The Monkey's Uncle

by Jenny Diski

Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Captain FitzRoy of "The Beagle", a chatty orangutan and mad Charlotte collide in this wicked novel of contemporary life.

Genres: Fiction

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Jenny Diski was a British writer. Diski was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction articles, reviews and books. She was awarded the 2003 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America With Interruptions.

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley]

Yet to read a bad Jenny Diski novel, though - or because! - they are all the same novel.

[Chimene Bateman]

My first encounter with Jenny Diski, who is clearly a woman of formidable intellect. This novel is dense but it was worth persevering. The heroine has a bout of psychosis and though part of her is able to carry on in everyday life afterward, another part lives in a dreamworld and chats with Freud, Marx, Darwin and a talking monkey. Yes, really. The historical figure Robert Fitzroy also appears as a character: a British naval officer who took Darwin on the famous voyage that culminated in On the Origin of Species. Diski’s heroine reads about Fitzroy and identifies with his mental instability (he ultimately committed suicide). A weird, dark, satirical book but not an unhopeful one.

[Frederique Veldman]

Diski is een van mijn meest favoriete schrijvers. Iedere keer sta ik weer van te kijken hoe ze zaken die volstrekt ver van je afstaan weet te beschrijven als volkomen logisch. Depressies en psychoses zijn een rode draad in haar werk. Ze beschrijft dit met een nuchtere zakelijkheid, gecombineerd met een prachtig uitgebeend taalgebruik.

[Hal]

I liked Charlotte, but her conversations down under were just a little too freaky weird for me.

[Helen Varley]

this is an interesting portrayal of an alice-in-wonderland-like descent into madness - or some kind of altered state/coping mechanism - that combines the larger existential, philosophical and evolutionary theories (embodied in their proponents) with the intimate, individual grappling with realities. it's well written, humorous and engaging.

[Gill's likes reading]

This book is both uplifting and empathetic with a woman's struggle when her children have grown up and she finds she has lost her identity. It is philosophy for those who need to find themselves in the grand scheme of life. This is one of my favourite books of all time.

[GaiB]

3.5stars - this book is a fascinating, multi-layered delve into family ties, nature and nurture, philosophy, psychology, our sense of self, and so much more. Well worth a read if you are looking for something intelligent and original but not too heavy-going.

[Lynne]

Re-read this again on the bus. It never gets old.