cover image Voices from the Ape House

Voices from the Ape House

Beth Armstrong. Trillium, $19.95 trade paper (312p) ISBN 978-0-8142-5571-1

First-time author Armstrong tells of her work with primates at the Columbus Zoo in an intriguing but somewhat disappointing memoir. Beginning there as a volunteer in 1979 at age 22, and then continuing as a primate keeper after being hired two years later, Armstrong vividly recalls the Ape House’s “cold, unforgiving, concrete shell” and its “thick deep pungent odor.” Emphasizing the privilege of being able to observe gorillas, chimpanzees, and other primates up close, and her sadness at not being able to provide them with a more natural environment, she describes her daily routine—toting food buckets, distributing vitamins and protein drinks, peeling oranges, gathering debris, and participating in grooming routines. Armstrong captures a sense of the house as a strange and sometimes dangerous world, one that finds her alone and defenseless among immensely powerful and sometimes aggressive creatures—though the gorillas are gentle, the chimps are often rowdy, sometimes pelting her with feces. In sections set outside the house, Armstrong writes less successfully about her involvement with a program for raising gorillas born in captivity. Moreover, copious descriptions of each new gorilla family she encounters in her work may overwhelm readers. The rich, raw material deserves a better treatment than this intermittently involving account. (Mar.)