LucyLaurence Gonzales
Knopf, July 2010
ISBN: 978-0307272607
Laurence Gonzales's latest novel, Lucy, tells the story of a teenage girl who is actually an engineered human-bonobo hybrid. (A species of great ape, formerly known as Pygmy chimpanzees.) The novel opens in the jungles of the Congo, the civil war has broken out, and primatologist Jenny Lowe is running for her life. She makes her way to the camp of her colleague David Stone, a British researcher, but the only person still alive is his fourteen-year-old daughter, Lucy, who she finds naked, bloodied and in shock. A friend in the British Embassy helps get them out of Congo and back to London. Along the way, Lucy has begun to recover, and is beginning to show what an extraordinary young girl she is.
Jenny and her diplomat friend try to find relatives on Lucy's mother's side that can take the girl in, but until they can be found, Jenny decides to bring Lucy back to Chicago with her. Once Lucy gets settled in Chicago and starts going to school, the book becomes much more interesting, and I had a hard time putting it down. I found the descriptions of Lucy trying to adjust to life in the hectic world of the United States after growing up in isolation in the African jungle very insightful. The only other things Jenny dragged from the jungle were the research notebooks of Lucy's slaughtered father. Back at home, when she finally sits down to read them, she learns Lucy's shattering secret. Although Lucy looks like any other girl, she is highly educated, uncannily perceptive, and has the ability to communicate with animals. When Jenny discovers the shocking truth about Lucy's origins, she worries about the girl's future. If intolerant individuals were to become aware of Lucy's genetic history, how would they react? Gonzales has a field day exploring the ways in which Lucy and Jenny's lives become progressively more complicated. As the challenges mount, the two depend on their allies for emotional support. Among them are Harry Prendeville, a doctor, who has been in love with Jenny for years; Amanda Mather, a mature and caring classmate who takes Lucy under her wing; Ruth Randall, a wealthy woman whose heart goes out to Lucy; and Jenny's friend, Donna W. Feather, who has worked with bonobos at the Milwaukee Zoo for more than twenty years.
Lucy forces you to examine your ethics, morals, religious and philosophical views while asking you to think "what would you do", if faced with deciding the fate of such a creature. The story line is fast-paced while introducing readers to a myriad of complex social, scientific and religious problematic convergences. Gonzales blends the meandering introspection and the simple, declarative action into vivid, lush metaphor. The writing here is resplendent with the kind of context that wrings meaning out not only across the span of pages before, but across the great expanse of human experience, in its social, moral and legal dimensions; and in the anthropological exploration of what does and does not define humankind uniquely. Lucy is a marvel that offers hope and possibilities in human evolution.
LAURENCE GONZALES is the author of three novels and five books of nonfiction. His best-selling book Deep Survival has been published in six languages.
Lucy forces you to examine your ethics, morals, religious and philosophical views while asking you to think "what would you do", if faced with deciding the fate of such a creature. The story line is fast-paced while introducing readers to a myriad of complex social, scientific and religious problematic convergences. Gonzales blends the meandering introspection and the simple, declarative action into vivid, lush metaphor. The writing here is resplendent with the kind of context that wrings meaning out not only across the span of pages before, but across the great expanse of human experience, in its social, moral and legal dimensions; and in the anthropological exploration of what does and does not define humankind uniquely. Lucy is a marvel that offers hope and possibilities in human evolution.
LAURENCE GONZALES is the author of three novels and five books of nonfiction. His best-selling book Deep Survival has been published in six languages.
