Benjamin Hale, The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
Featured Book
The autobiography of a chimp
In this audacious, gleeful debut, Benjamin Hale gives us the autobiography of the world’s first chimp to acquire human language skills. Bruno Littlemore is taken from his family home in the Lincoln Park Zoo at a young age to a University of Chicago laboratory. His caregiver, primatologist Lydia Littlemore, and her colleague, Norman Plumlee, begin a series of experiments to expand Bruno’s ability to communicate. Eventually Bruno goes home to live with Lydia where she encourages him to paint, speak, eat at the table and share her bed. As Bruno embarks on his journey of discovery, experiencing all of the pleasures of the human world for the first time, his relationship with Lydia deepens into a love affair. But even as Bruno evolves into a clothed biped that can quote Shakespeare and Milton, he can’t seem to control his animal id, and his wild behavior forces Lydia to move them to a Colorado reserve. From there, Bruno’s picaresque journey takes more twists and turns, including a stint in a New York subway theater troupe, before he lands in his current place of residence, the correctional facility from which he’s dictating his memoir. Hale takes on this rhetorical challenge with gusto, turning his lovelorn Bruno into a verbose, philosophical and at times unreliable narrator who is certain to be included among the most memorable characters in contemporary literature.
