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Title: Great Apes by Will Self ISBN: 0-8021-3576-5 Publisher: Publishers' Group West Pub. Date: September, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (46 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Vividly imagined, yet ultimately unaffecting
Comment: I have read both of Self's novels now, and two of his short story collections. "My Idea of Fun" was a well-crafted, bold statement of Self's purpose. Some of his short stories are quite good, but some suffer the same problem as does this novel, "Great Apes". He starts with an idea, really a premise with promise, yet it doesn't take off. Despite Self's very real writing skill and mastery of the English language, I found myself impatient with this book; I hoped it would develop more of its ideas to provide more insight into that paragon of animals, Human. Nothing fresh here except the somewhat clever premise. Too bad; I remain a fan, as I have come to expect this unevenness. Check out MIOF, though.
Rating: 5
Summary: Sex, drugs and chimpanzees
Comment: One day, the artist Simon Dykes, a member of London's artistic elite, awakes after one of his a usual nights of sniffing cocaine and drinking large quantities of alcohol, discovering that his world has irretrievably changed. His girlfriend, Sarah, has turned into a chimpanzee. And, to Simon's appalled surprise, so have all other human beings. Chimpanzees are the dominant species and humans are considered to be wild animals.
This is substantially what happens in the first half of Will Self's novel Great Apes. If it reminds you of Kafka's Verwandlung or Swift's Gulliver's Travels, you're right. Self's alienating, partly schizophrenic satire undoubtedly stands in the tradition of works by Swift, Kafka, but also William Burroughs or J.G. Ballard. For those familiar with Self's autobiography, it will be easy to track down the similarities between the protagonist's drug addiction and Self's real-life experiences. His strong fascination with at the same time disgust for sex and violence emerge strongly in this fantastic novel, where the reader confronts a world that is basically ours, only that the social structure is strictly chimp: polygamy, hierarchy, violence and mutual grooming determine life. As the reader encounters new characters and becomes more and more familiar with the alternative chimpanzee world, it becomes less and less obvious what the differences between humans and apes actually are.
In the second part of Self's book, the horrified Simon, who is under the bizarre delusion that he is 'human', becomes the patient of Dr. Zack Busner, an alpha-male chimpanzee and psychiatrist with strikingly strong similarities to Freud. The aging Busner, who fears to lose his alpha-male position to a younger chimp, thinks he may finally make his reputation as a truly Great Ape, if he succeeds in curing Simon from his psychosis.
Without the 'HooGraas' of the chimps, their limited range of spoken utterances and the sign-language they consequently use and the constant grooming, it could easily be a description of London's drug, hospital and academic scene. This is what Self does so well, he is excellent at creating multiple identities (Simon the human or the chimp), schismatic realities (everything is typical of London and at the same time it is not the same city) and contrary views in one novel. With its satirical elements, like the rewriting of human history and the missing link theory; or placing dressed-up humans on greeting cards as we do with chimps in our world, Great Apes is not easy to categorize. Is it satire, fantasy, maybe even a Gothic novel? Probably all of these and that is what makes Self's work so interesting and fascinating to read.
Rating: 4
Summary: beneath the planet of the humans
Comment: A wicked view of humanity and its hypocrisies. A great novel to make you think about humans, their genetic programming and their place in the world. It also satirises the contemporary art scene in London and the academic world ruthlessly.
A substantial and important work, even if it is extremely seamy and seedy. It reminded me of visions like Anthony Burgess's Clockwork Orange and seems to sit well in the British tradition of satire going back to Swift.
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Title: The Quantity Theory of Insanity by Will Self ISBN: 0679750940 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: How the Dead Live by Will Self ISBN: 0802138489 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 02 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: My Idea of Fun by Will Self ISBN: 0679750932 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Sweet Smell of Psychosis by Will Self, Martin Rowson ISBN: 0802136478 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Shame : A Novel by Salman Rushdie ISBN: 0312270933 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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