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Brazzaville Beach
In the heart of a civil war-torn African nation, primate researcher Hope Clearwater made a shocking discovery about apes and man . . .
Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelities of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science . . . and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone.
Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelities of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science . . . and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone.
314 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 1990
341 people are currently reading
3045 people want to read
About the author
William Boyd
69 books2,543 followersNote: William^^Boyd
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
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December 5, 2022
Brazzaville Beach - literary novel as absorbing page-turner. William Boyd proves himself master of the craft - so much drama, so much suspense.
The skinny: twentysomething Hope Clearwater lives on Brazzaville Beach in West Africa, recovering from two major shocks in her life. The first relates to her former husband back in England, an accomplished mathematician by the name of John Clearwater, a man obsessed and driven to formulate groundbreaking equations within the fields of game theory and turbulence. The second revolves around Hope’s recent participation in the nearby Grosso Arvore Research Project studying chimpanzees under the direction of the world’s foremost expert on primates, Eugene Mallabar.
What adds a distinctive tang to Brazzaville Beach is the way William Boyd toggles back and forth between England and Africa, folding in Hope's backstory, including her relationship with her family, friends, academic advisor (trained in botany, Hope earned a Ph.D. in ethology) coupled with shifts of third-person objective narration and Hope's first-person voice. Also included are philosophic reflections sprinkled in at the beginning of each chapter on such topics as topology, genetics, algorithms and mechanics . All in all, novel as grand symphony in a brooding key, say César Franck's Symphony in D minor - so many rich interweaving storylines requiring a bit of unraveling. Here are a number of provocative strands:
CHIMP CENTER
Expanding out to many thousands of acres, under the direction of Eugene Mallabar, The Grosso Arvore Research Project has been thriving for 30 years. In addition to observing chimps in the wild, Mallabar set up a feeding station near their base camp so researchers could observe the chimps at close range. But how reliable and accurate can the behavior of chimps be under such artificial conditions? And to think, Mallabar published his The Peaceful Primate back in 1962 and plans to send his latest, most comprehensive opus to his publisher in the near future.
KING OF THE HILL
Mallabar repeatedly tells Hope that, as the world’s foremost expert, he knows everything there is to know about chimpanzees. Perhaps predictably, in 1972 when Hope reports on chimpanzees attacking and murdering a baby chimpanzee, know-it-all Mallabar dismisses her words. Mallabar then sends Hope off to town for supplies and when she returns to camp – surprise, surprise: Mallabar informs her of a most unfortunate accident: there’s been a fire at her lodging and all of her field notes have been destroyed. Oh, no you don’t, big man! At this point Hope plans her revenge.
NORTHERN VS. SOUTHERN
A more experienced team of researchers have been charting the behavior of the northern chimps. Meanwhile, Mallabar assigns Hope to compile field notes on the chimpanzees to the south. All goes well until that attack on the baby chimp. But then a further shock: in the following weeks, Hope watches a northern chimp patrol travel south to launch a full scale war on the southerners. Recognizing such acts of violence will completely invalidate Mallabar's forthcoming book, Hope must consider the odds before communicating her find.
MAN OF MATHEMATICS
Hope reflects on what exactly made John Clearwater so attractive to her as a marriage partner in the first place. She always wanted her man to be extremely intelligent and highly unusual, however, as she eventually realizes, she will continually take second place to John's true love - mathematics. John is a man obsessed with developing a new theory and when Hope inspires him with what she terms his "Clearwater Set," John's fanaticism reaches scary levels. Oh, to have such fame within the world of mathematics! But at what cost?
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Hope travels to her parents' home for her father's 70th birthday party. Following the cake and birthday songs, her father speaks to her in private, "Trouble is," he said, "I'm so fucking bored. That's why I drink. I know your mother isn't happy, but I just can't help it, you see." And when conversing with her friend Meredith, Hope muses on what it means to possess the capacity to enjoy oneself when alone, that is, not to forever hanker after the company and conversation of others. To my mind, these sections of the novel are vitally important and provide a major theme: the nature of happiness; specifically, the ability for someone to rest content in themselves, valuing silence and solitude as foundational to a good life.
CIVIL WAR
During Hope's time at Grosso Arvore, political complexity casts it shadow: a civil war with three sides fighting it out threatens the project's funding and very existence. At one point, traveling north by jeep, rebels take Hope prisoner where she must duck down from an enemy patrol. Ah, enemy patrol - echoes of those northern chimps moving south.
SIGNIFICANT FEMALE
When speaking of his own observations out in the field with the chimpanzees, one of Hope's fellow researchers announces, "It's a theory I have. You see, it's not the alpha male that gives the group its cohesion, it's a female. A dominant female." The novel showcases plenty of groupings, both chimpanzee and human - so the question poses itself: How vital is a strong female to a community's health and harmony? - a theme worth considering as one turns the novel's pages.
GREEK PHILOSOPHY, ANYONE?
William Boyd has written a highly philosophical novel. One key question I return to again and again: What is the price of fame and reputation? For Hope's husband John and Hope's boss Eugene Mallabar, fame and reputation are matters of life and death. They are both extremely intellectual men but are they men of wisdom? Greek philosopher Epicurus warned his followers of the great dangers when one's identity becomes closely entwined with fame and reputation, a need that is neither natural nor necessary. On one hand I can appreciate a person's dedication to a particular academic discipline but on the other, I value what Greek philosophers like Epicurus called Ataraxia, a combination of tranquility and joy, a state free of stress and anxiety. Among other strengths, Ataraxia requires one to have a measure of control over one's emotions, something both John Clearwater and Eugene Mallabar lack - and that's understatement.
Am I being too harsh here? I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Brazzaville Beach to explore this and many other philosophic questions for yourself. And enjoy all the chimpanzees and humans along the way.
Scottish author William Boyd, born 1952
“The last thing we learn about ourselves is our effect.”
― William Boyd, Brazzaville Beach
August 7, 2021
I came across this 1990 novel whilst browsing. I hadn’t read anything by William Boyd before so didn’t really know what to expect, but it worked well for me.
The first-person narrator, the unusually named Hope Clearwater, tells her story in retrospect whilst living in a beach house at the aforementioned Brazzaville Beach, which turns out to have nothing to do with the city of Brazzaville. The novel is one of those that has two strands in alternating chapters. In one, set in England, Hope relates the story of her marriage to a brilliant mathematician, John Clearwater, whose mind is finely balanced between brilliance and madness. In the other, set sometime later, she is a chimp researcher in Africa. The country isn’t specified but it seems to be a Lusophone one, since the reserve where she works is called Grosso Arvore and local people employed there have names like Joᾶo and Martim. The country is also in the midst of a civil war involving the government and at least 3 rebel groups.
Hope isn’t an entirely likeable character. She has a generally supercilious attitude towards others. Her husband is one of the few people she admires and that is because of his exceptional mind. She reflects in the novel that the practitioners of all professions have knowledge exclusive to that profession, but that in most cases others could obtain that knowledge provided they studied and worked hard enough. That’s not the case with higher level mathematics though. Few of us could enter that realm no matter how hard we worked. John is an ambitious man who wants to gain fame and status through making some great breakthrough, and becomes frustrated when he finds that just out of reach. Hope makes some effort to be understanding but has limited tolerance of John’s mental health issues. Personally I thought the author drew Hope as a realistic character.
Hope’s boss at the chimp research project, Eugene Mallabar, has in his own field achieved what John Clearwater was seeking. He is the world’s leading authority on chimpanzee behaviour, his reputation resting on a 1962 book which describes chimps living in peaceful and cooperative societies. However, in her fieldwork Hope observes a prolonged conflict between two chimpanzee bands, one of which was originally an offshoot of the other. The events described in the novel mirror the real life Gombe Chimpanzee War, observed by Jane Goodall in Western Tanzania in the 1970s, and which revealed a previously unsuspected side to Pan Troglodytes. Whilst in theory scientists are supposed to assess new evidence dispassionately, Hope finds that there can be costs to challenging scientific orthodoxy. Both John and Eugene share an obsession with their work and with the reputation that goes with it, so this is one of the themes of the book. I felt the novel also drew parallels between the Chimp War and the civil war happening within the country. Initially the civil war exists only in the background, but it gradually intrudes more into the novel and the lives of the characters.
I was slightly surprised at the ending, but on reflection I could see how it fitted with Hope’s experiences.
This is quite a layered book and my review misses out a lot. If you are an animal lover you may not like some of the scenes, but I found this an excellent read.
The first-person narrator, the unusually named Hope Clearwater, tells her story in retrospect whilst living in a beach house at the aforementioned Brazzaville Beach, which turns out to have nothing to do with the city of Brazzaville. The novel is one of those that has two strands in alternating chapters. In one, set in England, Hope relates the story of her marriage to a brilliant mathematician, John Clearwater, whose mind is finely balanced between brilliance and madness. In the other, set sometime later, she is a chimp researcher in Africa. The country isn’t specified but it seems to be a Lusophone one, since the reserve where she works is called Grosso Arvore and local people employed there have names like Joᾶo and Martim. The country is also in the midst of a civil war involving the government and at least 3 rebel groups.
Hope isn’t an entirely likeable character. She has a generally supercilious attitude towards others. Her husband is one of the few people she admires and that is because of his exceptional mind. She reflects in the novel that the practitioners of all professions have knowledge exclusive to that profession, but that in most cases others could obtain that knowledge provided they studied and worked hard enough. That’s not the case with higher level mathematics though. Few of us could enter that realm no matter how hard we worked. John is an ambitious man who wants to gain fame and status through making some great breakthrough, and becomes frustrated when he finds that just out of reach. Hope makes some effort to be understanding but has limited tolerance of John’s mental health issues. Personally I thought the author drew Hope as a realistic character.
Hope’s boss at the chimp research project, Eugene Mallabar, has in his own field achieved what John Clearwater was seeking. He is the world’s leading authority on chimpanzee behaviour, his reputation resting on a 1962 book which describes chimps living in peaceful and cooperative societies. However, in her fieldwork Hope observes a prolonged conflict between two chimpanzee bands, one of which was originally an offshoot of the other. The events described in the novel mirror the real life Gombe Chimpanzee War, observed by Jane Goodall in Western Tanzania in the 1970s, and which revealed a previously unsuspected side to Pan Troglodytes. Whilst in theory scientists are supposed to assess new evidence dispassionately, Hope finds that there can be costs to challenging scientific orthodoxy. Both John and Eugene share an obsession with their work and with the reputation that goes with it, so this is one of the themes of the book. I felt the novel also drew parallels between the Chimp War and the civil war happening within the country. Initially the civil war exists only in the background, but it gradually intrudes more into the novel and the lives of the characters.
I was slightly surprised at the ending, but on reflection I could see how it fitted with Hope’s experiences.
This is quite a layered book and my review misses out a lot. If you are an animal lover you may not like some of the scenes, but I found this an excellent read.
November 25, 2012
I delighted in this book because it tells a compelling human story with a rich framework of ideas that appeal to me. The tale is of a woman, Hope Clearwater, reflecting back on her work and marriage in England to a mathematician and her work and life studying chimp behavior in the Republic of Congo, both of which ended in disaster. She is unable to move forward without making some sense out of the wisdom vs. stupidities in her role in the disasters. As quoted from Socrates in the epilogue and close of the book, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Boyd alternates the narrative of Hope’s life in Africa, told in first person, with that of her life in England, rendered in third person. The contrast between these two parts of her life, as well as Western and African cultures, represents a central challenge for Hope (and thus Boyd) to integrate. Each section is introduced with a segment from mathematical or biological sciences, which reflect on work concerns of her mathematician husband or herself. I love how Boyd has Hope trying to use analogies from academic advances to provide structure for her efforts to understand her life’s journey. For example, her husband John makes a lot of progress in areas of turbulence and catastrophe theory, which fuels her efforts to account for sudden discontinuities in her own life; as John’s own psychological instability leads him to focus instead on invariance of forms in the field of topology, she looks to how other people differ from her ultimately in only in minor ways. She also learns a lot about the relativism of frames of reference, which she relates her own mood influencing her levels of optimism or pessimism. To me Boyd isn’t making a heavy philosophical stretch here, but he is illustrating very well how people link abstract ideas to their personal lives and outlook.
In the case of Hope’s work at the research station, the parallels between primate and human behavior represent a more substantive analogy. For decades, Jane Goodall’s work on chimps in their natural environment captivated the world with a vision of largely peaceful, almost Edenic, society, which we, as their closest evolutionary relatives, might somehow aspire to regain. The shock of discovery that chimps in some circumstances engage in infanticide, cannibalism, and lethal territorial warfare put an end to such simplistic thinking. As this work was widely publicized, it is not much of a spoiler to reveal that the plot of this book deals with Hope making discoveries of such violence and encountering conflicts and resistance in acceptance of her findings. I thought Boyd’s portrayal of conflicts between scientific objectivity and human biases and emotions to be quite plausible, although I am sure the scientists involved in this work would be offended over the dramatic fiction.
The book includes a segment where the unstable politics of the Congo intrude dangerously on the lives of the scientists in the form of actions by a revolutionary faction. Compared to the murder of gorilla researcher Dian Fossey in Rwanda, the events included in this narrative are restrained, but frighteningly realistic. The charming rebel leader featured, Dr. Amilcar, deflates Hope’s sense of the importance of her scientific work by exclaiming “You value a monkey more than a human” and by concluding “You think that if you know everything you can escape from the world. But you can’t.”
Hope is a fully realized character that I admired both as a strong woman hero and as a very human scientist. As made clear at the start, she survives the cataclysmic climaxes of both threads of her life revealed at the end. As she walks the beach at the end, as in interludes elsewhere in the book, the theme of permanence despite perpetual change is realized. Like life itself, a simple story of powerful events linked to a few choices resonates with many universal themes.
Boyd alternates the narrative of Hope’s life in Africa, told in first person, with that of her life in England, rendered in third person. The contrast between these two parts of her life, as well as Western and African cultures, represents a central challenge for Hope (and thus Boyd) to integrate. Each section is introduced with a segment from mathematical or biological sciences, which reflect on work concerns of her mathematician husband or herself. I love how Boyd has Hope trying to use analogies from academic advances to provide structure for her efforts to understand her life’s journey. For example, her husband John makes a lot of progress in areas of turbulence and catastrophe theory, which fuels her efforts to account for sudden discontinuities in her own life; as John’s own psychological instability leads him to focus instead on invariance of forms in the field of topology, she looks to how other people differ from her ultimately in only in minor ways. She also learns a lot about the relativism of frames of reference, which she relates her own mood influencing her levels of optimism or pessimism. To me Boyd isn’t making a heavy philosophical stretch here, but he is illustrating very well how people link abstract ideas to their personal lives and outlook.
In the case of Hope’s work at the research station, the parallels between primate and human behavior represent a more substantive analogy. For decades, Jane Goodall’s work on chimps in their natural environment captivated the world with a vision of largely peaceful, almost Edenic, society, which we, as their closest evolutionary relatives, might somehow aspire to regain. The shock of discovery that chimps in some circumstances engage in infanticide, cannibalism, and lethal territorial warfare put an end to such simplistic thinking. As this work was widely publicized, it is not much of a spoiler to reveal that the plot of this book deals with Hope making discoveries of such violence and encountering conflicts and resistance in acceptance of her findings. I thought Boyd’s portrayal of conflicts between scientific objectivity and human biases and emotions to be quite plausible, although I am sure the scientists involved in this work would be offended over the dramatic fiction.
The book includes a segment where the unstable politics of the Congo intrude dangerously on the lives of the scientists in the form of actions by a revolutionary faction. Compared to the murder of gorilla researcher Dian Fossey in Rwanda, the events included in this narrative are restrained, but frighteningly realistic. The charming rebel leader featured, Dr. Amilcar, deflates Hope’s sense of the importance of her scientific work by exclaiming “You value a monkey more than a human” and by concluding “You think that if you know everything you can escape from the world. But you can’t.”
Hope is a fully realized character that I admired both as a strong woman hero and as a very human scientist. As made clear at the start, she survives the cataclysmic climaxes of both threads of her life revealed at the end. As she walks the beach at the end, as in interludes elsewhere in the book, the theme of permanence despite perpetual change is realized. Like life itself, a simple story of powerful events linked to a few choices resonates with many universal themes.
December 8, 2014
Oh my, this book is hard to explain.
First of all, it IS engaging. I didn't want to stop listening. It is full of information. It keeps you thinking, and it doesn't necessarily provide answers. Definitely four stars.
It starts and ends with the line "The unexamined life is not worth living." I guess you would have to classify this as a cerebral novel, but also the parts set in Africa are dramatic; one thing happens after another - a civil war and infanticide and aggression and cannibalism and murder. Not one, but several. Murder of chimpanzees, but they are so similar to human beings that these too must be seen as murders. Chimpanzees and bonobos are the closest living relatives to human beings. Chimpanzees are more aggressive than bonobos.
There are three threads which flip back and forth. This is, until you get the knack of it, confusing. One thread is years ago when Hope is in England then married to John, a mathematician. Another thread is in the Republic of the Congo at a chimpanzee game reserve, a research center. Hope is both an ecologist and an ethologist. The African setting occurs later in time, after her marriage has dissolved. A third thread is when she later looks back on her experiences with her husband and then in Africa. She is trying to figure out what went wrong, and why and if she was guilty and what could have been changed. She is an ethologist! She wants to understand....just as her husband had been a mathematician and he too wanted to understand, to simplify life, to get it into a formula, something to put on a paper in black and white. Isn't life for observing and for trying to understand? Do we ever understand? Maybe that is the whole point of the book. Life is a wondrous puzzle that we must try to understand, even if we never will understand. I am not sure, but reading this will keep you thinking. That I guarantee.
I would have appreciated an author's note to place the years of the civil war of the Republic of the Congo / Congo Brazzaville. I call it the little Congo, the one on the ocean, not the big one that is called Democratic but isn't...... I needed to know. I NEVER found an answer and that too is so typical for this book! The book is published in 1990 and the only civil war I could find for this country was from 1997-1999. I sent a question to the author c/o the publisher. Will I get an answer? What is important is that the author has experienced civil wars in Africa, The Biafran War, so the war episodes feel pitch perfect. We know for sure is that the Biafran War is over and that ended in 1970.
The author superbly looks at our closest relative and makes us think about human behavior. There is abundant sex, and it is physical, but human sex IS physical, just as it is with chimps. I think the sex is well done. It might bother some. Not me. There is discord and aggression and manipulation. The parallels are intriguing. I told you it was cerebral. Continually you are comparing chimps and humans and mathematical axioms.
I really liked the narration by Harriet Walter. There is not much she can do to alert the reader to the changes of setting in both time and place. You just have to pay attention. The audio format is challenging but I enjoyed it tremendously. You get help with the setting changes from the point of view used. The African thread is told in first person and the English setting is in third person. There are also short quotes concerning mathematical theories. Sounds complicated? It is, but it is still very, very good. A puzzle to be solved, just like life.
ETA: This I forgot. Recognition, people want and need recognition, but to what degree?! I saw a difference here between John and Hope. John's need of recognition/acclaim was monumental. Hope's less so. I look at Hope and I admire her. She is the central character. She is s modern woman. She is strong and wise and loving and she doesn't expect as much as John. She doesn't demand as much recognition. Who is happier?
First of all, it IS engaging. I didn't want to stop listening. It is full of information. It keeps you thinking, and it doesn't necessarily provide answers. Definitely four stars.
It starts and ends with the line "The unexamined life is not worth living." I guess you would have to classify this as a cerebral novel, but also the parts set in Africa are dramatic; one thing happens after another - a civil war and infanticide and aggression and cannibalism and murder. Not one, but several. Murder of chimpanzees, but they are so similar to human beings that these too must be seen as murders. Chimpanzees and bonobos are the closest living relatives to human beings. Chimpanzees are more aggressive than bonobos.
There are three threads which flip back and forth. This is, until you get the knack of it, confusing. One thread is years ago when Hope is in England then married to John, a mathematician. Another thread is in the Republic of the Congo at a chimpanzee game reserve, a research center. Hope is both an ecologist and an ethologist. The African setting occurs later in time, after her marriage has dissolved. A third thread is when she later looks back on her experiences with her husband and then in Africa. She is trying to figure out what went wrong, and why and if she was guilty and what could have been changed. She is an ethologist! She wants to understand....just as her husband had been a mathematician and he too wanted to understand, to simplify life, to get it into a formula, something to put on a paper in black and white. Isn't life for observing and for trying to understand? Do we ever understand? Maybe that is the whole point of the book. Life is a wondrous puzzle that we must try to understand, even if we never will understand. I am not sure, but reading this will keep you thinking. That I guarantee.
I would have appreciated an author's note to place the years of the civil war of the Republic of the Congo / Congo Brazzaville. I call it the little Congo, the one on the ocean, not the big one that is called Democratic but isn't...... I needed to know. I NEVER found an answer and that too is so typical for this book! The book is published in 1990 and the only civil war I could find for this country was from 1997-1999. I sent a question to the author c/o the publisher. Will I get an answer? What is important is that the author has experienced civil wars in Africa, The Biafran War, so the war episodes feel pitch perfect. We know for sure is that the Biafran War is over and that ended in 1970.
The author superbly looks at our closest relative and makes us think about human behavior. There is abundant sex, and it is physical, but human sex IS physical, just as it is with chimps. I think the sex is well done. It might bother some. Not me. There is discord and aggression and manipulation. The parallels are intriguing. I told you it was cerebral. Continually you are comparing chimps and humans and mathematical axioms.
I really liked the narration by Harriet Walter. There is not much she can do to alert the reader to the changes of setting in both time and place. You just have to pay attention. The audio format is challenging but I enjoyed it tremendously. You get help with the setting changes from the point of view used. The African thread is told in first person and the English setting is in third person. There are also short quotes concerning mathematical theories. Sounds complicated? It is, but it is still very, very good. A puzzle to be solved, just like life.
ETA: This I forgot. Recognition, people want and need recognition, but to what degree?! I saw a difference here between John and Hope. John's need of recognition/acclaim was monumental. Hope's less so. I look at Hope and I admire her. She is the central character. She is s modern woman. She is strong and wise and loving and she doesn't expect as much as John. She doesn't demand as much recognition. Who is happier?
July 20, 2012
Like his 2012 book, WAITING FOR SUNRISE, Boyd employed a complex structure in this 1990 novel about science and discord, both marital and professional. Structure and the sciences are the glue for connecting the themes and metaphors of his overall story, a device for annexing separate compartments of the narrative and cohering it into a whole. Once you let that be, or let it go, and stop worrying if you are comprehending all the pieces while reading it, you can enjoy this compelling piece of fiction.
It takes place primarily in the continent of Boyd's birth, Africa (he was raised in Ghana), somewhere in the Congo. Civil wars are raging, with the federal government fighting factions, and guerilla warfare ongoing. You don't need to even know exactly where it takes place, or when. He doesn't tell us.
Hope Clearwater is the feisty heroine, a young PhD in plant and animal ethology who was married to an obsessive mathematician, until she wasn't. Right now, as the story opens, she is living on Brazzaville Beach in Africa, narrating the events that led to where she is now, and taking stock of her life. Over the course of the book, Hope shares the events and casualties that led to her living alone on this beach.
Her most recent post was in the Congo, with the established and respected scholar, Eugene Mallobar, a PhD and author of several books on primates, who has studied them for 30 years. Although Hope had no experience in working with chimpanzees, she works diligently, with regard and respect. She makes a daily rendezvous to study them in the wild. Her assignment is to observe and track the movements of a southern faction of apes that broke off from the northerners.
Hope makes a harrowing discovery about the two groups of chimps--the northerners and the southerner group that split off. When she shares it with Mallobar, he becomes threatened (he also has a new research book coming out). He tries to deny the accuracy of Hope's observation skills. The civil wars of the Congo both overshadow and parallel the events at the Grosso Arvore Research Center, the chimps, and the behavior of some of the scientists.
Each new titled section or chapter of the novel begins in italics, often presenting the various divergence and chaos theories of her ex-husband's research, and giving room for the reader to tie in concepts of uncertainty in Hope's existence. There are parallels to dominion and sex, aggression, and the need to find clear and determined answers.
During her marital separation, Hope worked on an ancient English estate, dating and describing hedgerows, with detailed specific answers available for her to ponder. However, when her estranged husband comes to visit, her life feels in flux again. He barrages her with his anxiety and failed research attempts.
There are a lot of trajectories to this book, including Hope's relationship with a Mig 15 mercenary pilot, an Egyptian named Usman Shoukry, who meticulously constructs (for his amusement) tiny, detailed airplanes made out of tissue and attached to horseflies. Hope sees Usman when she makes provision runs for the reserve.
Like his 2012 book, Waiting for Sunrise, Boyd employed a complex structure in this 1990 novel about science and discord, both marital and professional. Structure and the sciences are the glue for connecting the themes and metaphors of his overall story, a device for annexing separate compartments of the narrative and cohering it into a whole. Once you let that be, or let it go, and stop worrying if you are comprehending all the pieces while reading it, you can enjoy this compelling piece of fiction.
It takes place primarily in the continent of Boyd's birth, Africa (he was raised in Ghana), somewhere in the Congo. Civil wars are raging, with the federal government fighting factions, and guerilla warfare ongoing. You don't need to even know exactly where it takes place, or when. He doesn't tell us.
Hope Clearwater is the feisty heroine, a young PhD in plant and animal ethology who was married to an obsessive mathematician, until she wasn't. Right now, as the story opens, she is living on Brazzaville Beach in Africa, narrating the events that led to where she is now, and taking stock of her life. Over the course of the book, Hope shares the events and casualties that led to her living alone on this beach.
Her most recent post was in the Congo, with the established and respected scholar, Eugene Mallobar, a PhD and author of several books on primates, who has studied them for 30 years. Although Hope had no experience in working with chimpanzees, she works diligently, with regard and respect. She makes a daily rendezvous to study them in the wild. Her assignment is to observe and track the movements of a southern faction of apes that broke off from the northerners.
Hope makes a harrowing discovery about the two groups of chimps--the northerners and the southerner group that split off. When she shares it with Mallobar, he becomes threatened (he also has a new research book coming out). He tries to deny the accuracy of Hope's observation skills. The civil wars of the Congo both overshadow and parallel the events at the Grosso Arvore Research Center, the chimps, and the behavior of some of the scientists.
Each new titled section or chapter of the novel begins in italics, often presenting the various divergence and chaos theories of her ex-husband's research, and giving room for the reader to tie in concepts of uncertainty in Hope's existence. There are parallels to dominion and sex, aggression, and the need to find clear and determined answers.
During her marital separation, Hope worked on an ancient English estate, dating and describing hedgerows, with detailed specific answers available for her to ponder. However, when her estranged husband comes to visit, her life feels in flux again. He barrages her with his anxiety and failed research attempts.
There are a lot of trajectories to this book, including Hope's relationship with a Mig 15 mercenary pilot, an Egyptian named Usman Shoukry, who meticulously constructs (for his amusement) tiny, detailed airplanes made out of tissue and attached to horseflies. Hope sees Usman when she makes provision runs for the reserve.
Admittedly, I haven't unraveled every thread of this book sufficiently to articulate a review with any authority. It is a book to cogitate on, closely, and possibly from an aerial distance. The chimps' DNA is only a fraction off from humans; they act human sometimes. People act like apes periodically. At the center is Hope, twining the different narrative threads, keeping the reader suspended in the turbulent whirlpool of humanity.
It takes place primarily in the continent of Boyd's birth, Africa (he was raised in Ghana), somewhere in the Congo. Civil wars are raging, with the federal government fighting factions, and guerilla warfare ongoing. You don't need to even know exactly where it takes place, or when. He doesn't tell us.
Hope Clearwater is the feisty heroine, a young PhD in plant and animal ethology who was married to an obsessive mathematician, until she wasn't. Right now, as the story opens, she is living on Brazzaville Beach in Africa, narrating the events that led to where she is now, and taking stock of her life. Over the course of the book, Hope shares the events and casualties that led to her living alone on this beach.
Her most recent post was in the Congo, with the established and respected scholar, Eugene Mallobar, a PhD and author of several books on primates, who has studied them for 30 years. Although Hope had no experience in working with chimpanzees, she works diligently, with regard and respect. She makes a daily rendezvous to study them in the wild. Her assignment is to observe and track the movements of a southern faction of apes that broke off from the northerners.
Hope makes a harrowing discovery about the two groups of chimps--the northerners and the southerner group that split off. When she shares it with Mallobar, he becomes threatened (he also has a new research book coming out). He tries to deny the accuracy of Hope's observation skills. The civil wars of the Congo both overshadow and parallel the events at the Grosso Arvore Research Center, the chimps, and the behavior of some of the scientists.
Each new titled section or chapter of the novel begins in italics, often presenting the various divergence and chaos theories of her ex-husband's research, and giving room for the reader to tie in concepts of uncertainty in Hope's existence. There are parallels to dominion and sex, aggression, and the need to find clear and determined answers.
During her marital separation, Hope worked on an ancient English estate, dating and describing hedgerows, with detailed specific answers available for her to ponder. However, when her estranged husband comes to visit, her life feels in flux again. He barrages her with his anxiety and failed research attempts.
There are a lot of trajectories to this book, including Hope's relationship with a Mig 15 mercenary pilot, an Egyptian named Usman Shoukry, who meticulously constructs (for his amusement) tiny, detailed airplanes made out of tissue and attached to horseflies. Hope sees Usman when she makes provision runs for the reserve.
Like his 2012 book, Waiting for Sunrise, Boyd employed a complex structure in this 1990 novel about science and discord, both marital and professional. Structure and the sciences are the glue for connecting the themes and metaphors of his overall story, a device for annexing separate compartments of the narrative and cohering it into a whole. Once you let that be, or let it go, and stop worrying if you are comprehending all the pieces while reading it, you can enjoy this compelling piece of fiction.
It takes place primarily in the continent of Boyd's birth, Africa (he was raised in Ghana), somewhere in the Congo. Civil wars are raging, with the federal government fighting factions, and guerilla warfare ongoing. You don't need to even know exactly where it takes place, or when. He doesn't tell us.
Hope Clearwater is the feisty heroine, a young PhD in plant and animal ethology who was married to an obsessive mathematician, until she wasn't. Right now, as the story opens, she is living on Brazzaville Beach in Africa, narrating the events that led to where she is now, and taking stock of her life. Over the course of the book, Hope shares the events and casualties that led to her living alone on this beach.
Her most recent post was in the Congo, with the established and respected scholar, Eugene Mallobar, a PhD and author of several books on primates, who has studied them for 30 years. Although Hope had no experience in working with chimpanzees, she works diligently, with regard and respect. She makes a daily rendezvous to study them in the wild. Her assignment is to observe and track the movements of a southern faction of apes that broke off from the northerners.
Hope makes a harrowing discovery about the two groups of chimps--the northerners and the southerner group that split off. When she shares it with Mallobar, he becomes threatened (he also has a new research book coming out). He tries to deny the accuracy of Hope's observation skills. The civil wars of the Congo both overshadow and parallel the events at the Grosso Arvore Research Center, the chimps, and the behavior of some of the scientists.
Each new titled section or chapter of the novel begins in italics, often presenting the various divergence and chaos theories of her ex-husband's research, and giving room for the reader to tie in concepts of uncertainty in Hope's existence. There are parallels to dominion and sex, aggression, and the need to find clear and determined answers.
During her marital separation, Hope worked on an ancient English estate, dating and describing hedgerows, with detailed specific answers available for her to ponder. However, when her estranged husband comes to visit, her life feels in flux again. He barrages her with his anxiety and failed research attempts.
There are a lot of trajectories to this book, including Hope's relationship with a Mig 15 mercenary pilot, an Egyptian named Usman Shoukry, who meticulously constructs (for his amusement) tiny, detailed airplanes made out of tissue and attached to horseflies. Hope sees Usman when she makes provision runs for the reserve.
Admittedly, I haven't unraveled every thread of this book sufficiently to articulate a review with any authority. It is a book to cogitate on, closely, and possibly from an aerial distance. The chimps' DNA is only a fraction off from humans; they act human sometimes. People act like apes periodically. At the center is Hope, twining the different narrative threads, keeping the reader suspended in the turbulent whirlpool of humanity.
December 18, 2012
Many years before Brazzaville Beach was ever published, William Blake published this well-known poem as part of his Songs of Experience: “Tyger, tyger burning bright/ In the forests of the night;/What immortal hand or eye/ Could flame thy fearful symmetry?” Blake, who was overwhelmed by the beauty and horrors of the natural world, saw nature as a place for our own growth, in preparation for the beginning of our lives.
Why the longish preface about Blake? Brazzaville Beach is, to some degree, about tasting the fruits of knowledge and losing one’s innocence. The main character, Hope Clearwater, will be told later on, “…the pursuit of knowledge is the road to hell…You think that if you know everything you can escape from the world.”
There are two Hopes in this book; the long ago Hope who lived in England (written in third person) and the more current Hope, who lived within an African country (written in the immediate first person). Both Hopes are quite literally dashed as she pursues elusive and forbidden knowledge.
Here’s the plot in a nutshell: Hope, a brilliant scientist in her own right, marries a mercurial and highly intellectual mathematician, who increasingly begins to go insane as he pursues an elusive game theory on turbulence. Intertwined with that story is the African Hope, who goes to work for another brilliant man named Mallabar, who is about to publish a renowned book on the peaceful chimps. Her observations belie his premise; the chimps are cannibalizing each other. Yet Mallabar will not even entertain that idea; he, too, is losing it as he holds on to the tendrils of knowledge that he has accumulated.
And Hope? Will she, too, be destroyed as she pursues knowledge or will Hope endure? That is the question that is at the core of this very clever book.
William Boyd, in my opinion, is a brilliant writer who keeps getting better and better and this is one of his earlier books (published in 1990). As an allegory, it works beautifully. There are, however, some perceived flaws.
For one thing, I never “bought” that a woman of Hope’s brilliance, single-mindedness and beauty would be attracted to her husband, John Clearwater. His character is somewhat underdeveloped; certainly, the attraction is not amply explored. Admittedly, I am not a “math person”, but the many explorations of game theory, turbulance, catastrophe theory, divergence syndromes and other chaos theory components sometimes left me shaking my head. They seemed just a little too clever.
Secondly, there is a long subsection about the African freedom fighters and Hope’s unwilling adventure with them. As a reader, I get it: the brutish fighting among various human forces equates to the dissonance among the chimps; guerilla leaders and (a little stretch) gorilla leaders are not all that different. Yet I kept wanting the action to return to the ape colony, which (to me) was more fascinating.
Those two caveats aside, I found Brazzaville Beach to be compelling. Hope reflects about herself: “She reshaped the haphazard explicable twists turns o her life into an order that she approved of, where the controlling hand o her authorship could be read clearly, like a signature.” Ultimately, she is the creator of her own destiny and her fall from Eden is preordained.
Why the longish preface about Blake? Brazzaville Beach is, to some degree, about tasting the fruits of knowledge and losing one’s innocence. The main character, Hope Clearwater, will be told later on, “…the pursuit of knowledge is the road to hell…You think that if you know everything you can escape from the world.”
There are two Hopes in this book; the long ago Hope who lived in England (written in third person) and the more current Hope, who lived within an African country (written in the immediate first person). Both Hopes are quite literally dashed as she pursues elusive and forbidden knowledge.
Here’s the plot in a nutshell: Hope, a brilliant scientist in her own right, marries a mercurial and highly intellectual mathematician, who increasingly begins to go insane as he pursues an elusive game theory on turbulence. Intertwined with that story is the African Hope, who goes to work for another brilliant man named Mallabar, who is about to publish a renowned book on the peaceful chimps. Her observations belie his premise; the chimps are cannibalizing each other. Yet Mallabar will not even entertain that idea; he, too, is losing it as he holds on to the tendrils of knowledge that he has accumulated.
And Hope? Will she, too, be destroyed as she pursues knowledge or will Hope endure? That is the question that is at the core of this very clever book.
William Boyd, in my opinion, is a brilliant writer who keeps getting better and better and this is one of his earlier books (published in 1990). As an allegory, it works beautifully. There are, however, some perceived flaws.
For one thing, I never “bought” that a woman of Hope’s brilliance, single-mindedness and beauty would be attracted to her husband, John Clearwater. His character is somewhat underdeveloped; certainly, the attraction is not amply explored. Admittedly, I am not a “math person”, but the many explorations of game theory, turbulance, catastrophe theory, divergence syndromes and other chaos theory components sometimes left me shaking my head. They seemed just a little too clever.
Secondly, there is a long subsection about the African freedom fighters and Hope’s unwilling adventure with them. As a reader, I get it: the brutish fighting among various human forces equates to the dissonance among the chimps; guerilla leaders and (a little stretch) gorilla leaders are not all that different. Yet I kept wanting the action to return to the ape colony, which (to me) was more fascinating.
Those two caveats aside, I found Brazzaville Beach to be compelling. Hope reflects about herself: “She reshaped the haphazard explicable twists turns o her life into an order that she approved of, where the controlling hand o her authorship could be read clearly, like a signature.” Ultimately, she is the creator of her own destiny and her fall from Eden is preordained.
February 11, 2024
It is difficult to explain the five star rating I have given this book. Perhaps it’s simply sufficient to attribute it to good writing and immersive, realistic characters. Hope Clearwater is a magnificent character whose story we get in a dual timeline. I should have been alarmed by the concepts of advance mathematics that were mentioned, and also perhaps, by the study of chimpanzees and their social life that Hope is involved in. But both these elements actually added to the story in significant ways, particularly the chimpanzee study. Here is an author who is not afraid o give his characters intellectual vocations, which must have required some in-depth research. You can tell, as you progress through the story, that there will be dramatic events in both timelines. This keeps the tension alive along with a last third plot twist I didn’t see coming. William Boyd is definitely shaping up to be one of my favourite general fiction writers.
January 3, 2018
Of chimps and humans...
As Hope Clearwater sits on the beach outside her home in the Republic of the Congo, she looks back over the circumstances of her life that have brought her here: her marriage to mathematician John Clearwater, and her later work at Grosso Arvore, a chimpanzee research project run by the world-famous primate expert, Eugene Mallabar. The two stories, though separate, have the common theme of the pursuit of scientific fame and the toll that can take on those who fail. There are other themes too – the war that rumbles on in the Congo, the evolutionary and genetic links between human and chimp – and a third story, of Hope's love affair with Usman Shoukry, an Egyptian mercenary pilot fighting on the pro-government side in the war, though this strand has less weight than the other two.
While each strand is told linearly in time, the book cuts between them so that the reader is following them all simultaneously. Hope's marriage to John is happy at first. She is contentedly working as an ecologist mapping ancient hedgerows, while John is immersed in the study of chaos theory – a subject Hope can't even pretend to understand but she does understand John's passion for it. Gradually though, as John repeatedly fails to achieve his own goal to make a unique contribution to the subject, his mental health begins to show the strain. Jumping from one mathematical discipline to another, alternating between heavy drinking and total abstention, John's behaviour becomes progressively more erratic and their marriage comes under ever greater strain.
The reader knows from the second strand, at Grosso Arvore, that the marriage ended, but doesn't know how or what was the final straw until towards the end of the book. But we see Hope, still young, now researching chimp behaviour in Africa. Her task is to observe a small group of chimps who have broken away from the main group. Eugene Mallabar is about to publish what will be his magnum opus – the last word on chimpanzees – and his reputation is what brings in the grants and donations that make the research possible. But Hope begins to see behaviour in her chimp group that doesn't tie in with Mallabar's research. At first, she tells him about this but he dismisses her – he doesn't want his research threatened. So she begins to conduct her own research and is increasingly disturbed by what she discovers.
Hope sees Usman whenever she goes to the nearby town for supplies for the project. But on one trip, she and a colleague are taken captive by a group of rebels. Although this is a fairly small part of the overall story, it's one of the most powerful – Boyd gives a compelling picture of the chaos of this kind of indeterminate warfare which is so commonplace on the African continent.
This is a book that could easily be read on two levels. The ideas in it about scientific ambition and evolution may not be particularly original, but they are very well presented, and Boyd even manages to make the maths discussions comprehensible and interesting, with something to say about the wider world. But put all the ideas and themes to one side, and the book becomes a simple but compelling story of Hope's life. She is an exceptionally well drawn character, a strong, intelligent, independent woman, self-reliant sometimes to the point of coldness, but I found it easy to empathise with her nonetheless.
While I found the stories of Hope's marriage and her later relationship with Usman absorbing and emotionally credible, what made the book stand out for me was the story of the chimp research in Grosso Arvore. For those particularly sensitive to animal stories, I will say that Boyd pulls no punches – he shows us nature in all its gore, sometimes graphically. But this is all animal to animal interaction – there is no suggestion of human cruelty towards the chimps – and I therefore found it quite bearable, like watching a wildlife documentary. Hope is professional in her approach so that the chimps are never anthropomorphised, but clear parallels are drawn between the behaviour of the chimps and the war going on in the human world. And because the chimps are such close relatives to humans, they gradually develop personalities of their own that we care about as much as if they were human. The other aspect of the chimp story is Mallabar's reaction to the threat to his life's work, and I found this equally well executed and believable.
For me, this is Boyd at his best. The book sprawls across time and geographic location, bringing each to life and never allowing the reader to become lost. Each separate strand is interesting and engrossing and they are well enough linked that they feel like a satisfying whole. The writing and storytelling are of course excellent – when is Boyd ever anything less? I listened to it on audio, perfectly narrated by Harriet Walter. I found it took me ages to get through (mainly because I tend to listen while cooking and eating, and frankly a lot of the chimp stuff just wasn't suited to that activity!) but I remained totally absorbed in each strand, never having that irritating feeling of wishing he would hurry up and get back to the other storyline. It feels perfectly balanced, a story about chimps that has much to say about humanity, and says it beautifully. Highly recommended.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
As Hope Clearwater sits on the beach outside her home in the Republic of the Congo, she looks back over the circumstances of her life that have brought her here: her marriage to mathematician John Clearwater, and her later work at Grosso Arvore, a chimpanzee research project run by the world-famous primate expert, Eugene Mallabar. The two stories, though separate, have the common theme of the pursuit of scientific fame and the toll that can take on those who fail. There are other themes too – the war that rumbles on in the Congo, the evolutionary and genetic links between human and chimp – and a third story, of Hope's love affair with Usman Shoukry, an Egyptian mercenary pilot fighting on the pro-government side in the war, though this strand has less weight than the other two.
While each strand is told linearly in time, the book cuts between them so that the reader is following them all simultaneously. Hope's marriage to John is happy at first. She is contentedly working as an ecologist mapping ancient hedgerows, while John is immersed in the study of chaos theory – a subject Hope can't even pretend to understand but she does understand John's passion for it. Gradually though, as John repeatedly fails to achieve his own goal to make a unique contribution to the subject, his mental health begins to show the strain. Jumping from one mathematical discipline to another, alternating between heavy drinking and total abstention, John's behaviour becomes progressively more erratic and their marriage comes under ever greater strain.
The reader knows from the second strand, at Grosso Arvore, that the marriage ended, but doesn't know how or what was the final straw until towards the end of the book. But we see Hope, still young, now researching chimp behaviour in Africa. Her task is to observe a small group of chimps who have broken away from the main group. Eugene Mallabar is about to publish what will be his magnum opus – the last word on chimpanzees – and his reputation is what brings in the grants and donations that make the research possible. But Hope begins to see behaviour in her chimp group that doesn't tie in with Mallabar's research. At first, she tells him about this but he dismisses her – he doesn't want his research threatened. So she begins to conduct her own research and is increasingly disturbed by what she discovers.
Hope sees Usman whenever she goes to the nearby town for supplies for the project. But on one trip, she and a colleague are taken captive by a group of rebels. Although this is a fairly small part of the overall story, it's one of the most powerful – Boyd gives a compelling picture of the chaos of this kind of indeterminate warfare which is so commonplace on the African continent.
This is a book that could easily be read on two levels. The ideas in it about scientific ambition and evolution may not be particularly original, but they are very well presented, and Boyd even manages to make the maths discussions comprehensible and interesting, with something to say about the wider world. But put all the ideas and themes to one side, and the book becomes a simple but compelling story of Hope's life. She is an exceptionally well drawn character, a strong, intelligent, independent woman, self-reliant sometimes to the point of coldness, but I found it easy to empathise with her nonetheless.
While I found the stories of Hope's marriage and her later relationship with Usman absorbing and emotionally credible, what made the book stand out for me was the story of the chimp research in Grosso Arvore. For those particularly sensitive to animal stories, I will say that Boyd pulls no punches – he shows us nature in all its gore, sometimes graphically. But this is all animal to animal interaction – there is no suggestion of human cruelty towards the chimps – and I therefore found it quite bearable, like watching a wildlife documentary. Hope is professional in her approach so that the chimps are never anthropomorphised, but clear parallels are drawn between the behaviour of the chimps and the war going on in the human world. And because the chimps are such close relatives to humans, they gradually develop personalities of their own that we care about as much as if they were human. The other aspect of the chimp story is Mallabar's reaction to the threat to his life's work, and I found this equally well executed and believable.
For me, this is Boyd at his best. The book sprawls across time and geographic location, bringing each to life and never allowing the reader to become lost. Each separate strand is interesting and engrossing and they are well enough linked that they feel like a satisfying whole. The writing and storytelling are of course excellent – when is Boyd ever anything less? I listened to it on audio, perfectly narrated by Harriet Walter. I found it took me ages to get through (mainly because I tend to listen while cooking and eating, and frankly a lot of the chimp stuff just wasn't suited to that activity!) but I remained totally absorbed in each strand, never having that irritating feeling of wishing he would hurry up and get back to the other storyline. It feels perfectly balanced, a story about chimps that has much to say about humanity, and says it beautifully. Highly recommended.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
November 27, 2018
Brazzaville Beach is a well-plotted novel about science, war and ideas, following the adventures of Hope Clearwater in England and the Congo.
July 27, 2023
I liked this quite a lot, which is a nice surprise considering my previous encounters with this author have been . . . . not great.
June 29, 2019
Something about this is not working. I don’t quite know what it is. He writes well and has won many awards, and this is much better than the other Boyd I read. Still...,
The first-person narrator is a female. And so that’s a bit of, especially the sex scenes. Her husband is a mathematical genius who is going insane, but the writer thinks that 2+2=4 is an axiom (it is a theorem).
Anyway, a failed experiment, this Boyd... for me, at least.
The first-person narrator is a female. And so that’s a bit of, especially the sex scenes. Her husband is a mathematical genius who is going insane, but the writer thinks that 2+2=4 is an axiom (it is a theorem).
Anyway, a failed experiment, this Boyd... for me, at least.
June 16, 2021
This was selected for our book club as a book written by a male author in a female perspective. I feel like he came closer but then again I'm a cis man so hard for me to judge it. But the plot it self was interesting and had a few surprises. Enjoyed reading/listening to it. Got me reading about Jane Goodall so that's a plus and also got me to appreciate female scientists who fought tooth and nail with patriarchy to change the system.
April 24, 2018
Boyd is an inventive story teller, making this a fast and enjoyable read. He neatly threads in ideas that were newly emerging when he wrote it (1990) about chaos theory. It’s fascinating and impressive to see how artists incorporate new ideas from math and physics. Those disciplines are so totally committed to remaining indifferent to the greater implications of their discoveries. Artists like Boyd find kernels of truth dropped from the trees are are quick to ingest them!
“ The most dissipative system anyone will ever encounter is war. It is violently uneven and completely unpredictable.”
The novel felt disjointed in time and subject, and while I get that this was deliberate and added to the effect, I couldn’t get fully in the groove of it. This is s minor complaint and I would definitely recommend it.
The characters appear warts and all, (robbing me of the chance to hate some of them!) but making the book resonate with truth.
“It was odd was it not?, she thought, sometimes rational and tolerant attitudes left you curiously bereft.”
“ The most dissipative system anyone will ever encounter is war. It is violently uneven and completely unpredictable.”
The novel felt disjointed in time and subject, and while I get that this was deliberate and added to the effect, I couldn’t get fully in the groove of it. This is s minor complaint and I would definitely recommend it.
The characters appear warts and all, (robbing me of the chance to hate some of them!) but making the book resonate with truth.
“It was odd was it not?, she thought, sometimes rational and tolerant attitudes left you curiously bereft.”
March 1, 2014
Why did I need to know that? What is the message the author is trying to convey? I never could answer those questions, and neither could my book club. Hope is almost compassionless and I couldn't relate to her, or anyone else in the book. The jumping between time frames was disorienting. I truly don't understand all the rave reviews. I don't need to enjoy the content of a book to like it but there has to be something - a compelling story or interesting characters. I couldn't find anything to like in the descriptions of chimpanzee sex and violence or the unravelling of an unconvincing relationship. What was the point of the feeding station? Why was Hope so comfortable in the deep jungles of the Congo whilst a violent war raged around her? The story seems to be building to some grand conclusion, statement or surprise but ... Nothing. An awful book that I hope to forget.
December 17, 2018
When the novel opens, Hope Clearwater is living in a house on Brazzaville Beach that she owns as a result of her Egyptian lover's death in the civil war in the Congo. She is reflecting on the complexities of her life over the last two years and recuperating from being taken hostage by the rebels. Hope is trying to figure out all that's happened to her, both in England with her husband and the events that caused her to flee to a new job in Africa, and the challenges she's faced since then. How much of what has happened is due to her actions and how much is just random events?
The author allows us to follow her thoughts by dividing her narration of them into two voices, one told in the first person and one told in the third. This has the effect of making them both seem immediate as if they were taking place at the same time. She also dwells on mathematics a lot. Her husband was a mathematician, trying to develop a formula or algorithm around turbulence, all of which is difficult for Hope to understand. It's also causing problems for her husband who eventually goes insane with predictably disruptive results.
This is how Hope finds herself in a Primate Study Group in the Congo during the civil war. Although she's just completed her Ph.D. in ecology, this is the first time she has worked with chimps and now she is working for the world's expert in the field. When some bizarre and frightening things begin to happen in the field, Dr. Mallabar finds Hope threatening to his work and reputation.
Brazzaville Beach is a complex and cleverly told tale of human beings and their interactions under pressure, both personal and from outside the group. Everything is dovetailed to fit neatly together philosophically although this doesn't become obvious until it's all over. The story is interesting enough so that you don't get hit over the head with the allegorical nature but are able to appreciate how well done it is.
The author allows us to follow her thoughts by dividing her narration of them into two voices, one told in the first person and one told in the third. This has the effect of making them both seem immediate as if they were taking place at the same time. She also dwells on mathematics a lot. Her husband was a mathematician, trying to develop a formula or algorithm around turbulence, all of which is difficult for Hope to understand. It's also causing problems for her husband who eventually goes insane with predictably disruptive results.
This is how Hope finds herself in a Primate Study Group in the Congo during the civil war. Although she's just completed her Ph.D. in ecology, this is the first time she has worked with chimps and now she is working for the world's expert in the field. When some bizarre and frightening things begin to happen in the field, Dr. Mallabar finds Hope threatening to his work and reputation.
Brazzaville Beach is a complex and cleverly told tale of human beings and their interactions under pressure, both personal and from outside the group. Everything is dovetailed to fit neatly together philosophically although this doesn't become obvious until it's all over. The story is interesting enough so that you don't get hit over the head with the allegorical nature but are able to appreciate how well done it is.
March 15, 2022
Hope Clearwater tells her story while she sits on the terrace of her cottage on Brazzaville Beach. As a student in England, she was Hope Dunbar, but then she caught sight of John Clearwater and knew she had to have him. The story is anything but linear. Sometimes we get the story of Hope and John, though better than half of the story takes place in Africa. Most of the Africa parts are at a primate research station in a national park, where Hope's job is to observe chimpanzees and record what she sees.
I can't say that Hope's characterization is so complete that I came to know her fully. Perhaps we can never really know another fully. There is enough that I would be honored to be her friend. There is also enough that I doubt I'd want to venture into Africa to be there for her.
I remarked to myself several times "I think I've found another author I want to read more of". It isn't that the prose is so beautiful, nor innovative, nor even maybe exactly what the novel requires. This is an author who doesn't write down to you. The novel itself is thoughtful - full of thoughts. I was trying to tell my husband that it isn't full of philosophy, but there is such in it.
Hope relates one situation when she was a PhD student and things weren't going perfectly. Her professor told her "the tide comes in and the tide goes out". We can't always be happy and content, for if we were, how would we know? There has to be some contrast in order to recognize happiness and contentment.
Because this has me wanting to read more William Boyd, surely this is 5-stars. If so, it is only barely so, but I'm happy with that.
I can't say that Hope's characterization is so complete that I came to know her fully. Perhaps we can never really know another fully. There is enough that I would be honored to be her friend. There is also enough that I doubt I'd want to venture into Africa to be there for her.
I remarked to myself several times "I think I've found another author I want to read more of". It isn't that the prose is so beautiful, nor innovative, nor even maybe exactly what the novel requires. This is an author who doesn't write down to you. The novel itself is thoughtful - full of thoughts. I was trying to tell my husband that it isn't full of philosophy, but there is such in it.
Hope relates one situation when she was a PhD student and things weren't going perfectly. Her professor told her "the tide comes in and the tide goes out". We can't always be happy and content, for if we were, how would we know? There has to be some contrast in order to recognize happiness and contentment.
Because this has me wanting to read more William Boyd, surely this is 5-stars. If so, it is only barely so, but I'm happy with that.
July 18, 2011
A touching and wrenching tale of a woman's experiences in her personal life and career, with a backstory set in Africa. Hope Clearwater faces many challenges with her work as a scientist - much of the time observing chimpanzees near a remote, academic camp in Africa, as well as the emotional upheavals in her marriage to an eccentric mathematician. With a wide variety of settings, quirkiness, and unsettling events, the reader is given a unique glimpse into Hope's unfailingly human reactions to the tumult, and her steadfastness in keeping true to herself and not what others' want her to be for their self interests.
The author has created such an honest and sympathetic character in Hope that it seemed as if each time I began reading it was like spending time with a friend; an honest friend who isn't afraid to share her feelings. I didn't want to rush through this book but it was unavoidable for me to put it down for long. I feel that I will be thinking about this story, and about Hope, for quite a while.
The author has created such an honest and sympathetic character in Hope that it seemed as if each time I began reading it was like spending time with a friend; an honest friend who isn't afraid to share her feelings. I didn't want to rush through this book but it was unavoidable for me to put it down for long. I feel that I will be thinking about this story, and about Hope, for quite a while.
May 13, 2013
Brazzaville Beach tells the stories of Hope Clearwater. It covers two periods, telling them in parallel although one follows the other chronologically. Each period comes to a dramatic conclusion. The book builds to deliver both conclusions as close together as the narrative allows. There are themes that recur in Hope's experiences. There is anger, violence, madness, conspiracy. There is violence instigated by academics, and tenderness provided by soldiers.
So far I've described a complex structure. The structure is there to be recognised and admired if you want to analyse. The story needs no analysis, and the structure doesn't get in the way of a brilliantly engaging novel. Her supervisor tells Hope: "The tide is either coming in or it's going out". Hope's fortunes ebb and flow, and keep the pages turning.
This is my clear favourite among the books by William Boyd that I've read. I read it soon after it was published. It didn't disappoint when I read it again. It's one of the very few books that I will revisit again.
So far I've described a complex structure. The structure is there to be recognised and admired if you want to analyse. The story needs no analysis, and the structure doesn't get in the way of a brilliantly engaging novel. Her supervisor tells Hope: "The tide is either coming in or it's going out". Hope's fortunes ebb and flow, and keep the pages turning.
This is my clear favourite among the books by William Boyd that I've read. I read it soon after it was published. It didn't disappoint when I read it again. It's one of the very few books that I will revisit again.
December 7, 2018
I am thrilled to have discovered William Boyd. Loved, Any Human Heart, and now this. At the end he discusses this novel and how it emerged and said his first title was The Chimpanzee Wars. I’m so glad he changed that because I never would have picked it up being completely freaked out by monkeys of any kind.
The study of chimpanzees in Africa by the scientist Hope Clearwater becomes the theme for human society as well as the vehicle for the end of her innocence. Three or four different plots in her life go on throughout the book and it evolves into a breath taking ride through a young life from love and sex to academia to brutality among tremendously written characters from all walks of life to African malaise as well as human destruction.
I am so impressed that a man was a able to write this character as a woman. A triumph.
Here is a true story teller who holds you close and draws you completely into to the world he has imagined.
Loved it:
The study of chimpanzees in Africa by the scientist Hope Clearwater becomes the theme for human society as well as the vehicle for the end of her innocence. Three or four different plots in her life go on throughout the book and it evolves into a breath taking ride through a young life from love and sex to academia to brutality among tremendously written characters from all walks of life to African malaise as well as human destruction.
I am so impressed that a man was a able to write this character as a woman. A triumph.
Here is a true story teller who holds you close and draws you completely into to the world he has imagined.
Loved it:
April 10, 2012
Hope Clearwater, the protagonist of William Boyd’s novel, Brazzaville Beach is a young English ethologist who’s come to the Grosso Arvore Research Center in central Africa to make a study of chimpanzees and to forget her broken marriage to a brilliant mathematician back home. In this engrossing book, Boyd very deftly braids three story strands: Hope’s present day life on Brazzaville Beach; Hope’s former life in England with her husband John; and Hope’s recent experiences at Grosso Arvore, and her experiences with the chimps. Boyd tells Hope’s English story in the third person, while he tells her African story in the first person. Boyd has written about Africa before, though his previous novels set on “the Dark Continent,” were darkly comedic. A Good Man In Africa was set in West Africa, while An Ice Cream War was set in East Africa. Brazzaville Beach, a book written in a more serious tone and seems to be set in the Congo or in Angola, probably Angola, however, closer to the center of Africa, and, while there is a real “Brazzaville” in the Congo, this book doesn’t seem to be set there despite its title.
The “head honcho” of Grosso Arvore is Eugene Mallabar, its founder and director. Mallabar, who’s studied chimps in the wild for decades, reportedly knows more about them and their habits than anyone else in the world. He’s the author of two highly acclaimed books on chimpanzee behavior, “The Peaceful Primate” and “Primate’s Progress,” both catalysts for millions of dollars in grants for further study at Grosso Arvore. As the book opens, Mallabar is just putting the finishing touches on another book that should prove to be the definitive word on the primates he finds incapable of aggressive behavior, and Grosso Arvore, which was very quickly running out of money, has just been given another grant that will allow it to function for another two years – at least. There’s only one problem, and that one problem is Hope Clearwater.
Heeding the good advice to “start a novel on a day that’s different,” Boyd, who knows how to tell an excellent story, begins the Congolese/Angolan thread of his story on the day Hope discovers that one group of chimps – they’ve split into two groups and are in the midst of territorial wars – has turned to cannibalism, infanticide, organized aggression, and overt brutality, acts usually reserved for human beings, and something Mallabar’s work has shown chimps simply do not do. Hope, though, knows what she saw, so Mallabar sets out to “persuade” her that she’s mistaken, and that he’s the one who’s right. After all, he has to be right if he wants his newest book to succeed and the funding to keep flowing in. The problem is, Hope Clearwater is not going to be easily persuaded. She isn’t persuaded when her tent goes up in flames, destroying her field notes. She isn’t persuaded when a large dislodged rock narrowly misses hitting her, while she’s following a bad tempered band of chimps. She isn’t persuaded when the other scientists begin to freeze her out. In fact, she goes so far as to lure Mallabar, himself, into the field so he can witness several chimps stomping a rival to death. And still, he doesn’t believe, or at least he says he doesn’t, and Hope, who narrowly escapes, finally realizes that she needs to stop trying to “convince” Mallabar that she saw what she did.
Complicating matters is the fact that guerrilla warfare is going on in the country at the time, making movement dangerous. The guerrilla leader of one of the factions, the volleyball playing “Atomique Boum,” Dr. Amilcar, might possibly be the most likable character is this book. He’s certainly well drawn and one of the most interesting. At any rate, Hope’s story eventually intersects with that of the guerrillas, giving the novel added tension and momentum.
Another thread of Brazzaville Beach is set in England, in the past, during the early days of Hope’s marriage to John Clearwater, a brilliant mathematician. Though Hope was relaxed and almost lethargic after finishing her PhD work and marrying John Clearwater, John, himself was searching for fame and always looking for the next mathematical problem to solve. He wanted a mathematical theorem named after him, like Fermat, and what he failed to realize is that even geniuses are often forgotten by society at large; the important thing is to be happy with yourself, and to be important to those who love you.
While Hope, who doesn’t seem to have as much trouble finding contentment, is working on cataloging and dating hedgerows and coppices at a large estate in Dorset in southwest England in order to remain close to home, John is suffering the first symptoms of a mental and emotional breakdown, fearful that someone else will make the discoveries he longs to make. The reader knows John is headed for a crash, and we wonder what will become of the Clearwater marriage once that crash happens. Will it be over forever, or is Hope’s sojourn in Africa just a reprieve from the trials at home? And what happened at Grosso Arvore to send Hope to Brazzaville Beach?
Braided narratives – or in this case, a double helix narrative – are always a bit difficult to pull off, and they all carry the inherent risk that one braid will overwhelm the others. Although all the braids in this book are extremely well done, I think the one set in Africa and revolving around the chimpanzees is by far the more interesting. Frankly, when I bought this book I was under the impression I was buying a book that took place solely in Africa, and I was surprised to find the story thread in England was included. It was a fine story thread, and John Clearwater was an extremely interesting character, but frankly, I think he deserves his own book. I could have done without that braid, and John’s story is interesting enough to warrant being set apart from Hope’s. I think the book might have been stronger had Boyd concentrated entirely on Hope’s time in Africa, with only minimal backstory regarding her life in England and her marriage. But, that might be “just me.” I do think the African story wasn’t affected much by the addition of the one in England and vice versa, and it’s my opinion, at least, that braided narratives should impact each other more than these two did.
Some people aren’t going to like the crosscutting or the jump from first person (Africa) to third person (England), but Boyd is extremely skillful. And, the story threads are “joined,” so to speak with some arcane aspect of biology, anthropology, or math presented right before each chapter and printed in italics, things like algorithms, lemmas, turbulence theory, Fermat’s Last Theorem, divergence syndromes, etc. I found these interesting, but unnecessary, and sometimes a bit too clever, and I really hate to read italics. I know plenty of readers who would have skipped the italicized parts, though, just as they skipped the poetry in A.S. Byatt’s Possession, though I certainly wasn’t one, and they shouldn’t be skipped because this is primarily where Boyd develops his thread regarding Hope’s current life on Brazzaville Beach.
I thought Hope, and all the main characters, really, were fully realized, three-dimensional characters. I read a review in which one reviewer said he or she thought Hope was more like a man than a woman. I didn’t find that to be true at all. She wasn’t ultra-feminine, to be sure, but that wouldn’t have fit her character. She was living in Africa, in rather primitive conditions. Had she been fussy and finicky, her character wouldn’t “ring true.” I liked Hope immensely. I thought she was plucky and quite realistic, characteristics I like, and I enjoyed spending time with her. I actually missed her once I’d finished the book, something that rarely happens with fictional characters and me.
Like them or not, and I do, very much, the chimps are the real stars of this book. When I was reading the chapters about Hope and John in England, no matter how interesting I thought they were, I was anxious to return to the African story and learn how the chimps were faring. Even before I read this book, I knew that at least some of Boyd’s research was drawn from the studies in Tanzania of famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who discovered that chimpanzees are not always peaceful vegetarians, but can be aggressive and manipulative, and will resort to cannibalism if they feel it’s in the best interests of the troop. (Chimps live in groups called “troops.”) The chimpanzee wars are the most compelling part of Brazzaville Beach, though they are terribly, terribly sad.
Chimps, who share ninety-eight percent of their DNA with humans – the Angolans even call them “mockmen” – often function as a symbol of the inhumanity man is capable of, of the fact that at its center, man’s heart truly is dark. If man goes to war, killing innocent women and children, how can we expect better behavior from chimps? Yet, somehow, we do.
Besides being an excellent storyteller, William Boyd is an excellent writer, though he’s no prose stylist in the manner of say, Sebastian Barry or Edna O’Brien. But Boyd’s writing reflects an extraordinarily intelligent man who’s learned his craft extremely well. In fact, every time I read a book written by William Boyd, I’m struck by how well and how intelligently it’s written. This book is no exception, though I did catch a few minor missteps I would have thought Boyd’s editor should have discovered. Early in the book, John Clearwater announces to Hope that he’s given up alcohol, though just a few pages later, he’s drinking again, and even Hope doesn’t seem to notice. Hope, herself, seems to be drinking more and more, though this fact is simply never elaborated on – by anyone. There are biblical references, references to Greek mythology, and even references to Shakespeare that are never mentioned again. A few times, Boyd repeats information he’s already given us a page or two before. It did make me wonder if Boyd was hurrying with this novel, or if his publisher was putting pressure on him to “deliver faster.” Boyd is not usually a sloppy writer. On the contrary, I’ve found him to be very meticulous.
I thought Brazzaville Beach was a thoroughly engrossing book. I loved reading it as much as any book I can remember in the last two years or so. I hated to put it aside even to sleep. It’s not perfect, though, and my small quibbles are the only reason I didn’t rate it 5/5.
4.5/5
Recommended: Yes.
The “head honcho” of Grosso Arvore is Eugene Mallabar, its founder and director. Mallabar, who’s studied chimps in the wild for decades, reportedly knows more about them and their habits than anyone else in the world. He’s the author of two highly acclaimed books on chimpanzee behavior, “The Peaceful Primate” and “Primate’s Progress,” both catalysts for millions of dollars in grants for further study at Grosso Arvore. As the book opens, Mallabar is just putting the finishing touches on another book that should prove to be the definitive word on the primates he finds incapable of aggressive behavior, and Grosso Arvore, which was very quickly running out of money, has just been given another grant that will allow it to function for another two years – at least. There’s only one problem, and that one problem is Hope Clearwater.
Heeding the good advice to “start a novel on a day that’s different,” Boyd, who knows how to tell an excellent story, begins the Congolese/Angolan thread of his story on the day Hope discovers that one group of chimps – they’ve split into two groups and are in the midst of territorial wars – has turned to cannibalism, infanticide, organized aggression, and overt brutality, acts usually reserved for human beings, and something Mallabar’s work has shown chimps simply do not do. Hope, though, knows what she saw, so Mallabar sets out to “persuade” her that she’s mistaken, and that he’s the one who’s right. After all, he has to be right if he wants his newest book to succeed and the funding to keep flowing in. The problem is, Hope Clearwater is not going to be easily persuaded. She isn’t persuaded when her tent goes up in flames, destroying her field notes. She isn’t persuaded when a large dislodged rock narrowly misses hitting her, while she’s following a bad tempered band of chimps. She isn’t persuaded when the other scientists begin to freeze her out. In fact, she goes so far as to lure Mallabar, himself, into the field so he can witness several chimps stomping a rival to death. And still, he doesn’t believe, or at least he says he doesn’t, and Hope, who narrowly escapes, finally realizes that she needs to stop trying to “convince” Mallabar that she saw what she did.
Complicating matters is the fact that guerrilla warfare is going on in the country at the time, making movement dangerous. The guerrilla leader of one of the factions, the volleyball playing “Atomique Boum,” Dr. Amilcar, might possibly be the most likable character is this book. He’s certainly well drawn and one of the most interesting. At any rate, Hope’s story eventually intersects with that of the guerrillas, giving the novel added tension and momentum.
Another thread of Brazzaville Beach is set in England, in the past, during the early days of Hope’s marriage to John Clearwater, a brilliant mathematician. Though Hope was relaxed and almost lethargic after finishing her PhD work and marrying John Clearwater, John, himself was searching for fame and always looking for the next mathematical problem to solve. He wanted a mathematical theorem named after him, like Fermat, and what he failed to realize is that even geniuses are often forgotten by society at large; the important thing is to be happy with yourself, and to be important to those who love you.
While Hope, who doesn’t seem to have as much trouble finding contentment, is working on cataloging and dating hedgerows and coppices at a large estate in Dorset in southwest England in order to remain close to home, John is suffering the first symptoms of a mental and emotional breakdown, fearful that someone else will make the discoveries he longs to make. The reader knows John is headed for a crash, and we wonder what will become of the Clearwater marriage once that crash happens. Will it be over forever, or is Hope’s sojourn in Africa just a reprieve from the trials at home? And what happened at Grosso Arvore to send Hope to Brazzaville Beach?
Braided narratives – or in this case, a double helix narrative – are always a bit difficult to pull off, and they all carry the inherent risk that one braid will overwhelm the others. Although all the braids in this book are extremely well done, I think the one set in Africa and revolving around the chimpanzees is by far the more interesting. Frankly, when I bought this book I was under the impression I was buying a book that took place solely in Africa, and I was surprised to find the story thread in England was included. It was a fine story thread, and John Clearwater was an extremely interesting character, but frankly, I think he deserves his own book. I could have done without that braid, and John’s story is interesting enough to warrant being set apart from Hope’s. I think the book might have been stronger had Boyd concentrated entirely on Hope’s time in Africa, with only minimal backstory regarding her life in England and her marriage. But, that might be “just me.” I do think the African story wasn’t affected much by the addition of the one in England and vice versa, and it’s my opinion, at least, that braided narratives should impact each other more than these two did.
Some people aren’t going to like the crosscutting or the jump from first person (Africa) to third person (England), but Boyd is extremely skillful. And, the story threads are “joined,” so to speak with some arcane aspect of biology, anthropology, or math presented right before each chapter and printed in italics, things like algorithms, lemmas, turbulence theory, Fermat’s Last Theorem, divergence syndromes, etc. I found these interesting, but unnecessary, and sometimes a bit too clever, and I really hate to read italics. I know plenty of readers who would have skipped the italicized parts, though, just as they skipped the poetry in A.S. Byatt’s Possession, though I certainly wasn’t one, and they shouldn’t be skipped because this is primarily where Boyd develops his thread regarding Hope’s current life on Brazzaville Beach.
I thought Hope, and all the main characters, really, were fully realized, three-dimensional characters. I read a review in which one reviewer said he or she thought Hope was more like a man than a woman. I didn’t find that to be true at all. She wasn’t ultra-feminine, to be sure, but that wouldn’t have fit her character. She was living in Africa, in rather primitive conditions. Had she been fussy and finicky, her character wouldn’t “ring true.” I liked Hope immensely. I thought she was plucky and quite realistic, characteristics I like, and I enjoyed spending time with her. I actually missed her once I’d finished the book, something that rarely happens with fictional characters and me.
Like them or not, and I do, very much, the chimps are the real stars of this book. When I was reading the chapters about Hope and John in England, no matter how interesting I thought they were, I was anxious to return to the African story and learn how the chimps were faring. Even before I read this book, I knew that at least some of Boyd’s research was drawn from the studies in Tanzania of famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who discovered that chimpanzees are not always peaceful vegetarians, but can be aggressive and manipulative, and will resort to cannibalism if they feel it’s in the best interests of the troop. (Chimps live in groups called “troops.”) The chimpanzee wars are the most compelling part of Brazzaville Beach, though they are terribly, terribly sad.
Chimps, who share ninety-eight percent of their DNA with humans – the Angolans even call them “mockmen” – often function as a symbol of the inhumanity man is capable of, of the fact that at its center, man’s heart truly is dark. If man goes to war, killing innocent women and children, how can we expect better behavior from chimps? Yet, somehow, we do.
Besides being an excellent storyteller, William Boyd is an excellent writer, though he’s no prose stylist in the manner of say, Sebastian Barry or Edna O’Brien. But Boyd’s writing reflects an extraordinarily intelligent man who’s learned his craft extremely well. In fact, every time I read a book written by William Boyd, I’m struck by how well and how intelligently it’s written. This book is no exception, though I did catch a few minor missteps I would have thought Boyd’s editor should have discovered. Early in the book, John Clearwater announces to Hope that he’s given up alcohol, though just a few pages later, he’s drinking again, and even Hope doesn’t seem to notice. Hope, herself, seems to be drinking more and more, though this fact is simply never elaborated on – by anyone. There are biblical references, references to Greek mythology, and even references to Shakespeare that are never mentioned again. A few times, Boyd repeats information he’s already given us a page or two before. It did make me wonder if Boyd was hurrying with this novel, or if his publisher was putting pressure on him to “deliver faster.” Boyd is not usually a sloppy writer. On the contrary, I’ve found him to be very meticulous.
I thought Brazzaville Beach was a thoroughly engrossing book. I loved reading it as much as any book I can remember in the last two years or so. I hated to put it aside even to sleep. It’s not perfect, though, and my small quibbles are the only reason I didn’t rate it 5/5.
4.5/5
Recommended: Yes.
April 3, 2014
This is the 2nd book I have read in the past 12 months that use the rebellion and tensions associated with the Republic of the Congo (the other being The Poisonwood Bible) Both are written by Caucasians and both spent part of their childhoods in Africa. I think this is part of the success of both these books for me.
Running concurrently is the story of Hope's marriage and her time as a behavioural scientist on chimpaneze. As a result of the 1st person narrative, we don't fully understand, until the end, that Hope is a broken person as a direct result of these two narratives. I loved the research Boyd did to mesh higher order mathematics with personal experiences - I think they work really well & Boyd is wicked and playful as he writes about these theories and then allow them to be played out by the married couple. Boyd also captures the obsessions of research scientists and how they permeate throughout the person's entire life (I am guilty of this in my studies). The only piece of misunderstanding is the fact that once someone enters a field of study, say botany ecology, there is no way you would be employed to conduct behavioural studies - the different studies are just too disparaging.
I loved Eugene Malabar and his machinations to always come on top of the pack as head of a research unit. I also thought the mirroring of the chimp behaviour with the indigenous human population well done, and not contrived.
This audiobook was my companion as I travelled through arid central Australia, and I would recommend this to anyone on a long car journey.
Running concurrently is the story of Hope's marriage and her time as a behavioural scientist on chimpaneze. As a result of the 1st person narrative, we don't fully understand, until the end, that Hope is a broken person as a direct result of these two narratives. I loved the research Boyd did to mesh higher order mathematics with personal experiences - I think they work really well & Boyd is wicked and playful as he writes about these theories and then allow them to be played out by the married couple. Boyd also captures the obsessions of research scientists and how they permeate throughout the person's entire life (I am guilty of this in my studies). The only piece of misunderstanding is the fact that once someone enters a field of study, say botany ecology, there is no way you would be employed to conduct behavioural studies - the different studies are just too disparaging.
I loved Eugene Malabar and his machinations to always come on top of the pack as head of a research unit. I also thought the mirroring of the chimp behaviour with the indigenous human population well done, and not contrived.
This audiobook was my companion as I travelled through arid central Australia, and I would recommend this to anyone on a long car journey.
August 25, 2011
A thought-provoking and well-paced read that ponders what separates humans from animals -- our capacity for compassion and for cruelty -- and questions whether some of the boundaries are perhaps blurrier than we'd expect.
Boyd has a talent for immersing the reader in an exotic or unfamiliar topic in his books, and I found myself completely absorbed by the details of Hope's work with the chimpanzees (and only a bit less so with John's work on mathematics). The structure of the book, broken into long-ago past, more recent past, and present also helps to build suspense and intrigue to keep the book moving forward at a steady clip.
Though Hope seems to have come to terms with the events of her life that led her to reside on Brazzaville Beach, the reader may not find it quite so easy. And that's a good thing, because it makes this a novel that will stay with you even after you close the cover.
One super-minor frustration about that cover: the title! It didn't match, in my opinion, the depth and force of what I read within. I think the title made me think of a trashy summer read, and might not draw readers to the subject matter as much as the content merits.
Boyd has a talent for immersing the reader in an exotic or unfamiliar topic in his books, and I found myself completely absorbed by the details of Hope's work with the chimpanzees (and only a bit less so with John's work on mathematics). The structure of the book, broken into long-ago past, more recent past, and present also helps to build suspense and intrigue to keep the book moving forward at a steady clip.
Though Hope seems to have come to terms with the events of her life that led her to reside on Brazzaville Beach, the reader may not find it quite so easy. And that's a good thing, because it makes this a novel that will stay with you even after you close the cover.
One super-minor frustration about that cover: the title! It didn't match, in my opinion, the depth and force of what I read within. I think the title made me think of a trashy summer read, and might not draw readers to the subject matter as much as the content merits.
July 12, 2009
If this book hadn't been recommended by a friend who loved it, I probably wouldn't have read the whole book. I had a difficult time getting into the story, but I stuck with it and was glad I did. The main character of the book is Hope Clearwater, an English woman, who is studying the behavior of chimpanezes in Africa.
Her story is told by moving back and forth from past to present, which I thought was very well done by the talented Mr. Boyd. The subject matter of the brutality of the animals was very disturbing to me, as was the mental illness of Hope's husband John. There were actually three stories told in this book, each which could have been a book in itself. i didn't really enjoy reading this book, but I won't deny that it was well-written and worth reading if you don't mind traveling on the darker side of both human and animal natures.
Her story is told by moving back and forth from past to present, which I thought was very well done by the talented Mr. Boyd. The subject matter of the brutality of the animals was very disturbing to me, as was the mental illness of Hope's husband John. There were actually three stories told in this book, each which could have been a book in itself. i didn't really enjoy reading this book, but I won't deny that it was well-written and worth reading if you don't mind traveling on the darker side of both human and animal natures.
October 6, 2020
A thought-provoking and atmospheric story, wonderfully narrated on audio by Harriet Walter.
April 17, 2021
This was good - a novel with obvious depth, about a young naturalist arriving in a chimpanzee camp in Africa in the 70s. Our protagonist - Hope - is the classic slightly broken narrator, and the book splits between the present in the camp, and the past in the UK, with her husband and the story of how she came to be in the camp. In the camp, she finds evidence that challenges the main theory of the internationally-celebrated owner, which allows plenty of contemplation and questioning.
I enjoyed the book, as a change of pace from many of my normal, and while the conclusion to one half was inevitable quite early, the writing is very good. There was one section that jarred - getting caught up in a civil war conflict - which for me didn't feel necessary to the plot (let's-add-action!) though I'm sure lots of people would disagree. Been a while since I've read Boyd, need to rectify that.
I enjoyed the book, as a change of pace from many of my normal, and while the conclusion to one half was inevitable quite early, the writing is very good. There was one section that jarred - getting caught up in a civil war conflict - which for me didn't feel necessary to the plot (let's-add-action!) though I'm sure lots of people would disagree. Been a while since I've read Boyd, need to rectify that.
August 25, 2021
This is my mum's favorite book, so I thought I'd give it a try, and I'm glad I did! It is a fascinating piece of literary fiction whilst also being a page-turner from beginning to end, and had something for both of us.
'Brazzaville Beach' is a story of two halves- for my mum, the most interesting half was Hope's time at Grosso Arvore, a chimpanzee research facility. For me, Hope's time with her ex-husband- a brilliant-minded mathematician driven mad by ambition. Each half couldn't be more different, but the theme of professional ambition is the same, and both halves end in catastrophe.
Violent, intelligent, and introspective, 'Brazzaville Beach' is definitely worth a read.
'Brazzaville Beach' is a story of two halves- for my mum, the most interesting half was Hope's time at Grosso Arvore, a chimpanzee research facility. For me, Hope's time with her ex-husband- a brilliant-minded mathematician driven mad by ambition. Each half couldn't be more different, but the theme of professional ambition is the same, and both halves end in catastrophe.
Violent, intelligent, and introspective, 'Brazzaville Beach' is definitely worth a read.
May 20, 2020
John called it the For-want-of-a-nail syndrome. For want of a nail the battle was lost. Something small suddenly becomes hugely enlarged. Something calm suddenly becomes enraged. Something flowing smoothly in one instant becomes turbulent. How or why does this happen? What if, John said, there are small perturbations that we miss or ignore; tiny irritations that we regard as fundamentally inconsequential. These small perturbations may have large consequences. In science, so in life.
August 28, 2018
Excellent fiction on several levels.... zoology, marital relations, mental health, competition among scientists, woven into a story about chimp researchers during an African civil war. Some great ingredients, nicely woven together into a thought provoking tale.
March 31, 2022
Not always a pleasant listen -- some gruesome details of chimp violence, a singularly detail-oriented and rather judgmental protagonist (who gets wearying) -- but it was definitely different, and though it took me a looong time to listen through the whole thing, I am glad I persevered.
June 17, 2025
Wish I could give it 6 stars, loved this book, completely devoured it. The parallels between the chimp behaviours and human violence while set in a country at civil war were interesting, I enjoyed the flashbacks to her life in England and the ease at which she judged her peers.
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