MONKEY BUSINESS
MONKEYFACE, by Stephen Gilbert; Faber yand Faber. English price, 8/6. TEPHEN GILBERT’S first novel/was fantastic, his next extremely realistic. In Monkeyface he is to be congratulated upon giving his fantasy, with its inherently impossible situation, such an atmosphere of reality. When Bimbo, a captive ape of a hitherto unknown species, suddenly begins to imitate human speech, the difficulties are obvious: is he to be brought up as animal or boy? Wherein lies his future? These problems are resolved, not without some excitement. Once the faintly nauseous stages of the early mimicking of speech are passed and the conversation becomes normal, this story of an awakening intelligence is developed with skill and understanding. Bimbo’s friends, Miss Martha (whose protégé he becomes), the boys at school
and the gardener at home, are clearly drawn and throw his animal qualities into sharp relief. The novel is most successful where it brings out the ape’s sensitivity to his external surroundings, and where it tells of his strange musings upon the part of his species has to play in the universe. But where the dust-cover promised comedy, I found pathos. This is an unusual book, but not one to be recommended to the S.P.C.A. or those who cannot abide baby talk, even
in monkeys.
C.M.
B.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 527, 29 July 1949, Page 16
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213MONKEY BUSINESS New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 527, 29 July 1949, Page 16
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