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Monday, September 23, 2013

A Beautiful Truth

Colin McAdam (Get this book)
McAdam (Fall) investigates the social dynamics of great apes within the cages of a Florida research institute. Researcher David Kennedy watches over a troupe of chimpanzees, monitoring their interactions, administering social and cognitive tests in order "to defy Noam Chomsky's assertion that humans were unique for being born with language." Weighty themes underlie McAdam's spartan prose depicting the inner lives of research chimps. Craftily blurring species lines, McAdam doesn't limit himself to the chimp colony; alongside scenes at the Girdish Institute runs the story of Vermont couple Walt and Judy Ribke and their adopted chimp, Looee. Brimming with ambition, McAdam delivers a thought-provoking foray into the not-so-dissimilar minds of our ape relatives--Publisher's Weekly