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Dr Al Waller, an eccentric marine biologist isolated on the San Diego coast, saves an unborn infant by adapting her to water. With a dolphin as her only companion, Mara thrives, yet he cannot disclose what he's done. How long can he hide this miracle child? What
will become of Mara, once discovered?
My favorite review so far is the one that just came in from
Susan Hauser, an award winning Minnesota writer: She really
knows what I am up to. Here it is:
The
Dolphin Papers is the fourth book by Helen Bonner that I’ve
read. (The others are The Laid Daughter, Cry Dance and First
Love Last.) Her writing does not always make me feel
comfortable. In order to get to her stated goal of writing about
what brings us together, she also has to write about what keeps
us apart. She does this unflinchingly. With eyes wide open, she
describes how we humans are with each other. In The Dolphin
Papers, she extends the story into the natural world,
specifically the marine world. Here she dares to imagine our
return to the sea in the form of a girl-child raised from birth
in a pool with a dolphin. Frankly, the story creeps me out a bit
but, as with all good art, the means and matter of the telling
carry me along: Bonner is a poetic storyteller with a sense of
the sound and shape of language. “White trunks of eucalyptus,
stripped like bones, threw barred shadows in scattered patterns
across the slope.” It is said that good art makes the new sound
familiar and the familiar sound new. Bonner does that with this
story. If you like strong characters deftly drawn, if you like
to steal a glimpse behind the barricade of everyday reason, if
you like to lose yourself in a good book, then I think you will
like this novel. Bonner is a trustworthy guide: you will be in
strange territory but will never be adrift. She takes your hand,
walks you through the story, returns you to the sea, from whence
we all came
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