HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Monkey's Uncle

by Jenny Diski

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
484526,978 (3.94)2
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 2 mentions

Showing 4 of 4
This book is both uplifting and empathetic with a woman's struggle when her children have grown up and she finds she has lost her identity. It is philosophy for those who need to find themselves in the grand scheme of life. This is one of my favourite books of all time. ( )
  greatbookescapes | Nov 20, 2014 |
This book is both uplifting and empathetic with a woman's struggle when her children have grown up and she finds she has lost her identity. It is philosophy for those who need to find themselves in the grand scheme of life. This is one of my favourite books of all time. ( )
  greatbookescapes | Nov 20, 2014 |
This book is both uplifting and empathetic with a woman's struggle when her children have grown up and she finds she has lost her identity. It is philosophy for those who need to find themselves in the grand scheme of life. This is one of my favourite books of all time. ( )
  greatbookescapes | Nov 20, 2014 |
A thoughtful exploration of what it means to be sane, written from the point of view of Charlotte FitzRoy, a fifty year-old woman who is undergoing a mental breakdown. Her story is interwoven with the true life story of her possible ancestor, Robert FitzRoy, who was the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's voyage. Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud appear and discuss their theories in the light of Charlotte's genetic heritage, her collapse and the fall of Communism (the book is set in 1989-1990).

Each chapter opens with a quotation from 'Alice in Wonderland' and the theme of tea parties and differing perceptions of reality resurface again and again in the book.

It's a hard novel to characterise and certainly can't be described as an easy read, but it is brilliantly done. ( )
  AJBraithwaite | Mar 14, 2010 |
Showing 4 of 4
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
He thought he saw an Argument
That proved he was the Pope:
He looked again, and found it was
A bar of Mottled Soap.
'A fact so dread,' he faintly said, 
'Extinguishes all hope!'
 - Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno
I'm a monkey's uncle who's a cousin to a chimpanzee - Neil Sedaka, 'I Go Ape'
Dedication
For Chloe and Anna Diski with love
First words
Perhaps, if Charlotte had known her father better, or if she had not noticed the book on the little table outside the second-hand bookshop on the Charing Cross Road, or if the Berlin Wall had not fallen quiet when it did, coming so near Christmas, or if Miranda had gone to a different party with a different young man on Boxing Day; or if Charlotte had not found herself at the Zoo on the morning of the incident; perhaps, if any of these things had been different, it would not have happened.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.94)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3 4
3.5
4
4.5 1
5 3

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,660,789 books! | Top bar: Always visible