British Columbia Book World
Vol 13 No 3 Autumn 1999
Gorillas speak and humans are 'remarkably ugly' in Hal Sisson's Big Bamboozle (Salal $9.99), an environmental King Kong for the Nineties. The personified hero is an East African mountain Gorilla, Bamboo, who is snatched from the jungle to boost a Toronto zoo's breeding program. "If Bamboo roamed very far afield, he came to places populated by great numbers of baboon-like creatures who bore only a slight resemblance to gorillas... All wore a covering over their loins, while others wore things that not only covered their gender but their whole body. For the most part, they seemed an odious, vicious and rascally species, best to avoid altogether."
Despite Bamboo's natural aversion to the killer humanoids, he teams up with an aging eccentric to save his fellow apes. In this 'burlesque novel' Bamboo escapes from the zoo, entertains at a nightclub and takes a hostage on his way to New York City. Instead of climbing the Empire State Building, Bamboo successfully initiates a motion at the United Nations assembly to save gorillas from extinction.
Hal Sisson practiced law for 30 years in Alberta and has been a reporter for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. He has also co-written Coots, Dodgers and Curmudgeons with Dwayne Rowe, newly re-issued by Salal Press, and Caverns of the Cross. He conceived and produced Sorry 'Bout That, the longest-running annual budesque revue in Western Canada.