Ark Baby

by Liz Jensen

Five years have passed since a mysterious millennial downpour spread infertility throughout the land. As the Fertility Crisis deepens, veterinarian Bobby Sullivan has other things on his mind - he's on the run after following a husband's orders to exterminate a monkey named Giselle, his wife's cherished baby-substitute. Sullivan finally stops running and opens his veterinary office in a small coastal town, only to learn he has not really escaped - the town is haunted by the Victorian freak Tobias Phelps, whose life is directly linked to the evolution of events confounding Sullivan in the modern world. As a century and a half of logic, religion, magic and science connect, two men, three women and Queen Victoria's entire bestiary are catapulted into a wild and explosively funny farce.

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Evolution, Religion, Contemporary

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 1998

About the author

Liz Jensen was born in Oxfordshire, the daughter of a Danish father and an Anglo-Moroccan mother. She spent two years as a journalist in the Far East before joining the BBC, first as a journalist, then as a TV and radio producer. She then moved to France where she worked as a sculptor began her first novel, Egg Dancing, which was published in 1995. Back in London she wrote Ark Baby (1998) which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award, The Paper Eater (2000), and War Crimes for the Home (2002) which was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has two children and shares her life with the Danish essayist, travel writer and novelist Carsten Jensen.

Reviews

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do I even begin with this book? 🐵

Watch my BookTube deep dive on the weirdest Women's Prize nominees . 👀



Ark Baby opens five years after an infertility epidemic, which has prompted couples to adopt monkeys and apes as children. Some fanatical mothers go so far as to shave their monkeys and openly breast feed them. We're then introduced to veterinarian Bobby Sullivan, who's on the run after satisfying a disgruntled husband’s request to euthanize his wife’s baby-substitute monkey.

We follow Bobby to a small coastal town where he begins learning about Tobias Phelps, a man described as a Victorian freak who has a direct link to the absurd events confounding Bobby’s modern world. In addition to Bobby, we follow a man’s efforts to curate Queen Victoria’s bestiary, which then leads to the discovery of a ship filled with rotting animal corpses and a decapitated human head. Further, we oscillate to the past to follow a woman who was held captive on that ship where primates make for unusually good company on those long days at sea.

Hopefully that gives a clear idea of just how absurdly strange this book is, but then again, it's a black comedy, so I'd be disappointed if it wasn't so over the top as to make me laugh.

This book is definitely of an acquired taste, and I do think it could have been shorter (by about 50 pages), but even so I'd definitely recommend it to fans of darkly humorous reads.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Description: Bobby Sullivan changes his name and flees London after killing a monkey. He sets up his veterinary service in a northern coastal town. Here he finds that Tobias Phelps, ghost and erstwhile Victorian freak, is haunting the town.

Opening: In the beginning, the ocean.

So after primate euthanasia, away we go to Northumberland and the fishing village of Thunder Spit...

In the latest review removals by grramazon (yesterday, day before) I wonder if it is safe to talk about the author, yet since when have I been a cowardy custard, eh!?:

Jensen is a very funny person, not droll or quietly 'soft-finger-prod' satiric, just outright loudly funny. At times she has more Monty Python in her word processor than Monty Python's Flying circus ever dreamt of. Yet I do wonder if such humour stands the test of time, do the youngsters like such zanyness nowadays? Of course I do, I am from the era under the microscope here.

I really cry-laughed at the Montgolfier over Victorian London sections...

elvis presley blue suede shoes
elvis presley - its now or never (1960)
Elvis Presley Love Me Tender
Elvis Presley - Rock-a-hula baby.
The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

3* Ark Baby
5* The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
4* The Uninvited
4* The Rapture
2* My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time
4* The Paper Eater
4* Egg Dancing

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is one of the most bizarre books i've ever read.it's also one of the funniest, although in a definitely black humour vein.so if that type of thing appeals to you, and you like fine writing as well, you should really give this a try.this is the second book i've read by liz jensen and she is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.

[Rhea H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book 25 years ago by a friend who found it in his university bookshop. He bought it based on the cover and my love of biology. And it really is so very good - I’ve read it at least 3 times, maybe 4. Probably 6.

It’s funny, endearing, cleaver, surprising, and thought provoking. It’s black comedy for evolutionary scientists, a work of fantasy for geneticists, and a cautionary tale for modern life.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very strange book! Luckily it manages to be amusing and enjoyable at the same time.
In Victorian London, we meet Dr Scrapie, Queen Victoria's taxidermist, along with his wife "The Laudenum Empress" and his daughter Violet.
At the same time in Northumberland a baby is found in a church and adopted by the vicar and his wife.
Fast forward to 2005 and all British women have become sterile since the millennium causing many to adopt primates as child substitutes. Following an unfortunate incident with a monkey called Giselle, a vet changes his name and runs away to Northumberland where all our threads start to come together.

[Christopher James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a hoot.

For a start it is actually a good book about evolution. I could almost shelve it under science. Even structurally, the two time lines coil around each other like a double helix.

It is funny - she has a great turn of phrase.

'Carpe Deum', says the newly reinvented Buck De Saville, 'Seize the day. Grab it by the through and rattle its bollocks'.

There's the moment when a creationist preacher refutes Darwin with tales of how intelligent his God is. Not only does God make a lobster to feed us, he proclaims, but also to entertain is with the funny way he changes color and waves his claws around when you boil him.

I think Ms Jenson's a vegetarian. So am I. This provides a very strong subtext - but don't worry about it - she doesn't preach.

But despite the publicity it's not really a comedy. Funny sure, but there is much more to it than that. If there is a big theme it's about humanity, and how those of us who are least 'human' can be the most humane. In fact, the walls we build around ourselves are really exposed for the works of arrogance they are.

This is a smart book. And best of all, Liz Jensen shows us that smart can be fun too.

[Daniel Levin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like fun with language, a kaleidoscope of eccentric characters, and don't mind some plot weaknesses
I really enjoyed the language in this book. The author plays with words and syntax of different historic periods, people, social classes, even foreigners. Her imagination when creating characters, places, customs and situations is delightful.
It had to be delightful, because I didn't care much for the overall plot, and the supernatural and other deus ex machinas are not to my taste. Don't worry about the high-level narrative, though, because the lower-level, page by page twists and turns are lots of fun.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A modern day ark and a vestigial tail.

[GaiB · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5stars - A fantastic and fascinating freak show from a parallel Britain. Well written with a satisfying ending.

[Aslı · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu roman neden yeniden basılmıyor? Son zamanlarda okuduğum en iyi kurgulardan birine sahip. "Tufandan Sonra" birden fazla türü içinde barındırıyor ve iki farklı dönemde geçiyor. Viktorya İngilteresi'nde doğan 2 ayrı karakter ve 2000'li yıllarda yaşayan veteriner bir adamın hikayesi bir arada anlatılıyor. 1800'lerde doğan karakterler daha derinlikli işlenmiş, onları daha iyi anlıyoruz. Karakterler gerçekten çok ilginç, onları ve yan karakterleri Jensen'ın mizah dolu kaleminden okumaktan çok zevk aldım.

Modern zamanda ise o dönemde yaşayan adamın hikayesinden ziyade romanın distopik kısmını oluşturan doğurganlık krizi ön planda. Bu kısımdan ayrı bir roman çıkabilirmiş. Özellikle doğum olmadıkça insanların çocuk niyetine maymun sahiplenmesi psikolojik anlamda günümüze dair çok çağrışıma sahip.

Kısacası maymunlar gezegenini seven ve evrim teorisine ilgi duyanların ayrı seveceği bir roman diyebilirim.

[R.]

Now that my state is in Phase 2 of reopening, the public library put on a sidewalk sale. There wasn't much, but I discovered this little gem (albeit with a different cover, a hybrid of Will Self's Great Apes and the cover for the CD soundtrack to Trainspotting: a monkey smirking against a field of steel grey, banners of orange) - a funny bookend to the last time I was able to actually walk into the library, when I checked out Planet of the Apes. It's a Bloomsbury novel from the late 90s, so I've high hopes...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of this book pits creationism against evolution, and revolves around Tobias Phelps, an odd-looking boy unsure of his parentage, who is adopted by a parson and his wife in a town called Thunder Spit. A parallel plot unfolds in London around the same time -1845- involving a taxidermist, his daughter Violet and the family chef. One other intertwined story centered on a rather sleazy veterinarian is set in Thunder Spit in 2005, a time when England is beset by female infertility. There are a number of other key characters, and it took me some 60 pages to sort out who was who, where was where, and what was what.

Liz Jensen is a good writer and Ark Baby is told in a very amusing and colorful way, with five or six true laugh-out-loud moments. My favorite character is the taxidermist's wife, nicknamed "Laudanum Empress," who can see the future.

**
"There will be two world wars," murmurs the Laudanum Empress, yawning over her untouched cup and saucer. It is the heyday of her psychic particles. "As a result, a million skulls will be strewn all over France." She pauses, squinting sideways. "But on the more positive side, there will be something known as long-life milk."
(...)
"There will be gambling machines called one-armed bandits," says the Laudanum Empress. "And artists will display their own excrement in galleries."
**

Although I enjoyed this book, it was also silly and on the whole not really worth the time. I read another of her novels this summer,
The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, which I think was a better story.

[Emily Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long time ago, my sister-in-law, Jenny, lent me Ark Baby, when I ran out of books while I was visiting my brother and her in Pittsburgh. “It’s funny,” she said.

Parts of Ark Baby certainly are funny, and it is meant to be both a comic novel and a social commentary. Liz Jensen begins with the premise that it is 2005 in England, and there have been no babies born since a freak storm on New Year’s Eve 2000. Since the British have been unable to have children, they have been coping in various ways, including adopting primates as pets but treating them as surrogate children.

The novel moves between 2005 and 1845 and features several main characters, the most prominent are Buck from 2005 and Tobias from 1845. Buck is a veterinarian under an assumed identity in rural Britain, avoiding being charged for putting a monkey to sleep under questionable circumstances. He arrives in Thunder Spit with his priorities clear: find alcohol and women. One leads him quickly to the other.

Tobias is a foundling in Thunder Spit, left in the church and adopted by the preacher and his wife. He grows up an outcast and decides to follow in his father’s footsteps, but his unusual origins get in the way.
Jensen does an excellent job of twining the characters and stories together, though the results are a bit predictable. A good deal of the humor is misogynist and based on basic gender roles, without fully exploring what the implications of a childless Britain would really be like, especially the effect on men and couples. However, Ark Baby does not seem intent on being a powerful social commentary, but more light hearted and amusing. For that end, I could have been more amused.

[Hannah W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ark Baby is unfortunately one of those books whose “blurb” does not accurately reflect its content, and for that reason I was initially a bit disappointed. Here’s what the back of the novel says:
“Since the year all British women became infertile, Bobby Sullivan’s London veterinary clinic has been packed with primate ‘children’ and, speaking as an alpha male, he’s sick to death of them. Hoping to reincarnate himself, he moves north, but finds there is no escape from the Darwinian imperative – or from the sexual pull of the luscious twins Rose and Blanche. As the legacy of the girls’ ancestor, Victorian freak Tobias Phelps, begins to connect with a century of history, religion, and evolutionary theory, new hope looms for the nation’s future.”
From that I was expecting a slice of speculative fiction, with a good dose of satire about child-substitute pets and some Children-Of-Men style musing on fertility rates. But what I actually got was a book with three plot strands, two of which were set in the Victorian age. Bobby (who changes his name to Buck in one of the opening chapters) moves away from London and his primate-carer clients almost as soon as the story begins, too, so even that story becomes much more about his affair with “Roseblanche” than his veterinary career.

... [Read the rest of my review here: https://whathannahread.wordpress.com/...]

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an alternative 19th-century England, Tobias Phelps is a unusual-looking young man who has been raised by a clergyman and his wife in a remote seaside village. Violet Scrapie is a burgeoning cook; her father is a naturalist who is stuffing a lot of dead animals that have come in on a boat for the queen's collection. Their lives are about to collide and will also impact on the future, where at the end of the 20th century all women in England have suddenly and inexplicably become infertile.

This is supposedly a comic novel. I found it more sad and weird than funny, and I might have given up if I hadn't needed it for a challenge, but by the end I was quite enjoying it. Tobias and Violet were great characters, and I'd have preferred not to have the 20th-century sections intruding on their stories.

[Sps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books in Print:Fiction Connection recommended this for a fan of Infinite Jest. Also a 1998 NYT Notable Book.

Amusing, in a style kind of like Peter Carey, kind of like Neal Stephenson, kind of like Julian Barnes. I don't really see the DFW parallels, but maybe it'll come.

[Taron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the language and style of this book. I was expecting something dark like Children of Men, but it wasn't like that at all -- it's actually a really funny romp playing around with the themes of natural selection, family and human nature.

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting novel about the boundaries between humans and primates. It has some interesting passages but is hampered by an awkward structure that has parallel stories which converge towards towards the end.

[Dariosk · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's good weird and then there's weird weird... this one is definitely the second kind.

[Fuu]

Uma crise de infertilidade assola a Inglaterra, levando casais a adotarem animais e criá-los indiscriminadamente como filhos legítimos. Bobby Sullivan, um veterinário, se vê obrigado a fugir para uma cidadezinha costeira que está ligada de maneira inusitada a uma sequência de eventos que mistura magia, ciência e religião. O texto percorre diferentes séculos, com elementos que vão desde as pesquisas de Charles Darwin à familia do responsável por empalhar animais para uma coleção da Rainha Vitória.

A prosa de Liz Jensen é precisa e irreverente. A ironia com que ela costura as palavras vem sempre acompanhada de um toque humano que faz o leitor torcer por um destino positivo para o sofrido Tobias Phelps. O que começa como um aparente ensaio do absurdo se transforma em uma história tocante sobre amor e aceitação – sem nunca deixar de lado as sutis alfinetadas sociais.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satirical novel questioning what it means to be human. Linked through blood and inclination, the members of two families in a Victorian/millennial English fishing village are caught up in the answer.

[Hilde Sleeckx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aanrader. Curieus verhaal.

[Ellen-Arwen Tristram · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book languishing on a book shelf and realised I hadn't ever read it (or even remembered obtaining it!). Poor book. So it had to be read (although I have many MANY books that I really need to be reading).

Now, this is a very strange book. It involves three different timescales which become clearly intertwined as the stories continues. The mad idea of a King wanting an ark like Noah's with one of each creature, but in stuffed form. So a key protagonist is a taxidermist. As is his disappointing daughter who is overweight from her great love of cooking exotic meats that come from this Noah's ark. Who then becomes a vegetarian.

It is such a bizarre book. The only thing I can even vaguely compare it to is 'Good Omens.' That sounds like a strange comparison, but it's oddly apt. It's not as well written, but if you enjoyed GO then I reckon you'd enjoy this.

Not really my type of book (same with GO), but I can definitely see the appeal.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ark Baby is a real oddity, defying any obvious classification and making it tricky to summarise. It's essentially a novel about evolution, featuring three storylines in two time periods; it manages to incorporate elements of sci-fi (an alternate 2005 in which England has hit upon a fertility crisis)and magical realism (most obviously with the inclusion of a ghost) in a highly literary tale of, respectively, a vet on the run from London, a young man searching for his heritage and a taxidermist's daughter. How these disparate strands weave together is expertly crafted, with no sense of contrivance or illogical leaps.

With Darwin as a minor character and major influence, intelligent musings on vegetarianism and parenthood and a seam of black humour running throughout, this is a unique and highly satisfying book.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

'There will be two world wars,' murmurs the Laudanum Empress, yawning over her untouched cup and saucer. It is the heyday of her psychic particles. 'As a result, a million skulls will be strewn all over France.' She pauses, squinting sideways. 'But on the more positive side, there will be something known as long-life milk.'

A darkly comic satire about Darwinism, heredity and religious belief, and featuring parsons, freaks, laudanum addicts, ghosts, taxidermists, vets, obsessive cooks, and an ark full of zoological samples. The story is set in two time periods: the early to mid-Victorian era and a modern-day Britain that was struck by 100% female infertility at the millennium.

A wonderful book - and there is another of the author's books among my TBRs. I must move "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax" up nearer to the top of the heap.

[Rachael Eyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's nobody quite like Liz Jensen, and this - the sixth I've read- is the wackiest romp yet. An intriguing premise, potty cast of characters and fun look at a thorny subject make this a rollicking read. My favourite character had to be the Laudanum Empress, particularly once she'd passed on and taken to haunting her descendants' sofa.

It sheds a star due to a few things that niggled: the unutterably sleazy character of Bobby/Buck, who despite the blurb really is quite incidental (and would everyone in the village be so accepting of his threesome with the twins?), the illiterate jottings by the Frozen Woman (any attempts to depict illiteracy are always embarrassing) and all the references to Violet's weight- yes, she's obese, we get it. It's bad enough the characters run her down; the narration doesn't have to join in!

[Stephanie Augustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work of genius may have been called a comedy, but I found myself rooting for the freakish couple and enjoying how Jensen uses the Montgolfier balloon to add to imagination (among others); thus alternating between trepidation at their escapades and sadness at the blatant ostracism. Add to that mixture her astute observations at Life, the Universe, God and Darwinism, this is fucking gold and more proof that Jensen is a fucking genius. The woman does not write fast enough.

[B A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tufandan sonra kısırlaşmış kadınlar, Darwin, başı belada bir veteriner, Kraliçe Viktorya'nın biyologu ve onun yemeklere meraklı kızı, HMS Beagle, centilmen maymun, papazın evlat edindiği garip bir bebek... Şiddetle tavsiye edilir. Detaylar: http://kitapnot.blogspot.com/2012/04/...

[Nikki Scheerer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic Book.
I found the first half of the book sort of dull, but it comes together well at the end. There are multiple story lines going at the same time and at first you cannot really guess how they will become linked, but then once you do you gain a whole new perspective on the book.

[Rhea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ark Baby is an incredibly amusing novel written by a woman whose wit and cleverness is very impressive. The entire novels plays out vividly in ones imagination as a steam punk black comedy. This is one if my favourite novels.