by Jane Goodall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1990
Absolutely smashing account by famed ethologist Goodall (The Chimpanzees of Gombe, 1986) of three decades spent observing chimps on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Goodall's chief scientific contribution--and the reason why this book grips so tightly--is her unflagging insistence that chimps have personalities, thoughts, emotions. Her conviction allows her to present her research as a set of compelling stories, recounting the rise and fall of successive generations of chimps with the same punch a biographer might bring to a family chronicle. Stark characters--Flo, the benign mother; Gigi, the chimp equivalent of Helen of Troy; Jomeo, the gentle giant; Gilka, whose life was a ""tale of infinite sadness""--flourish and fade within a dramatic web of war, cannibalism, compassion, courage, and enough sex to put a rabbit warren to shame. Goodall obviously loves her chimps, weeping at their death, shuddering at their threatened extinction, delivering an impassioned attack upon their ""imprisonment"" by zoos and laboratories. Extrapolating from chimp behavior, she draws some strong conclusions for her own family life and for human society in general, above all the ""immeasurable importance to a child of good mothering [and] the utter joy and contentment which that relationship can bring to the mother."" In fact, although chimps carry the day, Goodall's interactions with other humans--her two marriages; the field education of her son, Grab; a harrowing tale of terrorist attack in the mid-70's--do much to deepen the tale. Thrilling, affectionate, intelligent--a classic.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0547336950
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1990
Categories: NONFICTION
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