Algonquin Books, March 8, 2016.
Four Stars
The Freeman family have been given a unique
opportunity. They were invited to the Toneybee Institute in rural Massachusettes
in order to study the behavior of chimpanzees, and one chimp in particular – Charlie.
The Freemans already have two daughters, teenage Charlotte and nine-year-old
Callie, and Charlie is quickly welcomed into their family. They live in the
institute, alongside Charlie, ostensibly observing his behavior. However,
Charlotte finds some information that leads her to believe they may all be a
part of the Toneybee’s experiment.
The Freemans are black, and they have suddenly been
transplanted into an almost entirely white community. Charlotte especially
struggles with her sense of identity, as she tries to fit in while preserving
and celebrating her differences as well. In her search to understand her role
within the Toneybee research project, she discovers an old book that exposes
the Institute’s questionable past – it is a study of black people in the 1920s,
and one woman in particular, who was put on display and studied much like
Charlie the chimp. This woman’s perspective alternates with the Freeman family
throughout the book, making the novel an examination not only of chimp-human
relations, but also a study of race. It asks what ultimately makes us human,
and whether our human similarities are enough to overcome the concept of race.
This novel is also very much an exploration of family
– it looks at marriage, sisterhood, and the bond between a parent and child. The
Freemans and Charlie communicate using sign language, which creates obstacles
in getting their point across – however, the human Freeman family struggle more
with communication amongst themselves. Both Charlotte and Callie find
themselves competing with the chimp for their mother’s attention, which affects
the girls even into adulthood. They are constantly searching for language to
express their emotions, and much is lost in translation. The characters have
very realistic reactions to their unusual situations, and so their endings are
not always happy ones.
The obvious comparison to this novel would be Karen
Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside
Ourselves – the main premise is the same, but this novel becomes a larger, all-encompassing
story. It situates the chimpanzee interactions in a broader time and place,
using questionable anthropological research to explore ideas about race.
Greenidge’s perspective is unusual, and it really makes you think about the
psychological implications of both the Freeman’s experiment, and the earlier
study.
There is a lot of psychological tension because so
much goes unsaid between the characters. At the start of the novel, the
Freemans are a tight-knit family, but as their experiment progresses, there are
multiple secrets kept from each and every family member. I found the Freeman
family sections completely compelling, and Charlotte was easily relatable. The
flashback sections were more difficult to become immersed in; however, they are
also more difficult in subject matter, and necessary to the novel – I just felt
like maybe there was another way to deal with those sections. Regardless, this
was an intriguing, thoughtful novel that everyone should read.
I received this novel from Algonquin Books and NetGalley
in exchange for an honest review.
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