It's March?

Okay, I'm a few days late. And by "a few" I mean six. But February is a cruel mistress, yielding a mere 28 days. If anything, I am a victim here. Especially because Sara Gruen has terrified me with her latest Ape House. 


Before I begin, I would like to note that I did something very out of the ordinary when purchasing this book: I went for the hardcover.  A paperback loyalist, I did this because I had no choice. Ape House doesn't come out in soft squishy paperback loveliness for a few more months, and when I saw that the hardback was a first edition, I convinced myself that having gone to the dentist several weeks prior merited a splurge and bought the thing.

And now, the spoiler alert.


Ape House is a story about monkeys, more specifically bonobos. Isabel the bonobo scientist meets John the reporter-who-never-quite-made-it-as-big-as-he'd-imagined-but-will-make-it-big-when-he-breaks-a-bonobo-related-scandal. The bonobos love Isabel, her lab gets bombed, the bonobos are stolen and end up on a reality TV show featuring the apes called Ape House, which is disturbing and wrong, and therefore wildly successful in ratings. John saves the day with his savvy investigation skills and reunites Isabel with the monkeys. All very heartwarming, really. And very predictable.

I have to admit, the first words that come to mind when describing this book aren't pretty. Actually, they're "disappointing" and "terrifying."  Let's begin with the disappointing part.

Having fallen in love with Gruen after reading Water for Elephants, which is being made into a movie (!!!!), I had high expectations going into Ape House. Although she did satisfy my craving for some bilingual prose (Elephants had Polish, the bonobos use ASL), she failed to satisfy little else. Characters were well developed, but their relationships were inconsistent and often fake. For an author attempting to comment on America's obsession with reality TV, her own writing occasionally conveyed itself in a similar, scripted manner. Sorry, Sara.

Let's move on to terrifying. A favorite professor of mine, who once taught a literature seminar called "Monsters and Villains", has argued that the most disturbing and scary form of monstrosity is that which so closely resembles mankind. So when Gruen writes about bonobos who can order clothing online, speak in ASL, and get their own TV show, I cannot help but feel chilled. Seriously, let me know how it goes when you read about a monkey who eats cheeseburgers.

I get it, Sara. You wanted to make a comment about the human/animal relationship and blur the lines that would normally divide the two species. But there were few surprises in this story, and ultimately the plot was masked by bonobo interactions.

Despite my disappointment with this text, I have not given up on Gruen. In keeping with the bilingual kick, I continue to Oscar Wao.