The Woman and the Ape by Peter Hoeg starts predictably enough, woman meets ape and they escape together. The woman in the case is Madelene Burden, the disatisfied Danish wife of a brilliant London zoologist. The ape, Erasmus, is of an unknown species that is highly intelligent and should make her husband's career.This is not a plot driven novel. Instead this is a complex mix of novel, parable, morality tale and essay. There aren't many "isms" that are not explored: feminism, specieism, environmentalism, classism, economic rationalism. (Although thinking about it, did he miss racism, or did I?) He toys with ideas such as: what makes us human; our relationship with animals as food, lifestock, companions, workers, research subjects and the wild other; and the cruelty of nature. I, for one, will never look at jaguars the same way.
London is viewed through an animal lens. Firstly, not just as a city but an animal factory, with millions of animals being "processed" to literally feed the metropolis. Furthermore, we think of cities as sterile places, homes to people not animals, one character states, "Our biologists calculate that this city contains more than thirty million non-human creatures, representing 10,000 distinct species...London is one of the largest habitats for non-human creatures on earth".
A central theme in this novel is being trapped, by ourselves, by circumstances, and by others. Obviously, Erasmus is trapped and slightly less obvously so is Madelene. And its counterpoint, the idea of escape, both physically and by other less tangible means. Where does an ape and his companion escape to in central London?
I am not entirely convinced that this piece works as a novel. But Hoeg's exploration of ideas is fascinating and it has given me a lot to mull over. The characters are sketched as a type rather than living, breathing characters with the capacity to change. Not surprisingly, the ape is the noblest character in the book. In spite of this and not giving away anything, the end certainly surprised me.
Hoeg's underlying message is that we are all animals. And that's something we can't escape from.
