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Love this book. Very imaginative and well written for a lover of hamandryas baboons. Comical and intelligent story plot.

I purchased this after hearing a review on NPR. I love the book and have passed it around several friends. Everyone loved the story. We all tried to put the old "deeper meaning" on it. My take was that maybe this is a vehicle to think about relationships. All that being said just sit back and enjoy it.

Walking into my local dealer's shop is a dangerous thing for me. I have learned to remain at the front counter and not wander about the aisles as I inevitably find books I "just have to have!" when I visit friends there. This discipline has helped me refrain from purchasing a book each visit, but it is not foolproof, as I found this book displayed at the front desk and I "just had to have it." The cover of this small, quickly read, book is an image of a Baboon, in a smoking jacket, holding a banana, with the subtitle "Mr. Thundermug is a Baboon." One can see how my interest was peaked.
Mr. Medvei, according to the biographical material on the dust jacket, studied modern languages at Oxford, taught in China for 18 months and returned to England to write this well-timed adult fable. His choosing to make this tale about a baboon who "spontaneously" learns to talk and the impact that has upon society and culture is in equal parts, it seems, autobiography and social commentary.
Mr. Medvei creates Mr. Thundermug, a name chosen by the baboon, as a primate who is intelligent while maintaining his simian self, even while acting with human characteristics. Mr. Thundermug is who he is, a baboon who speaks, reads, ponders but still acts like a baboon - eating insects, grooming his mate, beating his chest to communicate with his family (who cannot speak English). Such a being creates the tension of social commentary that carries the story. It is probable this fable not could have been more timely written. Mr. Medvei returning to a "home" culture after experiencing a year and a half of a totally different one in China (hence his feeling like a new comer) and the influx of immigrants into Western countries (how does one fit into a new culture) are but two of the timely indicators of the need for this story to be told.

The alienation of individuals from community is pandemic in our society - the Internet, cell phones, email, instant messaging, "blue-toothing" all help create the illusion of connection but only widens the gap between people seeking to "keep in touch." This fable magnifies this isolation and desire/fear of being known in bringing one who is truly "Other" into a sharp focus in the contrast between being familiar (language, thought, manners, etc.) and alien (simian). Mr. Thundermug causes the reader to address the reality that community is relatively easy when homogenous (there is the expectation that the more homogenous are the community members are to each other the more harmony within the community). When that community is confronted withe variety, it takes genuine, committed work to be accepting of all its members and to maintain a sense of cohesion. What a community does with those it considers "other" is as definitive of that community as what it does with those within its ranks.
By the end of this short tale (it could be read in an hour), Mr. Thundermug has found acceptance but at a tremendous cost. To be true to himself he must sacrifice something precious to him. To be included in society, a likewise precious sacrifice is demanded. Mr. Thundermug learns that to speak is to risk being known. These are the same choices all of us makes daily.

Cornelius Medvei's Mr. Thundermug: A Novel is an imaginative short novel chronicling the life of Mr. Thundermug, a baboon who inexplicably learns how to speak English. This is another of the books I am reading as part of the Irresistible Review Challenge.

I originally found the review for this book at Diary of an Eccentric, which is listed as book 38, I believe, in the recap. What a great look at the life of a Baboon as a human, or should I say ape in a human world.

***Spoiler Alert***

Mr. Thundermug, his wife, and his two children, Angus and Trudy, are all given names by Mr. Thundermug. The baboon soon realizes that he is the only one in the family able to speak and understand English when it is spoken. Through a series of run-ins with the Council on Housing, Thundermug soon comes to realize that he is governed by two contrary standards--that of human law and natural law.

His grasp of speech amazes many, while others ignore the baboon who speaks their language as if he were a figment of their imagination. I wonder if this book is another look at discrimination, but at the same time I wonder if there is another meaning altogether. Perhaps as humans we are not as superior to animals as we would like to suggest or believe. Perhaps they are wiser than we are.

***End Spoiler Alert***

It's interesting to see a study of animal conditions from another perspective, rather than the human entering the world of the gorilla, for instance. The baboon enters the world of humanity and what he learns is striking.

What is the deal with this book? It gets amazing reviews from everyone, and I can't figure out what these people are seeing to admire in the book. I saw nothing in it.

Mr. Thundermug is a baboon who has developed the ability to speak human language at about the time he mysteriously appears in the narrator's town. The story walks us through a sequence of scenes, but doesn't really tell a story. There's no flow. There's no detail. No back story. Nothing is gone into in depth. No one seems the least bit surprised by a talking baboon. What am I meant to gain from this story? I'm sure I don't know. And I am also sure that I don't know how this little piece of junk got published.

Dorothy Parker might as well have been speaking about this book when she said ""This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." Sorry about the rating - Amazon won't let me give zero stars.

Honestly with all the things that one tolerates and deals with on a day-to-day basis, you'd think a talking monkey would be a welcome break. In this book it's not so much a break but just more filler to keep you moving. Albeit chuckling on the way.

The book records the quirky and light-hearted account of a truly fantastic event. Unfortunately, like our everyday lives, the fantastic event is blunted and barely noticed; here by the monkey's absentminded musings and the people's disregard for such a happening in lieu of other seemingly more important matters (though one man does notice).

Anyway, I got this book for a buck while waiting for the bus. It's short length was perfect for my long bus rides that day. As a quick read, it was just what I wanted. Don't expect much character development, but then again development is kind of besides the point. This book does a great job engaging the here-and-now. In this way it deals with the fantastic occurrence of a speaking monkey with the same tone as your every-day bus ride. I'll read it again one of these days.