The Pisces is more than a book about a woman who romances a fish
The Pisces by Melissa Broder, published in 2018, is about a woman romancing a fish. Specifically, a merman. Lucy, our main protagonist, is caught in a rut. She's a 38-year-old PHD student. Her thesis, which she is writing dispassionately, is about the ancient Greek poet Sappho. When her long-term relationship with the commitment-phobic Jamie falls apart, she feels she has no reason to hold herself together anymore. Her sister, who lives in Venice Beach, offers to let her dog sit and get a change of scenery. Once there, Lucy spends her time judging the other women in her group therapy, going on disastrous Tinder dates, and neglecting the dog, Dominic, in her care. She also makes a habit of sitting on the rocks by the ocean. It's here that she meets Theo, who we eventually learn has a tail and lives in the sea. The Pisces draw card is that it leans into the absurdity of the premise. The cover is a woman embracing a fish. The romance is treated with weight a...
