Jennie

Rating:
Summary: Jennie Archibald: Very Good, Very Gentle, Very Brave
Review: An amazing, thought-provoking book, "Jennie" is the fascinating story (actually a composite of several case studies of the time period) of Jennie, a chimpanzee raised as a human as part of an experiment to see how chimps acquire language. Because one of my main interests is language, I found this book extremely interesting.The research presented in this book (which is based upon real experiments) has major implications for both chimps and humans. As a story, "Jennie" is weak in parts: the characterizations can be sketchy and in some places the presentation of the information (diary entries, interviews, etc.) seems kind of gimmicky. However, this should not deter you from a most interesting read. "Jennie" shows the human side of scientific research (except, of course, for the little fact that the book's main character is a chimpanzee).. It's about the malleable nature of perception. It's about evolution, and ethics. This book raises many more questions than it answers-- and that is what it is designed to do, as the most meaningful gift a writer can bestow is to make his readers think. After reading this book, I found myself questioning exactly what my relationship, as a human, is to the world around me.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Fiction!
Review: I will admit up front that I am a sucker for a chimp story. I think it's due in part to an overdose of "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" and re-runs of Daktari at a very tender age. But this IS an excellent novel. Preston is one half of the team that wrote "The Relic" and several other great thrillers. this is much more gentle fiction than any of those. It is character and issue driven realistic fiction. Jennie is a chimp who is raised as a human child. The story is told as if it were a true history and the viewpoint is split. There are interviews (using sign language) with Jennie, exerpts from her "father's" book, newspaper articles, and other interviews. The story's flow is surprisingly smooth for all that. At turns funny and heart-breaking, Jennie won't leave you along once you pick this novel up. It's short, but block off some time...it's a page turner. And the denouement, while not surprising (what always happens when the wild enters surburbia?) is all the sadder for its inevitableness.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel. Ignore harsh editorial reviews.
Review: In real life in the 1960's, a number of experiments were performed in which an infant chimpanzee was raised as a child in a human family. In every case, the ape did astonishingly well until puberty, at which point its strength increased drastically and its moods became unmanageable. In every case, the animal died tragically. "Jennie" is a work of fiction based on these experiments.

I'm astonished at the editorial reviews above. One actually describes the book as "cartoonish"? Did we read the same novel? If this is the way the book was handled in the press, then it's no wonder that it's out of print, and no wonder that the author has since resorted to writing "thrillers" that sell better.

Jennie is one of the most haunting, intelligent books I've ever read. If you've ever wondered about the psychology of other creatures, or even whether they can be said to have a psychology, you should read this book.

In particular, I appreciate that the priest character who befriends the ape is handled completely sympathetically, and not treated as a cruel "monkey trial" caricature. Indeed, the plot rarely takes the "obvious" route, even though the subject matter can lead it to only one possible ending.

Disney did a TV movie based on it recently. The commercials made it look like a childish farce, and I couldn't bring myself to watch it.

This book is an excellent read. I keep giving it to friends as gifts, and they invariably love it.