Human-animal relationship can be truly heart-warming as the theme of Sara Gruen’s Ape House demonstrates. It is impossible for a reader like me not to fall in love with the Bonobos who are more sophisticated and affectionate than humans in their treatment of each other.

The story starts with a news team visiting a Bonobo research center and language lab. Among them is John Thigpen who interacts and speaks with the bonobos in sign language.

The first several pages of the book concentrate on two couples, the journalist John Thigpen and his wife Amanda, and Isabel Duncan the scientist who feels as if bonobos are her real family and her fiancé Peter-another researcher who works with her.

Then, terrorists bomb the lab. Isabel Duncan is badly hurt but survives. The bonobos become the possession of a reality channel’s owner who tries to exploit their way of life by trying to show the obscene side of the great apes’ lives on a 24-hour TV. At the end, Isabel Duncan, with the help of John Thigpen, discovers the truth about her fiancé and reunites with her bonobos under better conditions.

Although the human characters in this story such as mothers and mother-in-laws, the cheap tricks of big business, animal rights protestors, and other secondary characters are strictly cliché, a bit more attention is given to Isabel and John; yet, this may not be enough or in depth for a reader who would expect more from Sara Gruen.

On the other hand, I think Sara Gruen did this on purpose. Having human characters too well-drawn could take away from the empathy of the readers toward the apes, and the apes were delightful in their matriarchal commune with Bonzi the matriarch, Lola-Bonzi’s baby, Makena the pregnant one who gives birth during the course of the novel, Sam the oldest male, Jeloni the adolescent male, and Mbongo the smallest male. The bonobos learned sign language and could type on the computer to draw attention to what they want.

The pace of the book is extremely fast, and among the human characters, only Isabel and John’s stories are written with a bit more attention, which may not be enough since this is a human story, too. Some sub-stories are given more importance than necessary, as this divides the interest in the main plotline.

I guess a picky reviewer can find a lot of things wrong with the novel’s construction, but I found the book captivating, enjoyable, and very easy to read. Moreover, I couldn’t help but love those animals, fictional though they may have been.

Animal lovers and readers who like stories that are full of action to the disadvantage of character and depth.

the bonobos.

Sara Gruen is a Canadian-born writer. She is an animal lover and her novels attest to that. Her books are: Riding Lessons, Flying Changes, Water for Elephants .

It is an exciting read and quite different in topic.

The rumor is Sara Gruen was a NaNoWriMo writer and her Water for Elephants got its start in NaNo.

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Created Oct 08, 2010 at 7:29pm • Submit your own review...