From what I can tell from the three novels I've now read by Boyd, he is consistently solid. None of them would qualify for my book of the year but they are all very readable and interesting. As Boyd likes to work in different genres, this is more of an achievement than it sounds.

Hope Clearwater looks back from her beach hut on the two main espisodes of her adult life. The end of her marriage to a genius mathemetician who goes slowly mad and her work observing chimpanzees. The two stories are told in parallel and are clearly meant to be linked in some way (other than through the protaganist) but I couldn't spot it myself. However, this had no bearing on my enjoyment of the narratives.

The marriage strand is naturally the more introspective of the two. There are some interesting observations on the higher echelons of mathematics, on the dynamics of a marriage in which one party will always play second fiddle to the other's vocations and on madness brought on by the elusiveness of one's goals.

The chimpanzee strand was even more interesting. The band that Hope is asked with observing has split off from a larger group for the north. The northerners start a war against the southerners. But this is not standard chimp behaviour and it goes against all the academic theory of her boss, who becomes desperate to supress Hope's findings.

There's a lot of action, twists and turns stuffed into this book and towards the end it does strain credulity a little. But overall another fine story by Boyd. ( )

Brazzaville Beach is one of the best novels by a very good author. The book combines thought-provoking ideas and a gripping plot. Hope Clearwater is a young Englishwoman who marries a math genius primarily because she envies the way his mind works. A retrospective look at his ideas and her observation of his breakdown is woven between her life in a camp in the Congo where she is one of the observers in a large study of chimps. The camp is situated in a region where constant fighting occurs between government and rebellious forces. Hope makes a shocking discovery about the behavior of the chimps and this sets off unexpected repercussions. Her experiences as she moves between the chimps, the scientists in the camp and the war all around her create an amazing story. This is a book that can be enjoyed on many levels, from the philosophical to the simply suspenseful. ( )

I bought this book last year when it was hyped on LT. I only couldn't remember why, but it brought high expectations for this read. Partly these came through, as I liked the way the book was set up and it was a good read. On the other hand, it couldn't fully grap me...

The story tells the tragic life of Hope, as she reflects on in from a beach house in Brazzaville Beach. Two story lines are told, one in London and one in Africa. They are intertwined, but it's clear the London part happened before the part in Africa.
Hopes life in London with John, her husband, gets worse while John, mathematician, gets crazy while wanting to become famous. Hope works outside the city as an ecologist. In Africa, she studies the behaviour of chimpanzees and finds strange behaviour among them. Both story lines end tragically and show their connection.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/0... ( )

Hope Clearwater makes a discovery while observing chimpanzees in their native habitat that runs her afoul of her boss; she's in Africa because she ran afoul of her bipolar husband first.

Her discovery of chimpanzees at war is deadly to her employment. She's forced to sit at Brazzaville Beach in exile from all employment, family, and career. Eventually she returns to work and vindication - whether this will endear her to the ethologists' establishment is not really known.

I'm not sure why the scenes of her on the West Aftican beach stay with me at the expense of the rest of this well-told story. Hope (she of the very evocative name) faces the abyss from the edge of the world, keeping her toe-hold, not being denied.

A worthwhile read. ( )

It's been some time since I've read a book that satisfied on so many levels - vividly created characters, a sense of time and place, an engaging multi-level plot, and philosophical, scientific, and psychological theories. Now what? What to read next that will measure up? I'm hoping it's more of William Boyd. ( )