This story is narrated by Rosemary Cooke and she tells us in the beginning of the story that she is going to start talking about it from the middle.She then goes on to tell us about her dysfunctional family comprising of her Psychologist father,a depressed mother and how she does not like to talk about them to anyone.We learn early on that she is one of three siblings and that for some reason she hasn't seen her brother,Lowell in eleven years and that her sister,Fern diappeared when she was five.She has vague recollections and cannot rely on her memory to explain what happened.However she is about to figure all that out.There are other characters in the book chief amongst them being Harlow,a wild girl with issues of her own(who Rosemary befriends) and her boyfriend Reg,Todd ,Rosemary's roommate and Ezra a wannabe CIA who is the manager of Rosies apartment.Each character has some role to play as the story builds up.
My Views:I do not have a very good record with Booker award winners or nominees.I have never liked them all that much.I didnt even know that it was going to be about a dysfunctional family when I picked it up.So if you see a pattern in my reading it is clearly unintentional.I liked the fact that Rosemary talks directly to the reader.The book started off well and I even chuckled at the dry wit in the first few chapters.It wasnt too difficult to realise that Rosemary was a bit odd right at the start but the way she narrated the story from the middle was something new to me and it got me interested.The story went on and when I realised that Fern,the sister she talks about was a Chimp,it caught me offguard.Turns out they were a part of a scientific animal-human behaviour experiment in which humans and chimps are raised together.However I couldnt understand why Rosemary kept blaming herself for Fern going missing and so kept reading on.That was the time the story really took its toll on me because it skipped from the middle to the past to the present again and it was difficult to keep up.Then came the part about animal-rights and the politics of scientific research and it started to feel like non-fiction research matter but I was determined to not give up on it and prodded on thinking that there must be a stupendous climax which would make it all worthwhile.I thought her brother Lowell committing several crimes in the name of Animal rights and becoming a fugitive from the FBI was too far-fetched.There were several references to soaps (the rockford files?lancelot link?)movies,music(warren zevon?) which I could not relate to because I had not heard of them before.Of course I dont mean Star Wars and Its a wonderful life(that's when I realised that the book might not have been meant for an Indian)There was a lot of research involved in writing a story like this and I totally respect that but I felt that it was long drawn out.A few parts were thought provoking like what she says about memory,that sometimes what we think happened may in reality be a muddled account and about how family relationships affect us and shape our lives the most and how we need to forgive when there is a chance to do so.On the flip side,I had to look up the meaning of a lot of words because turns out Rosemary has this habit of learning new words and using them whenever she can.That got a bit tedious after a point.Just when I thought I could now begin to get a hang of the story she threw a Madame Defarge at me.I am not even going to try to explain what that means.I am just completely beside myself.
I rate it a 2 and a half out of 5.
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