Product Description
In this new novel, Will Self turns his wicked gift for satire on a favorite victim--his fellow man. After a night of routine, pedestrian debauchery, a successful, middle-aged London painter, wakes up to find that his girlfriend has turned into a chimpanzee.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 50 reviews)

You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals by Sirin (London, UK)

4 Stars
June 10, 2009
Self's final book from his drug induced phase, before he went clean. And it's as packed with ideas, language riffs and gags as any of his best fiction. Self uses the conceit that the beasts with which we share 98% of our DNA are dominant in a version of London that is similar to mid 90's London, and hapless artist Simon Dykes awakes after a night of toxic and carnal debauchery with the delusion that he is human. He is taken up as a case study by the unscrupulous chimp psychiatrist Zac Busner (a familiar character in Self's fiction) who experiments on Dykes with the aim of making his own name. Self's conceit is a brilliant one to send up many of the foibles and delusious of what he calls the 'self enclosed humanism' of trendy metropolitan types. The sophisticated veneer that veils squalid sexual desires. The rumbunctious lovemaking of young Londoners - snaffling down on each other's pongid scrags. The pant hooting, brachiating, 'uu-graaa' noises that don't really seeem that different from the movements and sounds of human London. Basically Self wants to explode the myth that there is something unique and distinctive about humankind. We are nothing but beasts, with the rest of the animal kingdom, and the sophisticated hierarchies and systems we set up are nothing more than incarnations of the Alpha, beta and gamma tiers of the ape kingdom. Like Swift, Self uses gags, outrageous conceits - and a lavish dose of visceral language - to come at society from a unique angle. And send it up with much needed ruthlessness.

Not even ok ... by Cup of Tea

2 Stars
December 08, 2008
There is so much potential in the background of this story, looking at humanity from the outside, considering how life on earth could have unfolded differently, and of course satirical commentary. Ultimately, this book falls far short of the vast potential available. The main story line, how a person might wake up in a chimpanzee world is interesting. But rather than embrace this absurd happenstance, Self wastes time attempting to somehow rationalize this event, and does a very poor job of it. Why would a person wake up in a chimp world with the body of a chimp, but an MRI reveal that their brain is a human brain? That is just stupid. The author blows major opportunities for creativity by making London in the chimpanzee world pretty much exactly like London is now - only things are just a bit shorter (i.e. buildings, doorways, furniture). You will soon tire of reading about a world where slightly different chimpanzee social dynamics exist inexplicably next to human dynamics that are vastly inconsistent. By the end of this book, it is difficult to determine which the author understands less about, humans or chimpanzees. For something vastly more interesting, entertaining, and creative, try The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, or Rushdie's book Midnight's Children, two books that will really exercise your imagination.

Not your father's Gulliver's Travels by E. Walton (Eagle, ID United States)

4 Stars
August 14, 2007
One of the funniest, most dazzling linguistic and intellectual displays I've read in years. Self's gleefully coprolalic, vertiginously fluid command of the English language recalls Joyce; his skillfully wrought satiric vision, Swift or perhaps Vonnegut. He takes what seems to be a simple conceit--what if chimpanzees had become the dominant culture instead of humans?--and uses it to explore and to challenge our cherished notions of what makes us human. I wasn't completely satisfied with the "cute" ending, though (and this book is definitely NOT one to recommend to polite company; e.g., anyone whose idea of social satire is Jane Austen). From prose rhythm to prodigious vocabulary, Self pays attention to the little things that separate literature from beach reading (though I'll admit I did read this on the beach, and guffawed loudly enough to scare off many flocks of seagulls).

Just a waste of time by Curran Filer (Chicago, IL USA)

2 Stars
July 29, 2005
Great Apes was a waste of time to read. The author was obviously trying to comment on modern society through a "Planet Of The Apes" type gimmick, but the payoff isn't worth the effort. The author really doesn't have much of anything important to say, and comes off as more interested in painting a picture of what the world would be like if chimps were dominant, rather than saying anything new about what humans are like. It would have worked better as light reading sci-fi where the fantasy setting *is* the story. When I got to the end I thought "Is that it?". Self thinks he's pretty clever but the gimmick gets in the way. In the end, it wasn't worth my time.

brilliant by Lizzie D (Wellington New Zealand)

4 Stars
July 12, 2004
There really isn't too much to add to what others have said in reviewing the book. This is a world weary cynical satire of human life which is one of the funniest things I have read in years. Having said that boy oh boy does it make you think. As I read about life through the eyes of a chimp that which is initially hysterically funny becomes less so when you realise what you are reading parallels aspects of your own life. Despite my review seeming somewhat contradictory in its 'effulgence' of this book I would recommend it to anyone and all my friends have had it for Christmas or a birthday and now they are passing it on to others.

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