God's Grace (Paperback)

He finds that another being is aboard the research ship-a chimpanzee whom he calls "Buz." The two of them end up on a tropical island, where Cohn finds that Buz has a couple of electric wires protruding from his throat-and when Cohn connects them, the chimp is able to speak.

Cohn and Buz have a father-son sort of relationship, which gets complicated when they eventually find that a few other apes have also survived. Amazingly, the other chimpanzees on the island also acquire the power of speech, and Cohn becomes their teacher. They also receive periodic and enigmatic visits form "George," a gorilla, who is drawn to the sound of Cohn's father's cantorial recordings, which Cohn saved from the ship, along with a wind-up record player. The chimps are afraid of and dislike George, but Cohn sees something in him that keeps him trying to communicate with the ape, despite his lack of verbal skills.

Cohn tries to get the chimps to learn from the mistakes of mankind, to see themselves as capable of repopulating the earth with a race that does not make the same mistakes as Man. However, despite their relative sophistication, the chimps exhibit many of the same unpleasant characteristics found in humans. One of the chimpanzees is a female, Mary Madelyn, and she, of all the chimps, is the one who seems most capable of moral evolution. However, her insistence on being treated as a being with rights, who makes her own sexual choices, creates a crisis within the community.

This book has some very funny moments and is written in a wry, deadpan style. However, it is ultimately a tragedy with a message. When, with our free will, we choose to destroy God's gifts, we can't expect God to bail us out.

The paleontologist Cohn is the sole human survivor of the nuclear holocaust. Together with a chimp, Buz, he lands upon an uninhabited island. The chimp has an implant that enables human communication. More monkeys appear. Cohn tries to establish a society. Having studied for the rabbinate Cohn teaches his Judaic world-view, but faces opposition from Buz whose previous human companion thought him the principles of Christianity. Cohn tries to recreate the monkeys in his own image, and goes as far as formulating his own set of seven commandments and creating his own addition to the scheme of evolution. But alas, paradise is lost again.

While it is not surprising that previous reviewers have mostly focused on the religious aspects involved in the story -too bad that anti-Semitism always lurks right around the corner- this short novel is way beyond a satire of religion. Using a very light and smooth writing style Malamud presents the reader with a narrative in which humor, horror, grace and mystery blend seamlessly. A modern classic.