Judy and Walt Ribke live an apparently idyllic life on 12 acres in Vermont. All they lack is a child, so one day Walt brings home a baby chimpanzee. They name their "son" Looee, and teach him to fish with his father and to kiss his mother goodnight, but as he grows older and stronger his unpredictability begins to threaten their unconventional family. Set in 1972, the narrative alternates between the Ribkes' house and a colony of chimpanzees at the fictional Girdish Institute. As Dave, one of the researchers, puts it, this was a time when The Naked Ape was a bestseller and he could smoke pot with the monkeys. Colin McAdam paints an illuminating and touching portrait of a time when many believed "there was no human/animal divide, there was a continuum". Perhaps most interesting are the moral and ethical questions the narrative raises, and at novel's end the reader is left to wonder which species is the more humane.
