Review Summaries

• 政治的・科学的な設定を前面に出し、ジャンル小説としての推進力と思想性を両立させている。題材の濃さを好む読者に向く。

Reviews

• Bonobos tell us what it is to be human

  Imagine the near future—maybe 40 years from now. Technology has advanced to skin implants and and special eye lenses to access the Internet. Printers print out 3-D “food,”—paper loaded with nutrients and fed to mostly animals. “Poly-roaches” are viruses that can entirely shut down digital networks. Climate change effects are now extreme; there are terrible floods and also raging dust storms that cause serious respiratory illnesses, like debilitating asthma. Into this world steps Frankie Burke, a recent MacArthur grant winner. She’s decided to move from Manhattan to Missouri and study the bonobos at the Foundation to carry on her work in evolutionary theories. Bonobos are gentle primates who won’t hurt humans and have exuberant sex before mealtimes to mitigate aggression and competition. The leader is an alpha-female. These creatures, with the intelligence of four-year-olds, are the closest animals to early humans. Frankie is healing from surgery, and is hoping for a full recovery. Most of her life was spent in pain and suffering from a disease which is revealed at its own narrative pace. That is how Schulman tenders her story—measured disclosures and progression. Frankie is at the bonobo enclosure daily, studying their interactions, eating habits, sexual behaviors, and mating rituals. She selected an assistant there almost at random; because of her reputation, she could have had her pick. But she chose a quiet ex-military researcher with a buzz cut and startling blue eyes, named David Stotts, or just Stotts. Frankie and Stotts possess separate dispositions, but he was strong and concise and he assisted her to walk, to fall safely to the ground, and instinctively she knew they would be honest toward each other. “I don’t like praise…Don’t give me any,” Frankie says to him early on. “Stotts would stand out in a crowd, like a fox in a group of Pekingnese. Alert, coiled and capable.” The locus of the book is Frankie--her healing, her life entire, which informs what and how she studies. While Frankie’s background is laid bare, Stotts is mostly an enigma, who we primarily see through Frankie’s eyes. As the narrative progresses, her professional relationship with Stotts evolves, shot with occasional and subtle playfulness. Her post-surgical status allows her to eat foods that were previously forbidden, and Stotts is amused at her taste for mayonnaise, chocolate, and meat—all rolled together and popped in her mouth! The bonobos bind Frankie and Stotts in shared devotion of a species, these chimp-like primates, with names like Sweetie, Tooch, Mama, Goliath. The interactions swing from casual to fraught, depending on various factors, such as Frankie’s demands and Stotts’ attentiveness, consistently impressive. His daughter suffers from serious asthma, and has left with his wife for London for treatment. In the meantime, Frankie is trying to win over the bonobos, so that she can spend more time in their enclosure interacting and proving her theory. One thing intriguing she discovered—for all their exhibitionist sex, there are times when they also have “secret sex.” The latter part of the book is when the dystopian elements appear to take over, reminding me of other novels in its class, such as GOLD FAME CITRUS, by Claire Vaye Watkins, and GODS WITHOUT MEN, by Hari Kunzru. The tone and atmosphere, especially, were reminiscent of STATION ELEVEN, by Emily St John Mandel. The events that coalesce into a force of nature may have been conventional, but Schulman doesn’t get lazy and rely on the easy literary heritage of others to deploy her plot and themes. The irony of Frankie’s disease and surgery plays a poignant role, and her relationship with her past, with the bonobos, and with Stotts is nuanced and credible. Schulman’s quixotic tale of the sex lives of bonobos and the theory of ovulating women is commanding, confident, and heartbreaking. The enduring power of love is evoked within the immediacy of harrowing crises. In fact, the presence of the bonobos, who are more than mere players in this novel, illuminate most brilliantly and tenderly one clear question: what it is to be human. That is the pinnacle of potent literature and the sublime power of Schulman’s storytelling.

• PKD award, hmmmm?

  This is barely an SF book. Implanted tech with nominal use and a survivalist final 20% of the story are all that remove it from general fiction. I'm hard pressed to recommend it. The main character is well drawn but the only character who is. She is a researcher investigating bonobos - similar to chimpanzees. The story plays out in sequential days. Findings don't play out as quickly as they do in the book. If the story had taken place over months not days, it would have made more sense. The bonobos are more fully realized than most of the humans. The story doesn't conclude so much as stop. Once the idea of what the characters will do is pretty clear, it just wraps. Several big unknowns left to ponder. Oh well.

• Just good enough

  The plot is a little flimsy but original. Frankie's persona is well described. You understand her behaviour. However, most of the rest of actors are hard to understand and believe. Endometriosis is not such a difficult disease to diagnose but hard to treat, so frankie's experiences are borderline credible. Her investigations on the theory of bastards are interesting and the best argument to read the book.

• Lived up to its press reviews (for me, anyway)

  I saw a review of this in The Economist and thought it sounded like the sort of thing I would like. Although that is sometimes a recipe for disappointment, it wasn't in this case. Set a few years in the future, this novel is about a scientist, Francine Burk, who embarks on a study into adultery - in particular, what are its evolutionary advantages and what are the biological drivers behind it? The first half of the narrative weaves back and forth between the present, where she is studying promiscuity amongst bonobo apes, and Frankie's long struggle with the debilitating condition endometriosis (which I'm ashamed to say I knew next to nothing about - but I'm happy to say that is now rectified). I won't tell you what happens in the second half - let's just say that things move out of the research environment and into the real world. For me, the author managed to combine a page-turning plot with thought-provoking ideas about evolution and excellent characterisation (particularly the relationship between Frankie and her assistant, Stotts). I think it's fair to say it may not be everyone's cup of tea though - especially if you don't have that much interest in the ideas which it explores or you take the view that non-fiction is the place for that kind of thing. It's possible that may explain some of the less favourable reviews.

• Slow but ultimately ok

  I'm not quite sure how to take this story - was it a romance? An informative text on bonobos? A tale of the apocalypse? It is all of these things and yet somehow falls short in each department. I came very close to discontinuing at about the halfway point as it just seemed to be going nowhere. The flashbacks were clearly intended to give personal backstory and round out the mc but she wasn't terribly interesting. This slowed the already slow pace of the main story and I became quite frustrated. Ultimately, I somewhat enjoyed the story but the plot and mc were not the most compelling.

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