Book Review: 'Ape House'

Sara Gruen's first novel since her immensely popular Water For Elephants opens with two quotes that set the tone for the rest of the novel.  The first quote is from Nim Chimpsky, a young chimpanzee in the 1970s, and it is, "Give orange give me eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you."  And the second quote reads, "Gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more."--Briney Spears, 2007. 

I laughed a little when I first saw those two statements.  But as I continued to read the novel I was finding myself thinking that this book must be designed to be a satire.  The Bonobo apes are often portrayed as being intelligent with their ability to use the American Sign Language (ASL), while the adult humans are some of the most immature characters that I have read in recent memory.  From the opening quotes, to the last page, it seems that human beings are not much more evolved than our ape cousins.  Whether or not the novel is supposed to be a satire, it still falls short on having complicated or likable characters.

Two of the primary male characters in the novel are journalist John Thigpen and Dr. Peter Benton.  There is absolutely to ambiguity in either of their personalities. John is one of protagonists while Benton is a secondary character.  Gruen paints John Thigpen (who is sometimes called Pigpen, which is not funny at all) as the sweet, sensitive male whose main goal in life is to make is irritating wife, Amanda, happy.  Peter Benton, on the other hand, is a jerk is every possible way.  He does everything from cheating on his fiance (Dr. Isabel Duncan), to not showing compassion to the apes, to selling both her and the apes out for money.  The two characters come off as some sixteen year old's view of what men are like.  They are either completely good or completely evil.  

The female characters are only slightly better written.  Isabel Duncan is definitely sympathetic as she experiences at least a couple traumas in early parts of the story.  Yet, her personality does not come off as someone who has earned a doctorate of any kind.  He behavior in certain situations is unacceptable for a person of her intelligence.  However, compared to Amanda Thigpen, Isabel is full of wisdom beyond her years.

Amanda Thigpen . . . well what can I say.  I can't identify with a man like John when he is in love with a woman who breaks down every time someone says something off putting to her.  If I were him, I would be hesitant to have child with her as well.

So satire or not satire, that is the question.  I didn't even describe some of the more inexplicable moments in the story that made may laugh when I guess I shouldn't be laughing.   I can confidently say that there is definitely some meta commentary on our current society happening here.  But in order for it to be enjoyable, characters can't be game pieces for the real stars of the books, the apes.  I have yet to read any other work from Sara Gruen, so I don't know if she is a good writer.  But if Water for Elephants is anything like this, count me out.

Book Review: 'The Fall'

There are a vast number of online readers out there who seek out reviews of movies, TV shows, and books that simultaneously expect those reviews to include a SPOILER ALERT!! when divulging into more specific realms of the plot.  I plan to include such a warning towards the end of this review.  Nevertheless, anyone who has read The Strain probably knows what the word "Fall" is alluding to in this particular novel. In the second book of The Strain Trilogy--the modern day vampire epic from film auteur Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (author of Prince of Thieves)--the human race finds itself in no position to battle the unprecedented plague that threatens the extinction of their species.  The time for any "Rise," if that time ever comes, will have to wait until the third and final chapter of this series that will be titled The Night Eternal. 

The plague in The Fall is vampirism.  The creatures that are referred to as vampires in this series, the strigoi, are very different from the vampires that have been populating popular culture in the past few years.  They do not have sex, they do not dare step into the light, and none of them have anything close to resembling a human soul.  They are more Zombie-like in nature.  The big difference is, is that there is a hierarchical structure among the vampires.  Behind all the struggles that are protagonist are encountering lies a dispute between the oldest of them, the Ancients.

The mythology of the Ancients, while a driving force in the plot, is not at the center of the story.  Instead we continue to follow an unusual resistance of humans made up of the Eph, Nora, Zach (Z), Abraham Setrakian, Fet, and Gus.  Setrakian, or the professor, is one of the few humans who is aware of the history of strigoi, along with billionaire Eldrich Palmer.  He is a holocaust survivor who has witnessed the horror of both humanity and the supernatural throughout his years.  Ephraim (Eph) Goodweather and Nora Martinez are doctors who used to work for the Center for Disease Control.  Zach, Eph's son, has just lost his mother to the vampire virus and now the evil that possesses her is doing all it can to turn Zach (or her Dear One).  Fet is New York exterminator whose knowledge of rodents and the city's underground makes his an extremely useful ally.  And finally there is Gus, who currently finds himself as part of another branch of the resistance.

Guillermo del Toro has said that if there was ever an adaptation of the The Strain, he would like to see it be made into a miniseries.  I think that is the perfect medium as well.  The action in movies often has to be hurried up compared to books.  But part of what makes this series different is reading about the metamorphosis that are characters, the infected humans, and society as a whole is going through.

Honestly though, right now I am really enjoying the hell out of this ride and can't wait for the very thing that Ephraim Goodweather and the other characters are dreading . . . The Night Eternal.

SPOILER ALERT!!

I am pretty sure there is a mistake in the beginning of copy of the book that I read.  If I remember correctly, the first book begins in late September.  And that is supported by Eph's journal entry and the beginning of this book when he states that is has taken sixty days for human society to fall (entry dated Friday, November 26, 2010).  Yet, the beginning of the present story begins Thurday, November 4th (which is said to be one week since the 777 landed at JFK).  I either misunderstood something or this is an error on the printer's or authors' part(s).

Reviewing a New TV Show

Every fall season, as a way to promote their upcoming shows, the networks send out DVD screeners to the country's top critics.  The networks' marketing departments can use certain snippets of the reviews and place them in the commercials.  Anyone who has ever been exposed to commercials (in the DVR era, watching TV doesn't mean watching commercials) has seen an advertisement where they see "**** Four Stars." The movies studios have been using this marketing technique since television existed and
now websites like Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic tabulate aggregate score for the movies based off the reviews.