Play Book Tag discussion

3.5 stars

Walt and Judy want children, but are unable to have any. When Walt sees a chimpanzee at a circus, he decides he will get one for his wife, in place of a child. They love Looee very much, like a son, but as with all wild animals, as he ages, he is too much to handle.

There is a chimpanzee sanctuary where people are studying the chimps’ behaviour. In the story, we alternate between Walt/Judy/Looee’s perspectives, and the perspectives of the people and chimps at the sanctuary.

I listened to the audio and at first, particularly when we switched to the sanctuary, I had some trouble initially figuring out what was going on. It was interesting to see things from the chimps’ perspectives at times, though. And heartbreaking. I also had trouble getting “into” the book at the start knowing Walt and Judy had done a terrible thing treating a wild animal as a child; There was no way it was going to end well for Looee. I felt like the book didn’t fully end, but it’s possible I missed something (audio), or maybe the author wanted “life” to just sort of continue on.

I read this over 10 years ago and was sure that I wrote a review, but perhaps it didn't transfer over.

This was quite a difficult story and was similar to Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

It was altogether very sad.

Booknblues wrote: "I read this over 10 years ago and was sure that I wrote a review, but perhaps it didn't transfer over.

This was quite a difficult story and was similar to Karen Joy Fowler's [book:We Are All Compl..."

I did also read "We are all Completely Besides Ourselves", but I don't remember it well enough to really compare. Beyond that I'm certain I rated it higher... and it might also have been an audio!