a strange experience. The style is journalistic and clipped, matter of fact. For most of the book it feels as if he is just recapping, bringing us to the point where the story really starts. Then it does, and in a chapter it's all over. SPOILERS I enjoyed the fact that both parents are so absorbed by their quest to find mythical beasts, they do not see the one living under their roof. But why is Charlie as he is? Not much clue. I almost want to re-read and see what I missed. The book is pretty relentlessly grim: the squalid awfulness of Monkey world, the general smelly nastiness of the monkeys, the barely touched on horrors of the Rwandan genocide, the bleak little lives of the hotel guests. los of good stuff there but somehow it never fully engaged me. and what of the poor murdered woman? Why did she follow him to the house? Did she havetfamily who would never have known what became of her but for the fact that the panther eventually put in an appearance?Intriguing but unsatisfying.
This is my fourth Neil Cross and I think I can officially say that he's one of my favourite authors. Perhaps not a crowd-pleaser, and he has a tendency to over-write (although not in this particular tome), and he doesn't supply a neat, tidy ending. Which is kind of why I like him.This novel could be interpreted in many ways. For me, I felt it was a riff on 'just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you' (which, for those who notice such things - and I did - is a line in a Nirvana song, and Nirvana get a bunch of mentions in the text although that's probably a coincidence (or is it..?)). It's a pretty dark novel, and each of the characters have their issues and demons - is it a whodunnit? Possibly. I loved it, anyway. Who knew a book about monkeys could be so engaging?
Do You like book Natural History (2008)?
I enjoyed this book. The characters are well fleshed out, believable and I cared what happened to them. It is well written with the tension building nicely. It's never obvious when the 'event' is going to happen nor to whom and when it does it comes as a shock, to me at least,in its random suddenness and violence.The setting is a strange one being mainly set in an ape sanctuary but as the story is really about relationships; between people, between animals, between nature and humans and the interractions between them and the similarities in behaviour it makes sense. The ending is poignant and the author leaves just enough questions unanswered to give the reader plenty to think about long after they have finished the book.
—Gary
