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''Dad used to say that childhood was like being drunk: Everyone remembers what you did, except you."
—Grace Pudel
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Released in June 2024, Memoir of a Snail is about twins fraternal twins Grace and Gilbert Pudel.
Starting in 1970s Melbourne, we see the lives of Grace and Gilbert with their paraplegic ex-juggler alcoholic dad, Percy. Grace is almost like e'eryone else, except she likes to collect snails, a quirk she inherited from the twins' passed-on mom. Aside from getting picked on by other kids, the twins have a lovely brother-sister bond and they live pretty great.
That is, until Percy passes away in his sleep. After that, the twins are made to go their separate ways, when Grace gets sent to a couple of swingers in Canberra and Gilbert gets sent to religious fundementalists in Perth. Over the years, the twins still keep in touch with letters but, aside from Gilbert's letters, Grace doesn't have anything going for her in Canberra, besides collecting snails. Meanwhile, on Gilbert's side of things, he bonds with the youngest of his foster family, Ben, who loves his rebelliousness.
Sometime, in the 1980s (prolly), when she's a teenager, Grace meets a nice old lady by the name of "Pinky", who's still chipper, even though she's lost two husbands and many jobs. After Grace's swinger foster parents retire to a nudist community, Pinky takes her in.
- Abusive Parents: Ruth and Owen Appleby. Besides being downright nasty to Gilbert, there's the whole Ruth electrocuting Gilbert and Ben for being gay thing.
- Alcoholic Parent: Percy Pudel and this might be why he dies in his sleep.
- Animal Motifs: Snails. Grace collects 'em, wears snail-themed clothes, and, combined with her hat, she looks like snail, too. Relatedly, when she's curled up and hiding away from bullies, the image evokes a snail curling into its shell. She's also really shy, too.
- Anachronism Stew: A little. At some point, Grace is shown to be readin' Memoirs of a Geisha, which wasn't released until around 1997.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Played with, as everyone has visible nipples, but their nether regions aren't shown.
- Big Brother Instinct: Well, they're the same age, approximately, but, you pick on Grace, Gilbert'll break your fingers.
- Chubby Chaser: To Grace's horror and realization, Ken is one and he's been feeding her fatty foods so she'd keep gaining weight.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Well, it wasn't cats but cavy rodents but, still, Grace got a lot of guinea pigs.
- Death By Childbirth: The twins' mom, Annie, died this way. As Annie Says, "Our birth was very strenuous for mum and she died. We left her womb and she entered her tomb."
- Flower Motifs: Pinky seems to be associated with daisies and daisies are happy, perky li'l flowers.
- Foreshadowing: Grace remembers how her and Gilbert liked to play with sparklers. It wouldn't be the only thing the latter did with fire.
- Ill Girl: Grace, as she puts it, suffered a "smorgasbord of afflictions" and that the doc said she was like, quote, "like a China doll you could shatter with just a stare". Indeed, she's in and out of the hospital for lung issues and, eventually, getting her cleft lip repaired.
- In the Blood: Annie, the twins mother, also had a love of snails and this love was passed on to Grace. Relatedly, Gilbert's got a love of animals.
- Nice Guy: Well, Grace is kinda too nice but, as she puts it, she always wanted to save people, being nice to the local homeless guy, which gets her her first snail.
- Parents as People: Ian and Narelle, Grace's foster parents, are good people but not so great as parents. They care about her but the addiction to self-help and the positive thinking whatevers (along with always smiling) don't really get to the heart of Grace's issues. Granted, she doesn't tell them so much about her issues but still.
- Parental Substitute:By a point, Pinky plays a motherly role to Grace.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Well, other than being fraternal, Grace is shy and hesitant, while Gilbert is rebellious and will break people's fingers