture of American life that is not "happy ever after" but will make you think about one's duty. The exploration of this family portrait includes forgiveness, acceptance, parent-child relationships and abuse.

Disclaimer: I received a digital galley of this book free from the publisher from NetGalley. I was not obliged to write a favourable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

I was disappointed in this book because of the sudden, inexplicable change in one of the main characters. There was no explanation for the character's sudden rages or quick descent into semi-madness. One would think there would have been some signs. Yes, I understand this character had a horrible childhood, but the character's about-face without warning was a little unbelievable.