Pig Island by Mo Hayder

Trudi and I recently attended a cocktail party at the gallery of SoHo artist Alex Beard. While there, we met Bryan Adams, a Publicist with FAB Communications. When the conversation turned to books, Bryan mentioned that he always has one with him. Since Trudi and I share his passion for page turning, we felt an immediate connection.

Bryan suggested that we read Pig Island by Mo Hayder. He described this novel as "interesting dark fiction". I just finished it, and he was right.

Pig Island is dark - but without buckets of blood or supernatural characters. It is macabre in the psychological sense, which is infinitely more frightening. A good scary story messes with your head by planting the seeds of fear and then letting your mind cultivate them into full blown terror. The devil that you imagine is far more horrifying than the devil that you can see.

That's why the movie "Jaws" was such a nail biter. You didn't even get a glimpse of the shark until the third reel. But just knowing that he was out there under the waves, hunting for human hors d'oeuvres, petrified moviegoers.

Pig Island is the story of working class British journalist Joe Oakes, who makes his living by exposing supernatural hoaxes. Now in his late 30's, Joe's realizes that his writing is never going to make him a superstar (or even a star) author. His stories are barely paying the bills - and his marriage to Lexie Oakes is disintegrating. I envision Joe as a brutish character, a literary Tony Soprano - but without guns or gangsters to give his life direction. Not quite an antihero, but living somewhere in that neighborhood.

Joe is offered an assignment to visit a secretive religious community - the Psychogenic Healing Ministries. They are headquartered on the island of Cuagach Eilean (Pig Island in Gaelic) in Scotland. The PHM's leader is Malachi Dove, who Joe tangled with years earlier. At that time, Joe exposed one of Malachi's healing sessions as trickery, and damaged the leader's reputation. Years later, after suffering a nervous breakdown, Malachi has withdrawn from his flock and exiled himself to a remote corner of Pig Island.

The Ministry invites Joe to the island because they are seeking positive publicity to mend their reputation. PHM's image has been tarnished by rumors of Satanism, and other wickedness. These rumblings are further fueled by a fisherman's video, which appears to show a devil-like creature wandering the island.

The book continues with engaging story lines that held my attention on every page. And the plot twist at the end would make Agatha Christie envious!

Mo Hayder has written a number of novels, including Devil of Nanking, Birdman, and The Treatment. You can check these out at the Mo Hayder Website. In addition to compelling plots, I am captivated with her prose style. She often uses short sentences to build story structure. These are easy to assimilate because each sentence usually contains one idea. Hayder builds these terse elements into a complex drama the same way that a mason builds a brick wall - by carefully placing one unit on top of another.

The author also excels at description. She creates powerful imagery, which substantially enhances the narrative thread. For example Hayder depicts a small coastal bay as "a cup of tea". And the sky - "tendrils of cloud were splitting like mercury, running away in fragments across the moon." This is pure poetry.

Summary: I give Pig Island 4 bananas on the Monkey Prose Literature Scale. This rating system runs from 0 bananas (It's not even good enough to line a bird cage.) to 5 bananas (God handed me this book on Mt. Sinai.) This novel grabbed me in the first few pages, and I couldn't put it down. I read it in a weekend. And the shocking revelation at the end is unforgettable. If you enjoy a gripping psychological thriller, then I highly recommend Pig Island.

No Touch Monkey! - by Ayun Halliday

I discovered "No Touch Monkey" during one of my weekly visits to Barnes & Noble. It was sitting on the "Hmm, that's interesting!" table - in between the Science section and an immense wall of "Chicken Soup for the ....." books. Boy, have they milked the last ounce of revenue out of that cash cow!

Being a monkophile, I was compelled to touch "No Touch Monkey" and give it a quick scan. After one paragraph I was hooked!

The author, Ayun Halliday, chronicles her journeys around the world, with a host of travel companions. As a young adult, she embraced the "I'm bulletproof" self image that many of us shared at that age. That sense of invulnerability is what allowed us to take on risky,and maybe crazy adventures that would have frozen older souls with fear.

Bruce Lee once said "The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering." In Ayun's travels, she acquired more fascinating experiences than many people encounter in a lifetime. And I am certain that the rest of her life will be richer for it!

The aspect that I enjoyed most about "No Touch Monkey" is that it was "a good read". Her story flowed smoothly - like conversation with a friend, when you are each on your third glass of wine. Her descriptive prose was colorful; forming vivid images in my head as she chronicled her exploits. The only other author who affected me this intensely was Ernest Hemingway - not a bad comparison for literary chops!

But unlike EH, Ayun doesn't take herself too seriously. She has a razor sharp wit, and a natural talent for discovering irony in whatever she encounters. That substantially increased my enjoyment of her book.

I finished "No Touch Monkey", a 272 page book, in four days, which is somewhat of a record for me. I was saddened when I was done. I felt like I was losing a new friend. As a result, I would read this book again, just to re-experience that relationship.

Summary: I give "No Touch Monkey" two opposable thumbs up. If you would like to experience the adventure of world travel, without encontering mayhem, missed connections, and malaria, then this book is for you!

You can find our more about the author at Ayun Halliday.

"Chimpanzee Politics" by Frans de Waal

If you believe that chimpanzee thought is much more limited than human reasoning, then this book will "rock your world".

Frans de Waal, the author of "Chimpanzee Politics", is one of the most respected primatologists in the world. Dr. de Waal is the C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University, and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center.

"Chimpanzee Politics" was written in 1980, early in Dr. de Waal's research career. However the information that he presents is as relevant today as it was 27 years ago.

In this book, Frans details the power struggle among a group of chimpanzees that were living on an island at the Arnhem Zoo. This Zoo is located in the Netherlands. His data covers many years.

The story centers around the struggle for alpha male supremacy among a small group of males, which included Yeroen (the grizzled old veteran), Nikkie (the hot headed upstart), and Luit (the calculating politician). Each chimpanzee had a different method for seeking power. However they employed many similar techniques, that could be observed and predicted with a significant degree of certainty. Included were:

• When an alpha male was deposed, he would form an alliance with the other member of the triad who was not in power. This partnership would then seek to undermine the influence of the leader.

• The alpha male would seek support among the females. The "pretenders to the throne" would do the same. The females had a great deal of influence over who became the leader - and how long that leader stayed in power.

• Grooming was extremely important in resolving conflicts. Dr. de Waal's statistics showed that chimps who challenged the leader also groomed with that leader more frequently than at other times. Grooming appeared to be a way to reduce tension, and to re-establish an emotional bond among sparring chimps.

I was surprised by the complex group dynamics among these three chimps. Some campaign strategies took place over months, and involved a degree of planning and sophistication that I previously thought was limited only to humans. Many times, while I was reading this book, I felt like I was reading the chronicle of a U.S Presidential campaign. Machiavelli's book "The Prince" also came to mind.

The data collection methods of Dr. de Waal and his research team were scientifically sound, and rigorous in their execution. This gave me confidence that anthropomorphism did not have a significant role in the book's conclusions.

When I finished reading "Chimpanzee Politics", I had a great deal more respect for our closest animal cousins, and was inspired to find out more about chimpanzees. This book was also "a good read". The prose flowed smoothly, and was not overly inundated with technical jargon. As a result, I was able to finish the book in three days.

Whether you are a devoted follower of primate science or are simply interested in chimpanzees, I believe that you will find reading "Chimpanzee Politics" to be an enjoyable and educational experience.

Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg

Monkey Portraits by Jill Greenberg. A wonderful collection portraits by well known photographer Jill Greenberg. They are powerful, funny, and whimsical. I really enjoyed it! I hope that you will as well.

Monkey Portraits is available at Amazon.com as well as other book retailers.

I encourage you to check out Jill's other work by clicking on the Jill Greenberg hyperlink (above). She is incredibly talented!