A Review of New Books published on the 15th of every month.
The Book Mark Ltd., 2964 Bloor St. W., Toronto, M8X 1B7
by David Eustace
The Big Bamboozle is a fresh menagerie of a book that serves up a serious environmental message, a hundred bawdy laughs, a close look at one of the earth's most fascinating creatures, and two hilarious set pieces.
It mixes a moth-eaten baggy-pants comic with an intellectual Great Ape, and then throws in an aged ecdysiast - and so what do we have? (A ecdysiast is a Night Club stripper, if you want the bare facts.)
What stands out in this new work by Hal Sisson (Caverns of the Cross) is the way the writer crawls inside the heads of his disparate cast of characters. Dwart is the waning vaudevillian running out of both steam and self esteem. He constantly clicks through his mammoth memory of old jokes and burlesque routines. This is not just when performing on stage, and handling hecklers, but whenever he ponders problems. To help him reach a decision, he uniquely accesses and uses old jokes the way a lawyer uses old court cases.
Even more daring, Sisson tackles the thoughts and feelings of The Great Apes themselves. He contrasts their courtships and mating with those of his human characters. Like in the novel The White Bone, the animals communicate believably - but there is a difference. Our Gorilla-Hero is a super student.
This Big Ape endures an operation on his vocal chords that to everyone's surprise enables him to start speaking English.
His agenda is to communicate Intelligent ideas of specie survival to all the world, but Bamboozles life is in grave danger from a human who has an odd reason to want to kill the beast.
Sisson maintains pace, readability and tension throughout the book, while steadily satisfying our voyeuristic desire to learn more about this most misunderstood beast. It is a tribute to Sisson's skill that we wind up feeling we know Bamboo the gorilla and grow to love him.