The Woman and the Ape

Rating:
Summary: Thank you AGAIN Peter Hoeg
Review: Peter Hoeg is one of those rare writers -- whose every book is a literary treasure. I have yet to be disappointed by anything he has written. And this book -- the woman and the ape -- is not exception. Hoeg does such a masterful job at raising questions about our own species and our relationship to the Earth, that this book should be read by environmental studies students. Hoeg also entrances his readers -- once again -- with sensual writings, sensitive characters, and a magical air (as he did with Smilla's Sense of Snow), that this book should also be read in literary classes. ... simply: it is a book to be read. and shared.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you AGAIN Peter Hoeg
Review: Peter Hoeg is one of those rare writers -- whose every book is a literary treasure. I have yet to be disappointed by anything he has written. And this book -- the woman and the ape -- is not exception. Hoeg does such a masterful job at raising questions about our own species and our relationship to the Earth, that this book should be read by environmental studies students. Hoeg also entrances his readers -- once again -- with sensual writings, sensitive characters, and a magical air (as he did with Smilla's Sense of Snow), that this book should also be read in literary classes. ... simply: it is a book to be read. and shared.

Rating:
Summary: Cold and unpalatable
Review: Peter Hoeg throws a slew of themes at the reader (addiction, the divide between humans and animals, the nature of intelligence), but the book never really succeeds in engaging the reader. And the sympathy one feels for Erasmus (a well-drawn character) does not make interspecies romance palatable. "The Woman and the Ape" provides a lot of fodder for book club chatter, but it is not a pleasurable read.

Rating:
Summary: touching somewhere deep inside
Review: this book does indeed touch somewhere deep inside. the novel is not interested in realitiy, in the stiching together of plot. Hoeg presents us with a story that moves between paralells and allows us to dream and purge at the same time. he allows humour and eroticism to take the place of plot and story. i like madeline and her test tube and samson and the dog. they all represent some deep flaw in our humanness. this book provoked and moved. and turned me on.

Rating:
Summary: touching somewhere deep inside
Review: this book does indeed touch somewhere deep inside. the novel is not interested in realitiy, in the stiching together of plot. Hoeg presents us with a story that moves between paralells and allows us to dream and purge at the same time. he allows humour and eroticism to take the place of plot and story. i like madeline and her test tube and samson and the dog. they all represent some deep flaw in our humanness. this book provoked and moved. and turned me on.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting idea badly brought across
Review: This book is based on quite an interesting idea, and it would bring that across had it not been so badly written. For a fable it is trying to be too realistic, for a story it isn't trying to be realistic enough. I had quite a hard time believing several crucial points in the story, mostly due to the fact that Hoeg is telling me everything, never showing me anything so he can make me belive what I read. When I finally accepted (not believed, accepted) that Madalene was an alcoholic, I was led to believe that she could fight it (right after an almost delirium) in just a couple of days...sure. I also had a hard time believing her strange relationship with Adam, and I guess weird relationships do exist, but I was mostly annoyed by the fact that I should also believe that so many couples have never actually seen eachother naked, as in the end of the book everyone is in shock about the existence of the other apes. Some have even been able to make kids and not let their husband or wife notice that they were hairy all over. Quite an accomplishment I would say. I love a good plot, I love interesting ideas, like this one was, especially as they defend a principle, contain a moral theory, but I would like it to be brought across with some level of realism. Make me believe it could've happened. And I'm willing to believe in superintelligent apes. Even that you can fall in love with them. That was actually the most believable part, Madalene's love for Erasmus. Not enough for me to forget about the rest though.

Rating:
Summary: Loving Adam's Ape
Review: This little book can toss your world up into the air, as if performing a kind of fun circus trick, and force you to look at it from interesting new angles. Every character here is memorable as a harvest moon, ten times normal size and glowing yellow in an indigo sky: Madelene Burden, who at a precociously young age has managed to perform the feat of trapping her terrified brain like a model ship in a bottle of booze; her husband, Adam, icky incarnation of 20th century fears of science on steroids; Andrea Burden, cold-shouldered sister-in-law from the foggiest freezer compartments of hell; Erasmus and all his furry friends, who may drive truck or even (oh no!) be the minty-breathed girl next door. The whole time you're telling yourself that this tale is too improbable to be true, you'll be panting to turn the next page. Best of all: Høeg succeeds in making some readers really angry, a sure sign that he's struck gold, silver and platinum in a single novelistic mine shaft. Don't deny yourself the pleasures of viewing the treasures sparkling from every inch of this cave as you descend into it; it's as clever as Carlsbad.