New World Monkeys

by Nancy Mauro

A savagely smart, darkly comic literary debut, New World Monkeys exposes the false idols of marital tranquillity, small-town idyll, and corporate Darwinism in the dazzling voice of a major new talent. Duncan and Lily, young and adrift in a prickly marriage and lackluster careers, flee Manhattan for the peaceful allure of a recently inherited crumbling Victorian home. But the two are left with little time to ponder the traditional "he said, she said" failings of a On an upstate road miles shy of their house, a wild boar leaps to his death in front of their Saab–an accident whose consequences will haunt them throughout the summer. That was no ordinary hog.Lily and Duncan arrive in the eccentric town of Osterhagen to discover the boar had a The Sovereign of the Deep Wood. That it was the town mascot. And, as the hapless urbanites are coerced into the vortex of tea socials, cannon fire, and communal history, they realize that the residents of the bizarre hamlet intend to seek justice for their fallen hero. Next come the bones. Duncan, an adman whose controversial new campaign could make or break his career, wants a temporary escape from the pressures of urban life. But his pastoral retreat darkens when an attempt at gardening turns up a human femur in the lawn, a headstone inscribed simply Tinker, 1902, and a sense that Lily’s family may have violence in its aristocratic blood. And then there’s Lloyd. Lily, conflicted about her marriage and her career, spends her days at the local library researching her impossibly arcane dissertation topic but can’t seem to make any progress. One day she observes the town pervert in action and befriends him.Lloyd, a Peeping Tom, invites her to follow him on a bird’s-eye tour of Osterhagen that may help her home in on her own flaws and failings.Keep digging.Thrown together in their complicity over the boar’s death, fueled to exhume Tinker’s bones from the garden, and inspired by Lloyd’s philosophical savoir faire, Duncan and Lily begin to excavate the profound truth about themselves and their marriage. But how deep can the two dig before the summer’s violent beginning catches up with them?

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Book Club, American, Humor

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is a bit silly, and deceiving: this is a very finely tuned story of a marriage in trouble, a wild boar, advertising, and a small town. I would love to have a conversation with Nancy Mauro to see if her speech is as elegantly crafted and precisely chosen as her writing. An example (in a chapter about observing an elderly woman): "The old woman below is covered in flesh only loosely tacked to the bone here and there, at the elbows and temple and knees...A tangle of veins decorates her thighs, blue tinsel wrapped indiscriminately around a tree." But not all her sentences are like this - she wisely knows to vary their structure and length to keep the story moving and to give us a break to digest what she has just painted.

The couple in peril, Duncan and Lily, are flawed and not quite loveable, like people you care for going through a bad spell. The small-town residents seem to have been weirded-up a notch for dramatic purposes, and, for the same purposes, the advertising folk are supreme, and almost unbelievable, asswipes (ps - thanks for that word, Mr. Bellow!) But none of these liberties ruin the swing of the story, and the exquisite pleasure in Mauro's crafted sentences.

Mauro deserves fame and fortune for her storytelling and scene- and character-building skills.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book at all. I read through to the end, because I figured with all the positive reviews that it had to get better at some point. To start, I did not find the characters likable in anyway. From Lily and Duncan's refusal to communicate, to their "inability" to fess up about the boar, to Lily's friendship with the local perv, and finally to Duncan's marketing of Vietnam, there was nothing to like.

[Shirley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, those are many hours I will never get back! What a waste of my time! I should have abandoned this book a long time ago but I kept on reading hoping it would improve. It didn't. A couple whose marriage is in trouble go to a summer home hoping that maybe things will change. So many odd and yet trivial things occur. The title has no relevance until possibly right near the ending. The ending isn't believable. Give this one a pass.

[Chisimdi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lily, Duncan, the murder boar & dog, Tinker’s bones

Oh well
Never saw the storyline coming


Ps: there aren’t no monkeys talked about but instead a pig 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fine debut novel, told in alternating narration, is in short about a married Manhattanite couple that has reached a rocky patch, one they're unwilling or unable to communicate about other than by allowing themselves to grow apart. When Lily inherits a house in upstate New York she uses this as an excuse to move there for the summer while working on her obscure dissertation, never mind that the small town's library is insufficient for her needs. Her husband Duncan is an ad man, balancing his eat or be eaten profession with taking the trip upstate once a week to spend weekends with his wife. So they're separated, but not really; married but no longer intimate in any sense of the word; perhaps still in love with each other but neither certain how to express it. The change of scenery brings various quirky characters into their unsettled lives and immediately puts blood on their hands, that of a not so wild boar which turns out to be the town mascot. Duncan has a jeans campaign that he's in charge of as distraction from the state of his marriage, Lily has an unlikely friendship with the local Peeping Tom willing to show her the ropes as diversion, and together the couple find a mystery to literally unearth in the form of a scattered skeleton buried in their garden. But the various odd characters and events that populate this tale mainly function as backdrop to the story of a couple trying to determine if they've reached the end of their road, or merely a slippery turning point. Mauro's command of language is strong and her skillful prose moves the reader through the pages of her book swiftly. I look forward to more from her.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Writing....but...Not a Story for Me, December 12, 2009

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
In NEW WORLD MONKEYS, Lily and Duncan are a Manhattan couple, whose marriage has seen better days. Duncan is in Advertising, and working on a new campaign, and Lily is working on her dissertation. They are headed to upstate New York to a run down mansion that has been in Lily's family for years. On their drive along a darkened road, out pops a wild boar that runs smack into their car. If that isn't bad enough, the animal is not dead yet. So Lily does what Duncan won't do and take a tire iron to the creature to put an end to its suffering. They then move the boar to a ditch and continue on their way to the quaint village of Osterhagen (fictional). To the couple's surprise they find out the boar was actually the town's mascot: Sovereign the Deep Wool! The boar had a owner who isn't very happy that Sovereign is missing, and he is bent on seeking revenge. There are more offshoots to this story, but I did not think it was necessary to reveal all the details.

My Thoughts - I had some reservations about this story, but I love trying out new debut authors so I gave it a go. The story is quirky and, for me it was outright bizarre. Don't get me wrong, this author has potential; her writing style is terrific, and the characters were well developed. It is just that this novel had multiple story lines, and unsympathetic characters and a story that just did not work for me.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

The dividing line between this book only getting one star and the two I decided on is how beautiful the writing is and how fantastically developed the two main characters are.

The themes and plot of this book revolve around a few very odd things: the accidental death of a wild boar, the discovery of human remains in an otherwise serene yard, attachment to a pedophiliac pervert, and the use of Viet Nam as an image to sell blue jeans. All of these elements combine to tell the story of a troubled marriage finding its way again. Throughout the novel, the two main characters would consistently do things that made me hate them a mere few pages after I had learned to love them again. In the end, I was rooting for the couple, understood the things they had learned about themselves, and was on board with where they stood as a marital unit, but my continual contemplation throughout that I should give up and read something else instead does not make me believe that any of these things will stick in my mind very long.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ever been pretty much apathetic to a book and yet you can't put it down? That's the dilemma I faced with "New World Monkeys." The book is the story of two married 30 somethings, Lily and Duncan, whose marriage is strained.
Lily decides to spend her summer at the ancestral home her parents inherited while Duncan joins her during the summer several hours north of New York City. The couple accidentally kills a boar their first night and spends the summer lying to the townspeople about the slaying. The townspeople for the most part are one dimensional and almost caricatures of stereotypes. The scrapes the couple gets into are fairly trivial and unbelievable. The ending seems pretty much thrown together and abrupt. All in all, avoid this book.

[Margee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things go from bad to worse for Duncan and Lily, and then keep going. In this darkly comic tale, their marriage is tested as they decide to part during the work-week, as Lily starts fixing up her ancestral pile in upstate NY, and Duncan must return to the city every Monday to toil at his ad agency. A tragic accident involving their Saab and the town's wild boar mascot, the Sovereign of the Deep Wood, is the catalyst as the two drift apart, Lily to her new stalker friend, and Duncan to his new ad campaign featuring denim-covered women in foxholes. By striking up a new alliance over some old bones and against torch-bearing townies, can this marriage be saved?

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manhattanites Lily and Duncan's marriage is falling apart, so they decide that Lily will take up residence in her family's run-down Victorian mansion in a village along the Hudson. There she will work to finish her dissertation while Duncan, an advertising exec, visits on weekends. Village life, the pursuit of Ph.D.s, and the world of advertising (shades of Mad Men), are all mercilessly and amusingly sent up. All library employees will appreciate the antics of the local pervert who finds the study carrels of the local library the perfect place to stalk uniformed parochial schoolgirls. "New World Monkeys" takes on so many cotemporary habits in a way that feels very Evelyn Waugh to me.

[Paula Hebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

any book that has as one of its central characters the town mascot, a wild boar named Sovereign of the Deep Woods, has to be read, take an emotionally removed couple from new york, add the aforesaid porker, some incensed farmers and townspeople, the local pervert, a family skeleton-really!-and let things ferment. I felt like I was in the twilight zone reading this novel, just a little off balance at every turn, until things are so out of control you can't go back. the couple, unlikeable as they are, are fleshed out and think through their seperate dilemmas with well written phrasing, bringing the reader into the story with them. I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Sally Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, I would never review a book I didn't finish reading, which just makes me crazy when I see people do this. I had many mixed emotions about this one. It was funny at times and also dark, but what it left me with "when finished" was apathy. I didn't care about the characters in this book at all. I didn't care what happened to them or any of the crazy people in their town. I was glad to be done with the book just so I wouldn't have to keep these people in my life. That being said, the author has woven a very original story with strong character development, but for me, as Randy would say; "It was just all right".

[Rebecca Gomez Farrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book is fine--a couple getting close to divorce spend the summer in an old, family heirloom of a house, and end up killing the town mascot of a boar, digging up the bones of an old family legend, and indulging their craziest urges in order to find themselves again. There's a lot that's right about that premise, but I'm really not fond of the idea that humans need to embrace their innate animals to have true realizations of who they are. I just don't agree, and reading a book that ultimately has that as its central idea does not appeal to me. Plus, I didn't like any of the characters. So . . . meh.

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

At it's best this book merits five stars. The opening scene -- in which the husband runs over a feral hog and the wife finishes him off -- is a masterpiece of psychologically insightful black comedy. And the advertising campaign developed over the course of the book for a company that makes both flared and straight blue jeans tops anything Mad Men has come up with. Overall, the book is highly original, funny, and psychologically insightful as it diagnoses a marriage that is falling apart and then comes back together. That said, it is also somewhat repetitive at points and aimless the second half is at times aimless. But I'm very much looking forward to Nancy Mauro's second novel.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admit defeat. 50 pages left in the middle, and I just can't do it. I am calling it done and moving onto other almost-due library books! I thought the premise of this book had a lot more potential than it lived up to.

Not loving the writing style, which I think may be the heart of this book. Read the first 100 and last 50 pages (I do that when I'm not into a book but am curious where the author's going); based on the last 50, I can't imagine anything huge happened in the middle that isn't filled in for you in the last 50... but I'm going to read it and find out...

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was hep and urbane. The author's voice was original and telling a different story I might have liked it better. There is a couple in a troubled marriage. They hit a wild boar that belongs to a small town bully. The husband has an uptight advertising job. The wife is adrift in her unhappiness and befriends the small town's pervert at the library. I don't know. There are references to Vietnam and a dead body in the backyard. I wasn't in the mood to try so hard to understand what it all meant. It was sad and disturbing.

[Bonita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excellent prose but the converging stories seemed too weird and unrelatable.
Lily was believable except when she interacted with Lloyd. Lloyd was just really creepy and unsympathetic in any way. Nor were the townspeople terribly clear. I couldn't get into Skinner at all. Duncan and his colleagues weren't much better despite many passages devoted to them. Their Vietnam inspired campaign was simply too hard to engage in.

The portrait of the marriage of Duncan and Lily was interesting and their scathing thoughts and actions toward each other held a ring of truth.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This debut novel has already garnered a lot of attention--Publisher's Weekly named it as a "galley to grab" at this year's BEA (Book Expo America). It's hard to find a specific
niche to put this in. It's rather dark,grim and disturbing. It's also funny. It's a love story. It's a horror story. It's written with a sophisticated level of language about the most primitive of human desires and deeds. It's not an easy read, but it is a compelling one. I challenge you to read it!

[Le Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was really disappointing. The premise is great and has the potential of being a humerous, yet quirky, mystery/romance novel. Unfortunately it just totally fell apart about midway through. The plots were either resolved sloppily or were left unresolved. I wanted to like the two main characters, but by the end I hated them both. They are both pathetic, as is this book. Sucks. Don't recommend it.

[Tattered Cover Book Store]

Jackie says:

This debut novel has already garnered a lot of attention--Publisher's Weekly named it as a "galley to grab" at this year's BEA (Book Expo America). It's hard to find a specific niche to put this in. It's rather dark,grim and disturbing. It's also funny. It's a love story. It's a horror story. It's written with a sophisticated level of language about the most primitive of human desires and deeds. It's not an easy read, but it is a compelling one. I challenge you to read it!

[Kriss · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the writing style made the book a slow read, I found some of the small city events humorous. It reminded me of good old Baraga, Michigan where I spent time growing up. Where having a live animal as a town mascot and having a group of people showing up on your doorstep at all hours of the night with torches...or flashlights for a vandalzing event was something that really would happen there. It made me remember the not so good ol' days, but in a funny way.

[Lukas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started great but kind of self-destructed by the end. Maybe this is an intentional parallel with the male protagonist? Either way, the book left me wondering what happened, and not in a good way. The ending felt especially forced, a narrative finale that only ties back thematically by the barest of threads.

Still, the first half was good, building enough momentum to propel me through the end of the book. The end result just didn't make it worth the investment.

[Ellen Polishuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange and gripping. I found the authors descriptions of the strained marriage very nuanced and engaging. I didn't fall in love with any of the characters, didn't really care about them and yet still wanted badly to know what would happen. The parts with Lloyd the perv were superb and thought provoking. As a country person, the descriptions of the feral business world of a NYC advertising agency were distantly amusing but not very meaningful. I'd recommend it as an adventure in reading.

[Scotchneat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whatever you do, don't kill the town mascot.

This book verged on fantastical but wasn't fully committed. A not-very-nice couple decides to get out of the city and take up summer residence in the old family home. The wife befriends a pervert. The husband drinks a lot and writes advertising copy using Viet Nam to sell jeans.

They aren't sure if they should be together. The townspeople aren't sure they should be there...

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hooked from the first sentence. The vulgarity and evolution of violence act as a lure to keep your attention focused on Duncan and Lily as they struggle to find both themselves and each other. Each of them struggle for control of their own lives until they devolve to the basest of instincts and desires when they finally realize that what they really want is to give up control completely, to go wherever the river takes them.

[Aimée · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book savaged from the last days of my local Borders.....

It surprised me by actually being decent. I had zero expectations and only bought it because I had a gift card to use before they closed.

There were some very entertaining parts and some sections where I was bored. It is definitely a first novel. The plot drops sometimes, but generally picks back up. I did have a bunch of questions as I read, all regarding the progression of the plot.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to love it but was just bored. The whole book is about a guy who may want to rip his wife's clothes off or not, a dead pig, a skeleton in the backyard and random scenes in an ad agency in NY. It was a mish mash of weird things that were supposed to be interesting and cohesive and just weren't.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and troubling account of a marriage gone to seed. A couple who have grown apart don't go to some marriage retreat, they just keep going, constantly misconnecting and misunderstanding. Both are worried the other will leave yet neith are able to confess their weakness. Not for every reader, but rewarding for those who would appreciate it.

[Chrystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird, mesmerizing, gross book about marriage and the role one plays in it. Such a strange book that I couldn't stop reading it because I had no idea where/what was coming. I keep thinking about it. Spooky. I wonder how many peoples marriages are really like the one portrayed here? Maybe midwesterners are just boring...

[jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love unique word usage you'll absolutely fall in love with this author. She has a fantastic instinct for writing the very real emotions that flow between men and women in relationships. This story has a quirky bent to it that is very plausible and the dark comedic undertones are wonderfully exquisite.

Just read it!