Kvinden og aben

Think Yann Martel's Life of Pi, Shepherd Mead's The Great Ball of Wax, and Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child and its sequel, Ben, In His World, then throw in a dash of Planet of the Apes. Reminiscent of Doris Lessing's speculative fiction, Hoeg convincingly grounded me in a mundane present (albeit it a very privileged one) before easing me, in rapid succession, from poor-little-rich-girl-trapped-in-her-bed-of-roses to thriller to science fiction teetering on the edge of speculative fiction. With only a few pages to go, the plot satisfyingly resolves and fades into the sunset with a pleasantly tentative happy-ever-after. The roller coaster has slowed before coming to a complete stop, yet I shut the book still breathless and slightly titillated from the ride. Hoeg has created characters that are just three dimensional enough to get by. This is not a criticism. Madelene, Erasmus, Adam and all the rest are types, maybe archetypes; the story seems to demand that to maintain a grip on the reader's emotions and to create a foil for its inherent humor. With this busy, rich plot, Hoeg still manages luxurious, descriptive passages of London's cityscape and pithy comment on politics and the general silliness of human beings. The latter is somewhat the point of his tale. This would make a great romp of a film.

Nej, jeg vil ikke fortaelle hvad den handler om for ikke at oedelaegge det for jer. Men der er en kvinde i bogen.. og der er en abe... og der er en del overraskelser. Det er en slags opsang til menneskeheden om hvordan vi mishandler vores planet forklaedt i en fantastisk historie om mennesker og dyr, om magt, penge og hvad der virkelig er vaerdifuldt. - Men bare rolig, det er ikke den typiske loeftede pegefinger man finder i enhver amerikansk bog af den slags. Peter Hoegh skriver bare godt.

Peter Hoeg is one of those rare writers -- whose every book is a literary treasure. I have yet to be disappointed by anything he has written. And this book -- the woman and the ape -- is not exception. Hoeg does such a masterful job at raising questions about our own species and our relationship to the Earth, that this book should be read by environmental studies students. Hoeg also entrances his readers -- once again -- with sensual writings, sensitive characters, and a magical air (as he did with Smilla's Sense of Snow), that this book should also be read in literary classes. ... simply: it is a book to be read. and shared.

I thought that this book opens the way to a new genre of reading that not only stimulates in an entertaining manner, but forces the reader to re-think his humanity. It poses a new question as to man's place at the top of the world. The many faceted characters keep you pondering what will occur next in the book. And once you read the first paragraph, you cannot possibly put down the book until you reach the last page.

Mr. Hoeg did it again: give us a dream wrapped into hard-hitting reality. After "Smilla" and "The Borderliners", we now have a third great novel from this author, and I want to thank him for it. While it is similar to "The Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle, it is taken to a new, metaphysic dimension. It took years for "Smilla" to "catch on"; I hope this book will fare better