A Beautiful Truth
The lives of humans and apes become intimately intertwined in this strangely captivating third novel from Canadian author McAdam. When Walt and Judy, a wealthy young couple, discover they are unable to have children, Walt uses his connections to adopt an orphaned Sierra Leone chimpanzee named Looee.  Showering Looee with toys and devotion as he grows from diapers to adolescence, the pair ultimately raises a creature whose temperament is an uneasy mix of beast and man. After Looee explodes in a rare bout of rage, maiming Judy and a family friend, he is sent away for good to a primate-research facility in Florida and forced to make a traumatic adjustment to living among apes more adapted to their own company than to humans.  McAdam’s experimental narration shifts between human and chimp perspectives, often falling into impenetrable obtuseness in the latter. Yet most of the novel is grounded in solid research on chimp behavior that, along with McAdam’s distinctive poetic prose, informs readers while enriching a deeply moving story. --Carl Hays