We are all Completely Beside Ourselves

My copy is still by my bed, half read. It has been there for months now. Very unusual for me as I am a "completer". I may go back to it some day. I just hope I can remember what it was about!

It was so unmemorable hespian I re-read half of it still without taking it in or enjoying it, something I've never done before.

I read it a few months ago, I really enjoyed it! I had read about the subject years ago, this was a very interesting take on what happens to the family.

I finished this book last night. I found it hard work and kept losing interest. When a book really becomes a page turner that I can't put down, I can read for a couple of hours at a time and finish it in two or three days. This one took nearly a fortnight, sending me to sleep after a couple of pages. At least I finished it, though

I gave it to my book club as one of their books to read, on Tuesday! I really enjoyed it, in a sad sort of way. Oh well, if they don't like it, it will be good revenge for some of the ones they have made me read. I also chose 'The Miniaturist' as a contrast.

I read it on holiday last year and found it quite thought provoking, although once the 'big surprise' was out of the way, it did become a bit like wading through treacle at times.

I have to offer apologies to the writer and to the original poster, for my disparaging remarks last week. I took it on my little holiday in Wales and I absolutely loved it! I think I must have been in a bit of a 'down' mood when I tried to read it before I went away. It made my holiday. Really enjoyed it. (let's face it - it was Wales. You need a good book)

Very strange though. SPOILER ALERT -

How would a child not realise that a chimp wasn't really her sister?

Interesting about the Kellog family having done a similar experiment. Horrific information about some of the experiments done on chimps in the past.

She did realise it in a biological sense but she loved her like a sister. They were brought up identically and treated the same, until it all came apart.

I think in childhood she really thought of her as a sister. It was more than just love of a pet monkey. Obviously later on, she realised.

Even the incident that brought about the end of the experiment had roots in very sisterly feelings of jealousy - the other side to the sibling bond.

You do realise that we have now revealed the "secret" bit? We will be ostracised! No-one now needs to read it to find out!

jings In the interests of accurate taxonomy, I must point out to you that a chimp is not a monkey. It is a chimp.

Both monkeys and chimps are primates, but a chimp is not a monkey and a monkey is not a chimp. They are cousins, but not siblings.

Like a lizard is a reptile and so is a boa constrictor, but a boa constrictor is not a lizard.

Just saying. I have no doubt you will continue to think of a chimp as a large monkey, but I couldn't let it pass, could I?

I got a third of the way through this book and removed it from my kindle. I'd been finding it pretty hard work anyway, but once the 'surprise' was out of the closet I'm afraid I lost interest completely. I never say never, though, so may go back to it sometime.
I remember a book a couple of years ago that I nearly gave up on, but persevered and it turned out to be one of the most gripping and emotionally charged books I'd read (I still maintain the first 200 pages could have been reduced to about 50, though ). That book was After the Fall by Charity Norman. I would recommend it to anyone, just stick with it through the first 200 or so pages!

I agree totally with all your post AshTree, After the Fall was unputdownable.

Oh FFS Elegran.

Take it in the manner it was posted - lightheartedly.

I read a book once, called Arthur Mee's Book of One Hundred Beautiful things. A mixture of poems, proverbs, old Chinese junk etc.

One of the sayings went something like this. " Wear your knowledge as a wise man wears his pocket watch. Strike it only when asked the time. Not just to show you have one."

If you mean the tearing apart of the kitten, I think that had its roots in animal aggression. Something a chimp would not think to conceal. Nothing sisterly or jealous-like about it.

Actually, a chimpanzee is a Great Ape, along with Bonobos, Gorillas, Orangutangs and Human Beings...

Monkeys have tails - apes do not.

Mind you, some languages don't make the distinction properly - the French for Ape is grand singe = Big Monkey!

I meant the way the chimp's sister thought that everyone was bending over backwards to be nicer to the chimp than to her, and overdid her tears at a quarrel, saying she was afraid of her. That was just like sisters. Kittens and colobus monkeys are fair game to the chimp, but she wouldn't have hurt a sister. She realised later that it wasn't true, but too late. Her sister had been shipped off.

(Ignore any unsolicited information, jings, but if you are swimming in the Nile and someone shouts "Watch out for that frog" get out of the water pdq. They might have seen a crocodile)

The Archbishop of Canterbury is a primate, too. I don't think he has a tail, and he may not be any good at brachiating.