What makes us human? Is it our ability to communicate? How we can use tools? Maybe it is our ability to reason or our ability to love. Jennie blurs the lines and will make you re-think what it means to be human as you are introduced and will fall in love with Jennie, a chimpanzee. Born to a nearly dead mother in the jungle, Jennie is adopted and brought back to America, where the man decides to raise her, doing research for the museum. Jennie captures your heart right away. At times she is a handful and acts like an animal, but the more she interacts with the family, the more humanlike little Jennie becomes. Jennie loves, just as deeply as a human. Jennie learns sign language and Jennie is every bit as much of a family member as the two human children. The book is at times humorous and I would laugh out loud at Jennie's antics and smile at her cleverness. Through interviews of those who were part of Jennie's lives, we can follow a timeline of how Jennie learns, interacts and is. I had to stop and remind myself that she was not human, but her actions and thoughts were so decidedly human-like at times that it was hard to not think of her as human. This is a thought-provoking book and one that I very much enjoyed. I felt very much connected to Jennie and the book was equally heartwarming and heartbreaking for me. Excellent writing and a character, Jennie, that you will never forget.
Preston weaves fact and fiction together in this account of "Jennie Archibald," a chimpanzee who is delivered from her dying mother by a physical anthropologist who brings the chimp home and raises her as his own daughter. Among the questions raised in this book are what differentiates a human from an animal? What is language? Does nurture trump nature, or vice versa? Does God love chimpanzees? Can a chimpanzee love God? Is there merit to treating a socialized, domesticated chimp as a person, or as a wild and potentially dangerous animal?If you are as intrigued by these questions as I was, I urge you to read this book. It is interesting, uplifting, funny and tragically sad. Preston is a wonderful writer, with a fine grasp of the complexities of personalities and an ear for dialogue.
What do You think about Jennie (2006)?
Really 3.5. After listening to the prologue, I honestly thought this book was non-fiction (yes, I'm extremely gullible!). I couldn't understand how some of the events could have been allowed to happen! I had recently finished Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel. Both raised the issue of raising a chimpanzee as a human. The end result in both books is similar.Preston's book is a series of interviews, with different narrators for each interviewee. A few who are interviewed are very annoying! All and all, an OK listen.
—Doreen Dalesandro
Douglas Preston's first novel (published in 1994)is a fictionalized account of one chimpanzee named Jennie who is raised from birth as a member of the Archibald family. Derived from four very real, and tragic, histories of chimpanzees raised as children in family homes, the story is told through "interviews" and "journals" of the characters involved. Jennie, like the actual chimpanzees the story is based on, learned American Sign Language and established relationship bonds with people. The novel incorporates some of the actual scientific experiments and results. Facinating read.
—Stacia
I'm not a fan of books which tell stories about animals lives, but since it was a gift I decided to give it a chance. I don't regret! I found the story so fascinating that I also watched the movie. Of course the movie tells only part of Jennie's story.This story is a little monotonous at the beginning, but as I read the interviews I started getting involved with Jennie's life. It is really touching. Some parts of Lea's speech about how the routine was with Jennie made me remind a little of Marley and Me, that is another book I loved even though it was about an animal.One thing it made me think about is animal research. It really seems so cruel to the animals. Jennie wasn't physically hurt, but the way she was raised as she was a human child and the way she was left, it must have caused a huge trouble in her mind.
—Cyssah Olyver
