The Fourteenth Goldfish

Melvin Herbert Sagarsky, PhD, is Ellie’s brilliant-but-grumpy grandfather. He’s also a researcher who discovers a cure for aging. The cure returns him to the physical age of a teenager. Despite his achievements, Melvin struggles with feeling out of step in a changing world. He wishes things would return to a time when he was more appreciated. His old-fashioned clothes, long hair, inability to enter his science lab, anonymity as an old genius in a teenage body, and lack of respect from the scientific community all conspire to keep him from the fame and honor to which he believes he’s entitled.

Though Melvin’s immense confidence and dogged determination impress Ellie, she thinks he might be a classic mad scientist. His ingenuity and respect for science inspire her, but his relentless efforts to publish his rejuvenation discovery and win a Nobel Prize trouble her because he ignores the fact that his invention might not be good for the world.

Melvin’s great mind has become stuck firmly in the past. His granddaughter’s youthful interest in science reminds him that rejuvenation isn’t about going backward but renewing oneself and approaching the future with a fresh mind.

Lissa is Ellie’s mother. Melvin, Lissa’s dad, calls her Melissa because he’s very formal, but everyone else calls her Lissa. She teaches drama at the high school and has none of her daughter’s interest in science. Her artistic life contrasts her with Melvin and his scientific pursuits; their arguments make clear the yawning chasm that sometimes appears between artists and scientists.

Lissa makes a good, if frugal, home life for her daughter and rejects her dad’s constant criticisms. From Lissa, Ellie learns that it’s more important to stand up for one’s own choices and follow one’s passions than merely to satisfy other people’s expectations. Still, Lissa struggles with the wrong choices she’s made in the past; she breaks free by taking a leap of faith and accepting Ben’s marriage proposal.

Raj goes to Ellie’s school. He dresses like a goth—all in black, with ear, eyebrow, and nose piercings. (Goth style honors Gothic horror stories from the late 1800s and early 1900s.) He’s smart and observant yet low-key and hard to ruffle. Raj strikes up a friendship with Melvin, whom he helps with attempts to sneak into Melvin’s old lab and retrieve the jellyfish that contain the rejuvenation chemical. Goth and Ellie become good friends, sharing meals, hanging out, visiting a museum, and touring the Berkeley university campus.

Raj’s presence helps to fill in the empty spot left by Ellie’s former best friend, Brianna. His relaxed acceptance of his eccentricities shows Ellie that people can be unusual and still have friends and be happy. His friendship represents one of the positive choices Ellie makes as she reshapes her life.

Brianna is Ellie’s best friend of many years, but in 6th grade, she falls in love with volleyball, joins a team, and abandons Ellie. Brianna doesn’t mean to hurt Ellie; she’s just enthralled with her new sports passion. Ellie, though, is hurt and must live with this loss for many weeks until she makes new friends. Brianna doesn’t make the volleyball team and tries to renew her friendship with Ellie, but by then, Ellie has found others and doesn’t want to go back. Brianna represents Ellie’s past—childlike, innocent, unaware—in contrast to Ellie’s new life inspired by Melvin and science.

Momo is a girl in Ellie’s science class. They share a lab desk and become friends. Though she appears only briefly in a few scenes, Momo is important because her friendship signals that Ellie is moving on after losing Brianna.