American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
A brilliantly funny and razor-tongued debut which follows a writer lured to Los Angeles to adapt her feminist mermaid novel into a big-budget action film, who believes her heroine has come to life to take revenge for Hollywood’s violations
Penelope Schleeman, a consistently broke Connecticut high school teacher, is as surprised as anyone when her sensitive debut novel, “American Mermaid”—the story of a wheelchair-bound scientist named Sylvia who discovers that her withered legs are the vestiges of a powerful tail—becomes a bestseller. Penelope soon finds herself lured to LA by promises of easy money to co-write the “American Mermaid” screenplay for a major studio with a pair of male hacks.
As the studio pressures Penelope to change “American Mermaid” from the story of a fierce, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex object in a clam bra, strange things start to happen. Threats appear in the screenplay draft; siren calls lure people into danger. When Penelope’s screenwriting partners try to kill Sylvia off entirely in a bitterly false but cinematic end, matters off the page escalate. Is Penelope losing her mind, or is Sylvia among us?
American Mermaid follows a young woman braving a world of casual smiles and ruthless calculation, where she discovers a beating heart in her own fiction–a creature she’ll do anything to protect. By turns both a comic and fabulously insightful tale of two female characters in search of truth, love, and self-acceptance as they move between worlds without giving up their voices.
Review:
I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This review contains minor plot spoilers from the book.
After reading the summary of this book, it sounded like it might be right up my alley. It sounded as though it would be a fun and quirky comedy, and while parts of it were absolutely hilarious, it never fully grabbed me and at the end I was left scratching my head wondering what I had just read.
The book begins with our protagonist – Penelope “Penny” Schleeman reflecting on the book that she wrote and how she’s gone from a schoolteacher in Connecticut to bestselling author living in LA while she helps co-write the screenplay for the movie.
Penny is awkward, self-deprecating and absolutely hilarious. I think many of us can relate to her. She has no idea what it takes to write a screenplay, but she’s determined to make this work, because as her no-nonsense agent Danielle tells her – all she has to do is get her name out there and learn the ropes and she’ll make millions. Her days of teaching ungrateful kids are over.
This all sounds great to Penny, the only problem is the two male writers that the studio has hired to pen the screenplay with Penny’s help don’t really seem to get the book and have changed several characters and plot points to make it more appropriate for a movie. They’re kind of dickish and condescending to Penny. She’s not entirely on board with the changes, but she also doesn’t feel like she has a lot of say in the matter – she really needs the money for a double-mastectomy. She tested positive for the BRCA gene that gave her mother breast cancer. The surgery will pretty much save her life, but her insurance won’t cover it.
Since Penny can’t seem to find her voice, some unknown person makes changes to the script. Randy and Murphy are certain that it is Penny, but Penny insists it isn’t. Could Sylvia – the mermaid in her story – be real? Is she the one messing with things?
While we read Penny’s adventures in screenwriting as she, Randy and Murphy work to get the screenplay in shape and ready for the table reading, we also get chapters from Penny’s book – American Mermaid – the story of a mermaid who was found on the shore when she was a baby and adopted by a couple of scientists worried about climate change. The couple has tried to conceive a child of their own, but could not do so, so they employ the help of a brilliant surgeon who gives the baby legs – though she is unable to walk and has to use a wheelchair – take her in as their own and name her Sylvia. When she is 24, she tries to commit suicide by throwing herself into the ocean and that is when she transforms into her true form and the real adventure begins.
Seem like a lot? It kind of was. In the beginning, I was on board, but as the book progressed, I struggled to stay interested. Anytime we switched from Penny’s life to Sylvia’s story, it took me a minute to reorient myself. The tone shift was a bit jarring. It got to where I would need to set the book down and then I struggled to want to pick it back up.
Honestly, I would have been perfectly fine had we not had the chapters from the actual book and just focused on Penny. I thought her figurative fish out of water story was much more fun and entertaining than Sylvia’s literal fish out of water story. I think had we maybe just had snippets from Penny’s book, it would have been fine. I also felt that there was a real missed opportunity with the character of Derek. He was a fun character, but at the end of the book it left me wondering why he was necessary to the overall story. In the end, it felt like I was reading two very different books simultaneously – one that I enjoyed and the other that wasn’t interesting at all, but I was forced to finish.
The book does a great job of satirizing the book to film process – how many times have any of us book nerds said “The book was better”? In the end, I loved Penny. I thought she was hilarious – I just wish the book had flowed better.
