Ape House
Published September 2010
Spiegel & Grau a division of Random House, Inc. by Sara Gruen

Started May 31, 2015
Finished June 18, 2015
306 Pages

Brief synopsis:
John Thigpen meets some extra-ordinary Bonobos apes for a newspaper assignment. Little does he know just how important this assignment will become to the bonobos. After his writing partner, Cat Douglas, steals his story, the ape research facility where he met Bonzi, Lola, Jelani, Makena, Sam, and Mbongo becomes the site of a malicious bombing. What happens to the apes and their dedicated care taker, Isabel Duncan, is a story of betrayal, dedication, and the fight for those without a voice. Ape House is the story of how pure intentions and collaboration often lead to our biggest rewards in life.

Why this book and why now:
I picked up Ape House at the same time that I grabbed Counting by 7s. At the time, I was looking for a novel to escape and provide some reprieve from the cycle of grieving my grandmother’s passing. I had very much enjoyed Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants so Ape House seemed an obvious choice while wandering the library bookshelves.

Frankly, this book is not about what I expected it to be. One of the first quotes I captured was, “Bonobos—along with dolphins and humans—are the only animals known to have recreational sex.” Page 10. This fact was new to me and I found it rather interesting. I did not expect the book to spend so much time focused on exploiting the sexuality of the apes. The more I read the book, I was remembered the sexual undertones in Water for Elephants. By no means am I trying to insinuate that I am a prude or am disturbed, embarrassed, or otherwise finger wagging at the topic, but the fact that the apes’ sexuality is such an integral part of the storyline was surprising and took a while to accept and adjust to while reading. I’m curious to know more about why Sara Gruen has chosen sexual experiences to be the lens through which she tells her stories, well at least the two that I have read so far (At the Water’s Edge is on my to-be-read list).

One topic that this book has made me more aware of over the last few weeks is that of animal testing. There is a scene in the book where Isabel Duncan visits a notorious chimp/ape research facility. During her experience on the inside Isabel learns of some of the tests the primates are subjected to including cancer research, mother/child bonding, etc. I am going to assume Gruen has done her research and that the experiments referenced are based on some form of actual tests being conducted on animals. As I’ve mulled this part of the story line over, it has made me wonder just how much harm has been done to animals in the name of medicine, food safety, and psychological understanding.  I’ve recently started to cut out “mammal meat” from my diet as I have become more aware of the conditions and methods that cattle and hog farms use to raise these animals. And it also is becoming harder to justify eating something of my own classification. (No, I am not judging you or trying to subversively get you to stop eating your bacon cheeseburger.) I think I am going to save total awareness of animal testing for a little further into my journey to going mostly vegetarian.

One of the sub stories in the book revolved around John Thigpen’s wife, Amanda. Personally, I did not care for the way that Gruen portrayed Amanda. I think she wrote Amanda in a cliché fashion and solved Amanda’s problems with a stereotypical cliché. The last chapter of the book had me rolling my eyes as Gruen wrapped up all the loose ends from her story lines.

Recommended reading for:
Ape House is certainly a book for adults. There are some themes that made this book interesting such as that of the way humans treat animals, human fascination and simultaneous embarrassment regarding sex, and the value of unexpected friendships.

The final word:
The Author’s Note in Ape House is what redeemed the book for me. When I learned that Sara Gruen actually visited with bonobos apes and spoke with them, much as her main character did, I was suddenly much more interested. I wish Sara would have written more from this perspective and left some of the highly unlikely scenarios out or at least made them a little more believable. Again, I’m thinking of the way Amanda Thigpen was written and also the pizza parlor scene. This is very likely not a book I would look to reread nor is it a book I would think first to recommend.

A final note: While I may not list this book as one of my favorites or even as one I fully enjoyed reading, I have huge amounts of admiration and respect for any author. The discipline, research, persistence, dedication, and crazy amounts of time it takes to get a whole book written and published is admirable! The process of writing these few blog posts have opened my eyes to the huge level of commitment it takes to write something of quality and worth. The risk an author takes in putting their work out for the world to critique is amazing. I am grateful that so many author’s continue to produce new works, I’ve learned so much because of them all!

New words learned:
By default, all definitions for new words learned are sourced from Webster.com

Virtuosic (Page 10): a person who does something in a very skillful way
Crepitus (Page 22): popping and cracking noises of the joints
Soupcon (Page 35): a small amount of something
Prurient (Page 97): having or showing too much interest in sex
Occlusion (Page 135): the obstruction of the breath passage in the articulations of a speech sound
Oeuvre (Page 141): all the works that a writer, an artist, or a composer has created
Papadum (Page 227): a thin, crisp disc-shaped Indian and Pakistani food typically based on a seasoned dough made from black gram, fried or cooked with dry heat.

After looking up all of the new words I collected along the way, I question some of Gruen’s word choice. In the places that she used virtuosic (page 10) and papadum (page 227), assuming the webster definitions that I sourced are in alignment with her intention, the words just don’t seem to fit.

Selected quotes:
“Bonobos—along with dolphins and humans—are the only animals known to have recreational sex.” Page 10

“We are, all of us, collaborators. We are, in fact family.” Page 10
Wouldn’t it be amazing if more of us thought about the world around us in such a way?

“The business of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Page 34
I wish we could get the majority of the news media back to this in a less sensationalized way. There are many stories and humanitarian issues that could benefit from some compassion and helpful calls to action rather than the repeated reporting with no proffered solutions.

Have you read Ape House? Let me know what you think in the comments section.