A lucid, fictionalized account of an actual chimpanzee’s life, with strong ecological overtones.
A chimpanzee who escaped captivity and returned to his native forest narrates his story for the members of his new community.
In this novel, Kroma (Manners Maketh Man, 2014, etc.) draws on a 2006 incident in which a chimpanzee escaped from the Tacugama wildlife preserve in Sierra Leone and was later observed at the heart of a group of wild chimpanzees, apparently holding forth. Kroma imagines the life history that the ape, known as Bruno, might have been telling his listeners. Bruno, born to a group of wild chimpanzees and called Wuu-aai-yiaa, is renamed after being captured by poachers. Bruno lives as a pet with several missionary families before he is sent to Tekuyama, where he collects the life stories of his fellow inmates. The accounts of these other chimpanzees—a former scientific test subject, an American house pet, a mascot for one of the groups fighting in Sierra Leone’s civil war—form much of the narrative, until Bruno decides it is time to return to the wild. He organizes an escape, and although his compatriots eventually choose to return to captivity, he becomes part of a wild chimpanzee troop and rediscovers the skills he needs to survive in the forest. Kroma weaves information about chimpanzee habits and Sierra Leone’s recent history into the narrative, depicting apes who are aware (to the extent of musing on “the homocentric view of nature promoted by Western culture”) of their subordinate position in the human world. Although the book clearly identifies its setting as Sierra Leone and connects the chimpanzees’ experiences to that country’s recent history, there are several references to generically “African” and exotic traits (“Like most humans on the African continent, we chimpanzees are named after events, attributes, or the ancestors that our births invoke”; people meeting Tekuyama’s director, an Asian man, “can be forgiven” for assuming he is a local). But on the whole, Kroma has imagined a coherent back story for Bruno that serves as a microcosm of human-primate interactions and misunderstandings.
Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5117-4427-0
Page Count: 142
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
