I don't tend to not finish the books I start, yet I've been staring at Ape House on my nightstand for over a year. I couldn't remember why I had put it down, but looking for my next book, I picked it up again. Rereading the page where I had left off, I could vaguely remember what had happened, but decided to start from the beginning again anyway. I didn't find it horrible, if a little Harlequin Romance-y, and couldn't really remember why I had abandoned it. When I realised that I had stopped right after what was actually a pretty exciting part, the bombing of the Language Lab, I had to wonder why I had abandoned it in the first place.
Sure, I didn't really like the characters. Or anything they were doing. Or, for the most part, the writing. But I really liked the Bonobos. Browsing some reviews, I've seen other people comment that they couldn't imagine why Sara Gruen bothered to do serious research on the apes for what was such a lightweight novel, but I'd say that's the part I totally understand: Gruen was obviously affected by her interactions with Bonobos who had been taught to communicate in human language, and when the book is describing these types of interactions, or reporting on how they interact with each other when humans aren't present, the writing is joyful and playful and intriguing. My biggest complaint would be: who cares about the humans and their mundane (if in this case a bit sketchy and two-dimensional) lives? I wanted more of the Bonobos.
As for the Ape House that the title refers to: I would totally watch a television show about a troop of Bonobos. Not the "monkeys running the zoo" type show that the pornographer (!!) produces, where they eat an unhealthy diet, are recklessly exposed to mold and other germs, and there are close-ups of sex acts (complete with claxons and whistles), but since even the pornographer (!!) producer references Meerkat Manor, I can imagine that a similar show based on the uncontrived lives (ideally lives in the wild) of such human-like animals could be fascinating. I've never seen an episode of Jersey Shore, but I imagine here is where one would insert a joke about Snooki or The Situation.
And as for the ending: By the time the book ends, Gruen isn't even talking about the Bonobos anymore. It's just happily ever after and everything tied up in a bow; everyone has their dream job, dream family, dream lives. Incidentally, I was SUPER annoyed by every part of the Pinegar subplot. From the first mention of the name, I knew that Pinegar was a gun that would need to go off (a la Chekov) but I didn't expect it to be a toy gun with a little BANG! flag coming out the end. I think Chekov would have advised leaving the gun at home this time.
To the extent that there were more Bonobo scenes to come, I am not sorry that I read this book to the end. But had it continued to gather dust indefinitely on my nightstand…meh.
