The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus

The narrative shifts into the past. In a letter addressed to Lord Elliot Lennox, a famous mystery writer, a much younger Pen Winters writes that she is a visiting student from Canada and is newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh. She believes that Elliot and her father, Ted Winters, were college friends, and she has questions about their friendship. She also assures Ellion that she is not a deranged fan. The letter is dated September 2006.

Elliot replies cordially, inviting Pen to take a train up to visit his home, Talmòrach and spend the weekend with his family.

Pen has breakfast in the dining hall with her friends on a Tuesday morning. She reflects on her friendship with the beautiful Alice Diamond, whom she has known and loved since they were both children. Whereas Alice is bold and used to attention, Pen is shyer and more cautious. Alice wants to be an actress, while Pen spent summers plowing through her mother’s collection of 19th-century novels and taking notes on human behavior. Despite their differences, the two are best friends, and both have chosen to leave their homes in Toronto and study in Edinburgh. They have vowed to remain friends but also to “not to get in each other’s way” (13) so that they can both begin to spread their wings.

Also at the table are their newer friends: Jo and Fergus Moore (wealthy twins from a Scottish family), Hugo Holloway ( Fergus’s boarding school roommate), and Charlie Watson (a working-class boy who is infatuated with Alice). As they idly chat about their future, Jo declares that she will be a professor. Alice wants to be a famous actress, and Pen aspires to become a journalist.

While sitting in the lecture theater, Pen takes notes and thinks about the upcoming weekend. She has known for years that there is some secret about her father’s life that he has never shared. As a child, she asked him why her middle name was “Elliot,” a boy’s name, but he deflected her questions. Now, she hopes that the Lennox family will be able to explain.

Alice is bored by the lecture until she notices their tutor, Julian Sachs, who is young and attractive. She points this out to Pen and Jo, who tease her for suddenly caring about philosophy. After class, Julian approaches Alice and says that he heard she missed last week’s class because she was auditioning for a play. Alice tells him that she got the part and will be playing Thomasina in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. The two share a sexually charged moment, and Alice flees to the library, feeling off-kilter.

That evening, the friends gather at a pub, and Fergus invites everyone to his family home for the weekend. Pen is the only one who declines, telling them that she is visiting the Lennoxes. She is embarrassed to be perceived as someone who name-drops, so she changes the subject until the boys leave the table. Then Jo tells her that Fergus has a crush on her, but Pen tries to deny it.

Alice is happy about Pen’s invitation, but she privately thinks that Pen’s quest to find out about her father’s past is ill-advised. She knows that Pen suffered as a child while watching her parents, Ted and Anna, go through a messy divorce, and she thinks that Pen is too focused on figuring out what went wrong in their marriage. Alice’s own father regularly cheats on her mother, and she accepts divorce and infidelity as inevitable aspects of marriage.

On the train to Talmòrach, Pen remembers the first time she heard Elliot Lennox’s name. She had clipped an article about his detective series, thinking that her father might like them, only to have Ted tell her not to read them. Later, she snuck into his study and found a copy of one of the books as well as a picture of her father and Elliot together as young men. That Christmas, she realized that her parents’ marriage was damaged beyond repair, and she was angry that no one would tell her what was happening. Instead, her grandmother continued to nag her and forbid her from sharing household secrets with anyone, even Alice.

Hector, who works for the Lennox family, picks Pen up from the station and drives her to Talmòrach. She is in awe at the large and ancient building, which he says was built in the 15th century. When they arrive, he tells her to go inside to the kitchen and find Lady Lennox.

Inside, Pen is immediately lost and cannot find the kitchen, but she is then greeted by Lady Lennox, who says to call her Christina. She warmly helps Pen get settled and takes some fresh pizzas out of the oven. Pen is embarrassed to realize that one of Christina’s sons, Sasha, and his friend Chet are at home. Sasha attends St. Andrews, while the other son, Freddie, is on a gap year in South America.

Sasha and Chet chat with Pen over lunch. She is very attracted to Sasha and feels shy. After lunch, she gives Christina some cheese and wine that she brought as a present. Christina thanks her and tells the boys to show her around.

Chet and Sasha take her for a long walk, and she warms up to them. Afterwards, she takes a bath, and Sasha brings her a gin-and-tonic before dinner. She tries not to be nervous and tells herself that Elliot will have to come down for dinner.

Pen gets lost again in the hallway and runs into a young woman who introduces herself as George, the daughter of Elliot’s sister, Margot, who is a famous fashion designer. She and her infant son, Danny, are visiting for the weekend. The two share a smoke on a balcony and chat before heading down to dinner.

George introduces Pen to Lord Elliot Lennox, who tells her to just call him Lennox. He teasingly asks Pen a series of questions about Canadian politics and authors and clearly warms to Pen. After a delicious dinner prepared by Christina, he praises Pen for bringing cheese. He tells her that her father used to bring the same thing when he came to visit, but he otherwise avoids the topic of her parents and their shared past.

(Although Pen does not discover this fact until much later in the novel, Ted had an affair with Margot years ago, and George is their daughter. However, Margot never wanted to marry, and she urged Ted not to return to Scotland. The Lennoxes quickly realize that Pen is unaware of this past history. They want to be friendly to her, but they also hope that Ted will be the one to tell her the truth.)

Pen awakens the next morning with a hangover and tidies the kitchen before helping herself to the cold breakfast that has been laid out. Christina arrives and thanks her, then asks if she will ride horses with the boys. She agrees, telling Christina that she hasn’t ridden in years but will try her best.

Christina is preoccupied with worries about the village and tells the boys to bring their guest back in one piece.

The three set out for a ride, and Pen rides a placid, wooly horse named Kevin. The ride goes well until someone begins shooting grouse in the distance. Kevin bolts, knocking Pen off. Chet retrieves the horse while Sasha worries over Pen. The three walk the horses back together, with Pen feeling rattled and embarrassed. At the house, Christina sends them up to change for lunch and tells Pen that the boys will drive her back to Edinburgh.

At lunch, Elliott joins them in a triumphant mood, having finished his latest book draft. Pen plays with George’s baby, Danny, and Christina tells the story of one of the wives in the village, who “accidentally” dropped a knife on the foot of her ungrateful husband. The story is a thinly veiled warning that Elliot has been taking her work for granted this weekend and leaving all the entertaining up to her. Elliot receives the message with good humor.

As Pen enters the car to leave, she is saddened by the fact that she didn’t get the answers she wanted, but she does feel that the Lennoxes have a happy marriage, unlike her parents.