Review: Ape House

I was completely swept away when I read Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, so I had high expectations for Ape House. I was not disappointed. There was a time in the middle section when I was not quite as engaged because the main stories had diverged, but once they came back together for the climax, I was fully committed to the story and its characters again.

Sara Gruen is a good storyteller. And I admire the way she can write from the point of view of anyone--male, female, primate.

This was not only a good story, but it had fascinating ideas about how much the title characters, the six bonobos, can learn and communicate with humans. They could understand spoken English and then reply in American Sign Language.

"One of the most exciting discoveries to come to the language lab was that once bonobos acquired human language they passed it on to their babies, communicating in a combination of ASL and their own vocalizations."

This is especially interesting to me because we have been teaching our daughter to sign to communicate since she was born. For a long time, it honestly felt pointless to me. It took her months to learn one sign. But now at 16 months, she often learns multiple new signs in one day. And she has definitely started using her signs to communicate her needs. I didn't notice this at first because I often knew what she wanted anyway. But one day when I thought she was hungry, she told me very distinctly that she was actually thirsty by signing "drink." She says "book," but it sounds like many of the other words she says that start with a "B." But when she signs "book" at the same time, there is no question of what she wants.

Tangent over. It was a good book. I recommend it.