Blue Road to Atlantis (review)

9 6 ¦ THE HEMI N1 GWAY REVIEW Blue Road to Atlantis by Jay Nussbaum. New York: Warner Books, 2002. 140 pp. Cloth $16.95. Nussbaum's novella answers an imaginative question, "What kind of a story might Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea be if its events were told by a fish, a loyal friend of Santiago's giant marlin?" The answers, according to the flyleaf, are "an inspirational guide to life," a "powerful allegory," and "a powerful vision' about living courageously." I'd demur from such enthusiasms. Call it simply an ineffective, moralistic fable. Its narrator is a remora, that bony, parasitic fish whose topside front fin evolved into an oval-shaped suction cup and moved onto the fish's head. That enabled it to cling not onlyto other objects, usually fish, but also to go alongforafree ride andfeedoffleftovers. Named,yes, Fishmael,the narrator plays idolatrous andprotective Manolin to Santiago's marlin—here named Old Fish—heaping words of praise on his beauty, nobility, courage, grace, wisdom, and regal status as "the greatest swordsman of the sea." Old Fish's lifelong,quixotic dreamhasbeen to go toAtlantis,where Great SpottedDolphinswill "teach [him] the sky,"meaningthe abilitytoleap outofthe seaand soar in a second element, air. He's never made the trip, however, presumably becausevarious complications have kepthim fromhis dream destination. This year the sea's creatures are threatenedbythe approach ofthe toxic Red Tide, whose lethal bacteria suffocate all living things in their path. The creatures elect Old Fish to be their savior, which requires him to swim to Atlantis and consultwith the Great Spotted Dolphins. But on the wayOld Fish is again diverted.Tokeepabrashyoungmarlin,Jotaro,frombeingcaughtonasardinebaited hook, Old Fish takes the bait. And that bait, ofcourse, attaches to a line heldbya fisherman in a small skiff.As Old Fish tows the skiffoutto sea,he and Fishmael tryvainlyto dislodge thehook.Afterthetwohearseveral ofthefisherman 's prayers, mutterings, and imprecations—all direct quotations from Hemingway's Santiago—theyrecognizetheiradversary: Heis noneotherthan El Campeón, the "human predator" who years earlier had hooked and killed Old Fish's beloved mate, Migdalia. This leaves Old Fish believing himself doomed, aresignationthatFishmael,however,resists. Thanks to its source, there's no suspense about the outcome ofthis battle between fish and man. So Nussbaum gives Old Fish and Fishmael several the Hemingway review, vol. 22, NO. 2, spring 2003. Copyright © 2003 The Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Published bythe University ofIdaho Press, Moscow, Idaho. BOOK REVIE 'W S · 9 7 encounters with other sea creatures. Some of them are intended as comic characters: a bottom-scrounging, rude nurse shark; a displaced, hard-ofhearing fringed sole looking for the Arabian Sea; and a catfish ofrenowned wisdomwho advisesthattheypraytothehumans' deity,"Bob." Others—like the brash marlin, Jotaro, and a viperfish, whom Old Fish must fight—are intendedfor drama. Butthese characters arepreliminariesto themain event, Old Fish's conversations with a cajuri-speaking, moralistic Great Spotted Dolphin. Taunting Old Fish for clinging to life, she withholds from him her transformed identity as his former mate, Migdalia, but with facile paradox she slowly cajoles him into surrendering to the inevitable: "mon, me die a fish, likeyou. But me'ad an inner circle ofpurestlove. Me live melife full and trust in me current, and so me soul stayin de sea; it did not go to humans to eatwit' mayonnaise. Dat'sOwI became a dolphin. Mylife startwhen I die." Fishmael is a nimble-enough narrator. Byturns he spouts lore about various sea creatures, succumbs to bad puns, hectors his huge partner, directs the mako sharks' attack on Old Fish's skiff-lashed carcass, and utters maledictions against the sinister El Campeón, all ofwhose actions and utterances he hears and comments on. And he reports some ôf Old Fish's purported wisdom. For example, while nibbling on a tuna that Jotaro has foolishly impaled on his spearso that he cannot eat his prey, Old Fish tells him about one of God's errors and one ofthe blessings bestowed on fish. The error is that"Godgavehumanstoo muchbrain. Itmakes them unableto accepttheir current. More, different and now—that is their credo." The blessing: "This is the holiness offish, thatwe have no armswith which to hold on to anything. We submit to...