Back in 2008 I wrote a five star review for Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants. I could hardly wait until she wrote her next novel. The wait is now over, Ape House was released in September. 

Sara Gruen will be appearing as a special event of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, at 7:30 PM on November 4th.  Look for my post, covering the event, in November.

Ape House is really has three main intersecting story lines:
Isabel Duncan is a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab. Her “family” are the bonobos that she works with. She also has some major boyfriend trouble. There’s the story of John Thigpen, a married reporter who interviews Isabel and the apes. His career is threatened and his marriage is in jeopardy. Then of course, there are the bonobos themselves, Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Malkena. They are the center of the story and communicate with Isabel with American Sign Language.
An explosion happens at the lab and the bonobous escape, while Isabel is wounded and rushed to the hospital. All of a sudden a reality television show comes on the air featuring the bonobous. Isabel is determined to recover from her injuries and be united with her “family”.
I found Ape House to be a fun and engaging read. It seems a bit more like “main stream” fiction than Water for Elephants but still has literary merit. I usually like quirky characters however, Nathan and Cecelia were a bit over the top for me and I really wanted interested in John’s marital issues and Isabel’s boyfriend issues.
The best part of the book was about the bonobous themselves. Gruen’s research seems to be bang on and she captured my heart for the wonderful creatures that have so much in common with us, humans. I think the story would have been better if Guren would have focused more on the bonobous and less on the John and Isabel’s personal issues.
3.5
Thanks so much to Julie Forrest of Random House Canada for this book.
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To find out about real life bonobous visit the Bonobo Conservation Initiative.
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