Customer Reviews

Great Apes

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read and I've been reading since 1964. What it lacks in profundity if makes up in snobery. I first stumbled across this author with an engaging story called "The Quantity Theory of Insanity" so I knew he had a sense of humor. But "Great Apes" is unequaled. If you have a scientific education or you enjoy a good vocabulary and convoluted parody I couldn't recommend a better book. Get a used copy and laugh your scrag off. You won't be dissapointed. You might also like "Jesus Mary Delahunty" by David MacSweeney.

I don't think that this book's satire is its strongest suit. Sure, Mr. Self manages to poke fun at humanity's romantic notions of love, relationship, and affection, by pointing a giant ape-sized mirror up to us. But that is really just a minor part of the book. He's really involved in a drawn out discussion of semiotics. By giving his ape-society an entirely different form of communication (signing), he's able to call attention to the way that we communicate with each other. Okay, I've said my piece.

The descriptions and displays of the ape society are nearly perfect. The constant grooming, "arse-kissing" (literally; it's a display of respect), physical recriminations, and especially the wall-to-wall copulating ("mating") are jarring at first, but eventually become routine for the reader. If there's any satire here, it's in Self trying to elicit a horrified response from his more prudish readers. I found the rules and regulations of his ape society fascinating and very well drawn.

I also enjoyed the fact that he took human cultural items (O.J. Simpson, HIV/AIDS, The Planet of the Apes movies) and hypostatized them, as they would appear in the ape world. He also had much fun substituting human for chimp/ape and chimp/ape for human whenever he could ("chimpanity", going "human sh*t", etc.)

My complaints about the novel are thus:

The secondary plot, in which several ape underlings conspire to form an alliance against Dr. Busner, felt tacked on. It never went anywhere, and hardly affected the plot. The one revelation that it provided had literally no dramatic effect at all. Pity, because it could have provided a much-needed narrative shake-up, to move the story along.

His characters all talk as if they are the offspring of Umberto Eco and Sigmund Freud. Everyone appears extremely well versed in the teachings of semiotics and clinical psychology. Even Simon (simian?) Dykes, the schizoid human-turned-ape, showed vast amounts of knowledge, so much so that I wondered why he didn't just up and cure himself! It became mighty frustrating, especially for the layman with only a cursory understanding of each, and a desire to read dialogue that doesn't sound like it's being copied from a textbook. Maybe that was that point? If it was, then it wasn't made clearly enough.

Self's prose -- the non-clinical portions -- was very inconsistent. At first, it felt very verbose, as if the author was paid per fifty-cent word. And at times it felt almost taciturn, preferring to make his points through the grunts that peppered the apes signing. I preferred the instances of the latter, purely for the fact that they contributed more to setting up his ape society, to the former, which only confused my sweet, little brain.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel for the alternate society it portrayed, and was more than a bit annoyed that it never really used it to say anything of interest.

My wife bought this book for me because she liked the cover. I like it too, and think it looks rather like a simian Duane Gish (of the Institute for Creation Research)--do a Google image search and you'll see what I mean.

I don't think, as one reviewer wrote here, that the Zack Busner character is particularly based on Freud. There is evidence early on that he is at least partially based on Oliver Sacks (his list of publications in the world of chimps has titles very much like those of Sacks' books, and his intimate relationships with his patients are similar to Sacks' style).

This is my first experience with Will Self and I must say it is unique. I really enjoy Chuck Pahlniuk's work and was recomended to this author. The book is extremely well written and Self's style is invigirating forcing you to read on. I must warn however that the explict nature of this book may not be for everyone and became almost obnoxious at a certain point. The author paints a vivid picture of a world that has been created around ape culture and lifestyle but coupled with our own weaknesses, vices, and supressed sexuality and the cynical view of our modern world is very thought provoking, however I must be clear this book is not for everyone, be prepared for a strange ride through a very foreign world.

I have never been inparted with 'Grnn' any of Will Self's previous books. So I can't sign much about the 'euch-euch' cuffing he has received from critics in the past. But through my introduction to Self in this novel, I am thoroughly impressed with the efulgence of his ischeal pleat and submit to his literary suzerainity. Why do humans bash Self, 'huuu'? His effectiveness in taking up such a difficult task is ample evidence of his skill. Yet with all the potential he has for a devastating critique of modern society, he is modest. Amis' "Times Arrow" comes immediately to my mind in parallel, as well as T. Boyle's satire. Both those artists reserve a much more serious tone in their critique of western civilization. Yet Self maintains a delicate balance hovering around the personal which lends itself to extension without ever losing the pure joy of his parallel universe's perversions of what humans consider natural. Self's chimps are not locked inside their own minds as are humans. They quickly resolve their existential dilemnas with a quick mating or a brutal yet brief brawl. And for this, the world of chimpunity has no use for weapons. What chimps lack is sexual attention from their parents. Such a world! Self could do worse than to extend and expand in such fertile 'euch-euch' terrian. I for one would like to see more. For now, a hearty HoooGraah! Self is my kind of chimp.
(updated from my anonymous review)

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.

I don't read many books like Great Apes. And I probably won't start to after reading this book. Not that it's a bad book, becasue it isn't. Will Self is obviously a very capable gifted writer. I found some of the satire very funny and to the point. However I found the point belabored quite a bit. He seemed to be in love with his cleverness, and I'm sure he is quite clever, but it got a little redundant for me. So very good book, the style of which turned me off more times than not.

All of Will Self's works come across as a bit self-congratulatory, which is probably why his short stories/novellas are a somewhat easier to swallow than his novels. Great Apes is no exception. This is a clever novel but it would have worked better as a short story.

That said, Great Apes is entertaining and at times quite funny, as long as you're not squemish. And before you've finished the novel you will likely have learned a bit both about psychology and about primate society. An interesting combination. Another amusing point is seeing characters and events from Self's previous work popping up, but in ape form.

To get to these bright spots, however, the reader has to wade through a fair dose of sophomoric humor and a good deal of unnecessary plot filler. Is it worth it? For those fans of Self's previous work who have a bit of patience, perhaps so. Some of the social commentary in Great Apes works - parallels between human society and the "primitive" apes - but by the time you get to the conclusion you will feel beaten over the head with the novel's symbolism.

I approached GREAT APES with some degree of trepidation. It really was the cover that drew me in, the subtle photo blend of monkey and man which resulted in a visage not unlike that of my grandfather's. But the plot? Chimps in place of humans? It's been done before, and resulted in Charleton Heston's least annoying performance (I'm referring to the movie adaptation of PLANET OF THE APES, if it escaped your attention). Let's face it, once Heston has been affiliated with a subject, it's best just to lie low and hope it goes away.

But GREAT APES is far more than a PLANET remake. GREAT APES, while latching on to the same basic premise, has rethought the whole approach. While PLANET's apes were really humans in every way except appearance, GREAT APES reminds us that the chimpanzee world, in its modes and relationships, is remarkably different that ours. It is the paradox of seeing how ridiculous a chimp society would be, while realizing how silly our own system has become, that makes GREAT APES memorable.

Granted, some readers may be put off by some of the more scatological references and desciptions. Let's face it, any exploration into a society that values the size and swelling of the posterior region is bound to offend some. But those who manage to see beyond the base humour of these sections will find a parallel world of depth and wisdom that is well worth exploring.

Self is often unfairly criticised for his complex, verbose prose: contrary to what others would have you believe, his style does not detract from the flow of Great Apes, nor does it impede the process of imagination. Reading Self, especially his early work, is an education; an opportunity to improve your vocabulary and to take advantage of a skewed individual's unique perception of what has limped forth from the societal soup.

However, Great Apes is much, much more than an academic exercise. It is a, too often, disturbing allegory of the superficial nature of constructed culture and manufactured reality. It illuminates just how fragile our cosy and insular existences might be - presenting a perspective that is a little too genetically familiar for comfort.