Russell Hoban believed turtles should be set free

[image error]I read a lot of books for adults that I often end up recommending for teenagers. I was the kind of kid that read above my age early on and especially as a teen I was reading John MacDonald and Robert Parker mysteries and a ton of SFF all of which were published for adults. None of this should come as a surprise to most readers - those age categories are all too often nebulous at best (especially for nonfiction) but on occasion I read something that really can only be appreciated by adults. It's not because of the obvious (sex & violence) but because of the nature of the story.

Simply put, there are some thing you can not understand until you live a lot longer than 17 years.

Russell Hoban's (Bread & Jam For Frances Russell Hoban!) Turtle Diary is about two people who independently decide to set some sea turtles free from a local aquarium. Set in London, William is a bookseller and Neaera is children's book author and both are largely respectable and unremarkable people. They certainly aren't the lawbreaking sort. William is recently divorced and missing his life and suffering a mid-life crisis of mammoth (but largely silent) proportions. Neaera, by her own description, "looks the sort of spinster who doesn't keep cats and is not a vegetarian. Looks....like a man's woman and hasn't got a man."

First, it's not a romance. This is not about William and Nearera finding each other and making mad passionate love as the turtles find freedom. It's more about finding friendship and kinship and meeting someone who thinks your big crazy idea makes sense. It's an incredibly quiet book but a very powerful one because it makes so much sense. It's about making the kind of life you want out of the one you are living.

And turtles. It's also about turtles.

The rescue involves the London Zoo where three very large sea turtles have been living for decades. While it is not squalor or abuse they are dealing with, William and Neaera feel the animals are living stifled lives; it's simply not fair that giant sea turtles should be stuck in a tank for people to gawk at. Each wants to set the turtles free and each encounters their caregiver, George who quietly encourages them. Through alternately chapters readers follow the two as they inch along toward a plan and meeting each other. Along the way bits and pieces of their lives are revealed until, when the rather madcap adventure takes off, it makes perfect sense that these very sedate people would do something so rash and inexplicable.

Turtle Diary has been reissued by the New York Review Books and so, of course, it's a gorgeous edition. The intro is written by Ed Park which I thought was bit stiff for all of the book's sly humor, so don't judge the novel from those pages. It's a quiet read, a careful read and a very sweet one. But mostly it is a book that can not be fully enjoyed until you are of an age that knows what it is to need an adventure; to need to do something to shake yourself out of your life.

Could a teenager read Turtle Diary? Sure. But I think it takes an adult to truly appreciate it and all that William and Neaera need from setting something free.

Here's a trailer for the movie that was made in 1985 and if you like it, the whole thing can be watched on YouTube. (I haven't see it yet but with Ben Kingsley & Glenda Jackson I don't see how it can fail - the trailer sells it, big time!)