Customer Reviews

Ape House

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Yet another great book from Sara Gruen. A fascinating subject, with a wonderfully fast paced story woven around it. One of those books that I didn't want to end.

Sara Gruen writes like a dream, but sadly I found this book disturbing for reasons not intended by the author. To compare this book with Jurassic Park might seem bizarre, but Ape House shares with that famous book and movie the same fundamental flaws. They both have a wonderful central idea, based in sound modern science, with the possibility for truly transformative fiction, but they are dressed up in trite and predictable plots and populated with flat, stereotypical characters. In Ape House, we have evil scientists, naive scientists, ignorant animal rights activists, crusading journalists, unethical journalists, and trashy television producers. The bonobos probably have less than 20% of the page time, and an unfortunate proportion of that is preoccupied with their prodigious sex lives. My dog communicates with me every day; the author wrapped her central theme in so much trash, that the intellect of the bonobos hardly seems more remarkable than a puppy asking to be let outside. What a missed opportunity.

Another story by the estimable author of 'Water For Elephants,' Sara Gruen, deserves a first class narrator, which is precisely what is found in Bill Boehmer. A seasoned stage and television actor he delivers an articulate, highly listenable reading.

There is a group of bonobos, Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani and Makena by name, who are living at a university's Great Ape Language Lab. Now, while all apes may be unique these bonobos truly are - not only can they reason and have meaningful relationships but they're also able to communicate by American Sign Language.

Isabel Duncan is a scientist at the Lab working with the bonobos. She is more than content at the Lab as she feels more comfortable with the bonobos than with other human beings. However tranquility is broken when there's an explosion seriously injuring Isabel. Further, the bonobos have vanished only to reappear starring in a reality television program, Ape House.

Prior to the explosion a newspaper reporter, John Thigpen, had been putting together a story about what was happening in the Lab. But the explosion followed by the humiliating exploitation of the bonobos changes everything not only for him but also for Isabel as the two join forces to bring the bonobos home.

A remarkable story.

- Gail Cooke

'Ape House' is a light read that attempts to open the animal world to us by bringing the Bonobos Apes to life in an original way.

This is a story about a family of Bonobos, their caretaker scientist Isabel Duncan and a down to earth reporter John Thigpen. I will cover the plotting in a few words, it begins with the primate language laboratory being bombed and Isabel left badly injured, severe enough to end up in the trauma ward of the closest hospital. The Bonobos fall into the hands of a porn producer and are locked up in a house with cameras broadcasting their every move on cable television. Reporter John Thigpen covers the story while his personal life is on a down turn, his home life it is about to take a drastic change. The plotting gets meatier when Isabel is released from hospital and teams up with John to find out who targeted the laboratory, for what reason and what has happened to her family of apes.

The story explores in a far-fetched semi captivating manner, the issue of animal rights from the point of view of activists, scientists and the public. The plot takes a meandering course with a bit of action here and there mostly done by the humans, there are also subtle references to sexual activities amongst the apes and their unique methods of communication. I found this part satire and part morality driven tale was presented to us by a cast of lackluster and easily forgotten characters, maybe if the Bonobos had been given a greater role it would have left a more lasting impression. Unfortunately the book started strong just to peter out by the end, I was disappointed when the tale did not capture the apes' behaviour, gestures and emotions in a more detailed fashion.

Although the story was not what I had anticipated, I nevertheless enjoyed the change

I was sure disappointed in this book, Water for Elephants was great but this book was too juvenile as her "horsey" books tend to be. I read anything to do with animals and yes, I got something out of it about animals and yes ,the author did lots of research but the story was so predicable.

I have read Water For Elephants and consider it to be a five star book. It is one of my favourites. Ape House promised to be a good read and I expected it to be of the same calibre. I just finished it and am very disappointed.
The Apes , in my opinion, are merely a backdrop for the other characters, other than Isabel Duncan. We learn more about John Thigpen and his wife Amanda and their struggles than we do about the Apes.
I would have liked more of a story and connection to Isabel and the Apes and their time spent together before the explosion,this would have been a great opportunity to share what scientists have learned.
The story had great potential and Sarah Gruen is certainly a gifted writer and that is why I am so disappointed. It should have been better.

Bonzi, Makena, Sam, Lola, Jelani, and Mbongo are Bonobo apes who live in luxury at the Great Ape Language Lab under the careful eye of Isabel Duncan a scientist. These apes are able to reason, carry on relationships and can communicate with humans through American Sign Language. They are extremely intelligent animals.

A reporter named John Thigpen comes to Isabel's lab to see and interview both Isabel and the Bonobo's as an interest piece for his newspaper. Little did John and Isabel know that this particular piece was going to turn out to be the biggest story of their entire lives.

An serious and highly damaging explosion at the lab severely injures Isabel and the apes go missing until a reality television show featuring the missing Bonobos airs on t.v. Millions of people are literally glued to their t.v. sets watching the everyday lives of the apes. They order greasy take-out, eat hamburgers one after the other totally ruining their careful diet that was fed to them at the Language Lab. They are also signing on t.v. for Isabel to come and get them, but where are they?

Once out of the hospital, Isabel now sets out to find who has the apes and where they are being housed but it won't be easy. She is forced to get mixed up with some pretty sleazy people. Will Isabel ever find her beloved Bonobos?

Sara Gruen has written another mesmerizing story that will keep you turning page after page. For those of you who read Sara's other novel: "Water for Elephants" won't be disappointed with this one either. This is a novel that everyone should read!!

I love Sara Gruen's fluid writing style; not one excess word, not one excess sentence - everything is streamlined like a river flowing right through the narrative to the end. It's a page-turner, but I will warn you about this: there are some parts that I found very hard to read because I am an animal lover. What kept me going was the knowledge that so is Sara Gruen.

Sara Gruen knows how animals are exploited and believe me, she does not spare any details about the exploitation and miserable confined lives of apes and chimpanzees in this book. Nor does she spare any detail about the diabolical plans of people who aim to grow rich by causing pain and suffering to animals.

Which is why, if you love animals, you should read it, and pass it along to everyone you know so that awareness can grow about just why the time has come for a full-blown global discussion on the way humans and their corporations treat animals.

Like Water for Elephants, this book will not leave you once you've read it. It will become part of you. Even as I write this review, and recall the passages about apes in confinement, my stomach lurches and I want to cry.

Nevertheless I give this book the highest possible recommendation. Once you start, you can't put it down. Even as your heart aches, you have to continue reading. Sara Gruen's writing is magical like that. And there is so much to learn from what she has learned about apes and their amazing abilities to communicate. Not to mention their dizzying ability to love. We humans have a lot to learn.