The Pisces, by Melissa Broder

I’ve put off writing this review; to be honest, I just couldn’t figure out what to say. How could I possibly sum up and review a book like The Pisces?

The Pisces is a contemporary, familiar kind of novel. The protagonist is a thirty-something woman, desperately in need of therapy and with a string of dating failures and disasters. She is reeling after a breakup with a pretty terrible boyfriend. She is egocentric, selfish, and frankly, pretty annoying. Her romantic travails are fairly amusing, although it is hard to root for her. This is the plot of a thousand novels; am I right?

Except for one thing: Lucy, our protagonist, falls in love with a merman.

Yes, you read that correctly. This is not a fantasy novel; it is a modern, “chick lit” type novel (although I reject that framing generally) where the main character falls in love with an actual merman.

I knew this going in, and those of you who are familiar with my reading habits shouldn’t be surprised. When it comes to books, movies, and TV shows, I absolutely love the weird. I love the way my brain feels when encountering something new, something totally original. Have you seen Being John Malkovich? Or read This Is How You Lose the Time War? Have you experienced Mrs. Davis? (If you also like weird and you haven’t, get on that immediately!)

So, ok, a merman it is. I expected something original, and I definitely got it. I appreciate Broder’s creativity; but did I actually like that book? That’s a tough one to answer. The biggest obstacle was that I really, really did not like Lucy and found it hard to see her redeeming qualities. Fun unlikeable can be entertaining, but I was annoyed by her particular foibles. She has a sad backstory but even that wasn’t enough to spark my compassion. I kept waiting for either redemption or justice and I didn’t really feel like I got either.

As I’m writing this though, I feel some respect for Broder’s choices. Lucy is unlikeable, but she’s not the worst person in the world. I think her redemption would have felt unearned and karma would have felt too harsh. Her ending, unsatisfying as it might be, tracked with the rest of the story.

You might be wondering why I haven’t said much about the merman…Well, he started out as romantic, perfect, and giving but quickly began to annoy me, too. That’s an integral part of the story, though, and I don’t want to give too much away. I do think Broder did an excellent job here of marrying the fantastical with the mundane; the romanticism of dating a mermaid fades when the relationship has boring problems that mirror the banal frustrations we all have in the real world. And then are the specific issues that come with dating a creature of the sea. 

Truth be told, I do really like Broder as a writer. Her prose goes from the very practical to incredibly beautiful and once again, I found language to describe my previously indescribable experiences. Also, Broder writes erotic scenes with abandon. These are not what you might remember from those Harlequin romances. These scenes are detailed, raw, and sometimes dirty. Reading sex scenes written by a woman, from the female gaze, and for a woman to read was actually kind of shocking, but in a good way. I love that Broder went for it (and I love that the scenes went far enough to surprise me). There’s bravery in that, just as there is bravery in writing an unsympathetic female protagonist. And I’ll follow brave writing to the very last page.