Review Summaries

• Highly praised for its complex and independent heroine, realistic portrayal of primate research, and the interwoven structure of three parallel narratives.

• Kirkus Reviews called it a compelling narrative and further evidence of a major emerging talent. While noting the parallelism of human and primate aggression as familiar territory, the unromantic characterization and narrative economy were praised.

Reviews

• アフリカで奮闘する知的なブリジット・ジョーンス

  高学歴プラス意中の男性と結婚し、全てが順調に見えていたのに、ガタガタと崩れていく。そんな過去を背負った女性がアフリカのジャングルでチンパンジーの生態観測の仕事に就く。そこでプロに徹するあまり、上司といざこざ。そして、現地で出会うパイロットとの恋愛。本音で一生懸命生きている20歳後半の女性がたくましく、そして人生を優しくみられるようになっていく様子がリアルに描かれていて、共感できる。スリルとサスペンスと笑いあり。アフリカで奮闘する知的なブリジット・ジョーンスといった感じ。

• excellent read!

  I loved this book. It was so rich with word and plot. Tied together so effortlessly. Now, which William Boyd next?

• My Favourite Novel

  Boyd takes us on a splendid journey with unforgettable characters who illuminate humanity’s pleasures and pains. I had given away my copy and needed a replacement for a third reading in 30 years. This book stands up to the test of time. This seller was prompt and the book arrived in exactly the described condition. Thank you.

• classic boyd

  I re-read this book after several years; it has more than stood the test of time. It is hard to describe the book, which is probably why the cover-notes are so misleading. Easier to describe what there is to enjoy. The writing is intelligent and provocative. The meandering story lines are littered with esoteric but fascinating details from many areas of the natural sciences. This is not the subject of the book, however. The real subject is about self perception. Boyd is the master of observing how people react to one another in banal or tense situations. The book is about a young, intelligent zoologist whose life is dictated by her own impetuous decisions. She doesn't know what she wants, but defines herself by what she doesn't want: the ordinary, dull and dependent life. As a result she is in perpetual conflict with her family, husband, colleagues and friends. Even escape to Africa finds her relationships loaded with tension and suspicion. A brilliant study which is never dull and where the several stories wound into one, keep you wondering what will happen till the final page.

• Science and uncertainty

  Like his 2012 book, Waiting for Sunrise , Boyd employed a complex structure in this 1990 novel about science and discord, both marital and professional. Structure and the sciences are the glue for connecting the themes and metaphors of his overall story, a device for annexing separate compartments of the narrative and cohering it into a whole. Once you let that be, or let it go, and stop worrying if you are comprehending all the pieces while reading it, you can enjoy this compelling piece of fiction. It takes place primarily in the continent of Boyd's birth, Africa (he was raised in Ghana), but in an unnamed country loosely modeled on Angola and Mozambique. Civil wars are raging, with the federal government fighting factions, and guerilla warfare ongoing. You don't need to even know exactly where it takes place, or when. He doesn't tell us. Hope Clearwater is the feisty heroine, a young PhD in plant and animal ethology who was married to an obsessive mathematician, until she wasn't. Right now, as the story opens, she is living on Brazzaville Beach in Africa, narrating the events that led to where she is now, and taking stock of her life. Over the course of the book, Hope shares the events and casualties that led to her living alone on this beach. Her most recent post was at the Grosso Avore Research Center, with the established and respected scholar, Eugene Mallobar, a PhD and author of several books on primates, who has studied them for 30 years. Although Hope had no experience in working with chimpanzees, she works diligently, with regard and respect. She makes a daily rendezvous to study them in the wild. Her assignment is to observe and track the movements of a southern faction of apes that broke off from the northerners. Hope makes a harrowing discovery about the two groups of chimps--the northerners and the southerner group that split off. When she shares it with Mallobar, he becomes threatened (he also has a new research book coming out). He tries to deny the accuracy of Hope's observation skills. The civil wars both overshadow and parallel the events at the Grosso Arvore Research Center, the chimps, and the behavior of some of the scientists. Each new titled section or chapter of the novel begins in italics, often presenting the various divergence and chaos theories of her ex-husband's research, and giving room for the reader to tie in concepts of uncertainty in Hope's existence. There are parallels to dominion and sex, aggression, and the need to find clear and determined answers. During her marital separation, Hope worked on an ancient English estate, dating and describing hedgerows, with detailed specific answers available for her to ponder. However, when her estranged husband comes to visit, her life feels in flux again. He barrages her with his anxiety and failed research attempts. There are a lot of trajectories to this book, including Hope's relationship with a Mig 15 mercenary pilot, an Egyptian named Usman Shoukry, who meticulously constructs (for his amusement) tiny, detailed airplanes made out of tissue and attached to horseflies. Hope sees Usman when she makes provision runs for the reserve. Admittedly, I haven't unraveled every thread of this book sufficiently to articulate a review with any authority. It is a book to cogitate on, closely, and possibly from an aerial distance. The chimps' DNA is only a fraction off from humans; they act human sometimes. People act like apes periodically. At the center is Hope, twining the different narrative threads, keeping the reader suspended in the turbulent whirlpool of humanity.

• tja,

  ein tolles Buch, bei dem man aber nicht unbedingt zu zart beseitet sein sollte wenn man tierlieb ist.... die Szenen in denen die Affen aufeinander los gehen sind schon recht drastisch geschildert, wenn man nicht regelmäßig Splatterromane oder -filme konsumiert. Trotzdem von mir für dieses Buch Daumen hoch und lesen!

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