Great Apes (Will Self)

I have never been inparted with 'Grnn' any of Will Self's previous books. So I can't sign much about the 'euch-euch' cuffing he has received from critics in the past. But through my introduction to Self in this novel, I am thoroughly impressed with the efulgence of his ischeal pleat and submit to his literary suzerainity. Why do humans bash Self, 'huuu'? His effectiveness in taking up such a difficult task is ample evidence of his skill. Yet with all the potential he has for a devastating critique of modern society, he is modest. Amis' "Times Arrow" comes immediately to my mind in parallel, as well as T. Boyle's satire. Both those artists reserve a much more serious tone in their critique of western civilization. Yet Self maintains a delicate balance hovering around the personal which lends itself to extension without ever losing the pure joy of his parallel universe's perversions of what humans consider natural. Self's chimps are not locked inside their own minds as are humans. They quickly resolve their existential dilemnas with a quick mating or a brutal yet brief brawl. And for this, the world of chimpunity has no use for weapons. What chimps lack is sexual attention from their parents. Such a world! Self could do worse than to extend and expand in such fertile 'euch-euch' terrian. I for one would like to see more. For now, a hearty HoooGraah! Self is my kind of chimp. (updated from my anonymous review)

This is a pretty twisted offering from Will Self. He delights in displaying his awesome vocabulary in the same a way that a young child will do something disgusting to shock. If a suitable word does not actually exist it's no impediment...he makes one up..and it works. If you like shock value go no further and I'm sure greater minds than mine will find plenty of depth and satire. Freak out your bookclub and get them in to this!

so again, i bought this book for english class assigned reading. this book has so many words that you can't figure out unless you have a dictionary with you. The only impression this book gives me is that in that ape world. having sex is the only thing universal and everyone likes to do it, even with their own daughters :(

Will Self doesn't need the addition of my words to support his universe. Perhaps one of my works compounded in the Otago Museum ( Dunedin.New Zealand) can offer something up instead -

Self's final book from his drug induced phase, before he went clean. And it's as packed with ideas, language riffs and gags as any of his best fiction. Self uses the conceit that the beasts with which we share 98% of our DNA are dominant in a version of London that is similar to mid 90's London, and hapless artist Simon Dykes awakes after a night of toxic and carnal debauchery with the delusion that he is human. He is taken up as a case study by the unscrupulous chimp psychiatrist Zac Busner (a familiar character in Self's fiction) who experiments on Dykes with the aim of making his own name. Self's conceit is a brilliant one to send up many of the foibles and delusious of what he calls the 'self enclosed humanism' of trendy metropolitan types. The sophisticated veneer that veils squalid sexual desires. The rumbunctious lovemaking of young Londoners - snaffling down on each other's pongid scrags. The pant hooting, brachiating, 'uu-graaa' noises that don't really seeem that different from the movements and sounds of human London. Basically Self wants to explode the myth that there is something unique and distinctive about humankind. We are nothing but beasts, with the rest of the animal kingdom, and the sophisticated hierarchies and systems we set up are nothing more than incarnations of the Alpha, beta and gamma tiers of the ape kingdom. Like Swift, Self uses gags, outrageous conceits - and a lavish dose of visceral language - to come at society from a unique angle. And send it up with much needed ruthlessness.

I hated it. I really wanted to like this book; the dust jacket image is excellent and thought-provoking. Unfortunately the front cover has nothing to do with the story. I can see what the author was trying to achieve with the shockingly different and, to us, raunchy culture, but I really, really hated it. Sorry Mr. Self!

Given the obviousness of the device, the satire here should have been a slam-dunk, but somehow it was not as focused and pithy as it might have been. There were a few moments of clever insight where our human world was cast in a new and unflattering light, but generally just a lot of scatological humour, sex/violence, constant incest (for which I haven't been able to find much confirmation in studies of chimp behaviour) etc, and heavy-handed on the moralising (zoos, compounds). It felt (as others have said) rather like the author was indulging himself in a macabre romp through chimp-land, and he seemed to confirm it with the anticlimactic ending, where the whole 'human delusion' is dismissed by the chimps themselves as a satirical device. Self-referentially self-referential, but the reader is left feeling a bit used. Also agree with other reviewers that the first 90 pages or so in the human world could have been cut down to 20 without any loss of impact. It all quickly got very familiar and the language was too convoluted, no escape from the author's effortful voice competing with himself to use the most obscure descriptors. Felt no empathy for or interest in the characters' fates, but perhaps that's a symptom of my own human-centrism more than the author's lack of characterisation. Ended up skipping around the book looking for gems rather than reading start to finish.

This book is a clever piece of social satire. The concept of inserting chimp social dynamics into our world is brilliant in itself and the author expands it with a penchant for scatological humor. However, it's not intended for a wide audience, for its vocabulary gets too specific too often and its crudeness borders the offensive.

Der Künstler Simon Dykes ist im Londoner Nachtleben mit seinen Freunden unterwegs und konsumiert reichlich Drogen und Alkohol. Soweit also alles ganz normal, doch als er am nächsten Morgen erwacht, muss er entsetzt feststellen, dass sich seine Gefährtin Sarah in eine Schimpansin verwandelt hat. Damit nicht genug: Die ganze Welt ist von Affen bevölkert und Menschen gibt es (außerhalb afrikanischer Reservate) nur in Zoos zu bestaunen. Simon wird nach längerem Aufenthalt in der Psychiatrie schließlich in die Obhut des erfahrenen Wissenschaftlers Dr. Zack Busner entlassen, der die Ursachen dieser offenkundigen Geisteskrankheit erforschen und den Patienten auf den rechten Pfad der Schimpansenheit zurückführen soll. Dank der hingebungsvollen Geduld des ambitionierten Doktors stellen sich alsbald erste vielversprechende Fortschritte ein; gleichwohl wird Simon aber immer wieder von verstörenden Erinnerungen an ein vermeintliches Menschendasein geplagt... "Great Apes" ist ein großartiger Roman, wenn der Leser bereit ist, dem Autor zu folgen und vorbehaltlos in eine fremde Welt einzutauchen, die sich nach den Regeln der Schimpansen dreht, in der Rangkämpfe und pausenlose Paarungen im Vordergrund stehen. Mit viel Liebe zum Detail und ausgefeilter Sprache erschafft Will Self nicht nur konsequent neue Begriffe (Ersetzen von "Mensch" durch "Schimpanse"), sondern ein eigenes Universum mit elegantem Wortwitz, was die Lektüre im Original allerdings nicht gerade erleichtert. Natürlich erinnert das Buch an die "Planet der Affen"-Filme, die übrigens auch vorkommen, selbstredend mit vertauschten Rollen. Fazit: Ein intelligentes Lesevergnügen, bei dem bisweilen das Lachen im Halse steckenbleibt.

Du vrai fantastique, plein d'humour, bref un vrai bon roman. Entre la planète des singes et un roman de Ballard...

This book is fantastic, my favourite book by Will Self

Sous une apparence satirique, ce roman amène à réfléchir sur ce que c'est que d'être humain, combien de présupposés implicites sous-tendent nos existences quotidiennes, et combien est fragile la soi-disant frontière entre l'homme et l'animal. Edition correcte malheureusement parsemée de mots mal séparés, ce qui est gênant dans un texte qui contient par ailleurs pas mal de mots inventés.

I really enjoyed this book once it got going. It certainly doesn't deserve some of the bad reviews I have read on here. It starts slow in the sense that it takes a while to understand where the plot is going, but chapter by chapter disparate parts of the story are brought together with consummate masterstrokes. My tip, keep reading til the very end, author's notes and footnotes included.