Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook496 pages6 hours
Great Apes: Reissued
By Will Self
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this ebook
When artist Simon Dykes wakes after a late night of routine debauchery, he discovers that his world has changed beyond recognition. His girlfriend, Sarah, has turned into a chimpanzee. And, to Simon's appalled surprise, so has the rest of humanity. Simon, under the bizarre delusion that he is 'human', is confined to an emergency psychiatric ward. There he becomes of considerable interest to eminent psychologist and chimp, Dr Zack Busner. For with this fascinating case, Busner thinks may finally make his reputation as a truly great ape.
Unavailable
Author
Will Self
Will Self is an English novelist, journalist, political commentator and television personality. He is the author of ten novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas, and five collections of non-fiction writing.
Read more from Will Self
The Book of Dave Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Will: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quantity Theory of Insanity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why Read: Selected Writings 2001–2021 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiver Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Phone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Great Apes
Related ebooks
The Red and The Black Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDreams of Leaving and Remaining: Fragments of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Black Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gem Collector Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Phone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSwann's Way (Remembrance of Things Past, Volume One) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Sally Mottram Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Woman of No Importance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHare's Fur Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purple Land: Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures in The Banda Orientál, in South America, as Told By Himself Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Metamorphosis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Satan is Real: Two Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgainst the Grain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Moon and Sixpence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life Without End Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Crime and Punishment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Things About Us: What We Really Need to Know About Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Good Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhattan Transfer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Feather: A Schoolboy Seeks Redemption Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSwann's Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trials of Portnoy: how Penguin brought down Australia’s censorship system Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagined Corners Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dylan Thomas's Swansea, Gower and Laugharne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShakespeare's Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5King Richard II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pickwick Papers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
General Fiction For You
The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Candy House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything's Fine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recital of the Dark Verses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Sister's Keeper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Great Apes
Rating: 3.388030954054054 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
259 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Will Self's book "Great Apes" is a funny idea that gets dragged out into a full length novel for no particular good reason. A man wakes up and finds all the world has transformed into chimpanzees. Cue a whole lot of furry copulation and poop flinging. I found it tedious after about 50 pages.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I have listened to Will Self expound with erudition upon a host of subjects via the wireless. I have found myself agreeing with his point of view on many occasions and, when I did not, I still found much to commend itself in the manner of his argument. I have not, however, previously read any of his literary output and so, when the excellent Kindle offered 'Great Apes' at the bargain price of 99 pence, I felt that it would be churlish to decline - even allowing for my, almost usual, state of impecunity. This was a mistake. I found the book to lack any characters or discernible story. Will Self has, it seems to me, written an entire book with the sole purpose of lampooning a certain London based upper middle class genre. Even if one agrees that they are as contemptible as Mr. Self appears to believe, it is a group which has been targeted before. This book really adds nothing new to the table and for an intellect of this height to train its guns upon such a sorry target, leaves my British love of the underdog sympathising with the impaled. I did not connect with this book at any stage.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Instead of the thud of a simple inversion where a world of chimps occupy the place of humans (and this is acknowledged with the wink of the simian preface with references to the trite and banal series of movies "Planet of the Humans"), Self retains almost all the attributes of chimps - rigid physical hierarchy, sign languge (figures of speech are carefully changed from "that is to say" to "that is to sign), grooming habits, polygamous coupling, etc - while the near-extinct humans retain theirs, but in zoos. Self reprises his perennial celebrity charlatan shrink, Dr Zack Busner (who we find in several short stories and a few novels) to treat high-flown, troubled, excessive, conceptual artist Simon Dykes who thinks he is a human. In a way, this novel plays with many of the coveted themes of psychoanalysis and delusion, thrown over a simian world, set in a diminutive London where the "lonely master of the animals" brachiate through their lives.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book has one of the most exhilarating first chapters I've ever read - I actually went back to reread it twice before moving on to chapter 2. The basic premise of the book is fascinating: the central character is transformed intio a chimpanzee and so is everyone else around him. The first part of the book was a joy, but the joke wears progressively thinner as the book goes on. It would have made a great novella, but the pressure to make it a book length thing destroyed it.