President Chimp is a short work presenting the escape from Detroit zoo of a monkey who takes over the Presidency of America.
Jeremy Schanche satirizes the Chimp story colourfully, showing us a creature bearing grudges from his past treatment, wildly unpredictable and dangerous, ludicrous and grotesque.
’Chimpy hugged the limelight and worked the crowd with a deftness of touch that made Ziggy Stardust seem a bumbling amateur dramatist in a village panto.’
Along the way the author manages to bring in serious swipes at the death penalty, the Mexican border wall, built with non Union Labour, the English Prime Minister, Bojo, etc.
England is ‘a tiny island swarming with a bizarre mixture of effete intellectuals and turnip munching medieval peasants,’
Elton John comes in for criticism and whistling ability is seen as a sign of humanity. I wasn’t so keen on that as I cannot whistle but I have heard the author is accomplished in that art.
Chimp flies into rages,’his face quivered in simian mania, going from pale orange to deepest darkest blood red, like a tequila sunrise.’
It’s this inventive turn of phrase that carries the narrative flying along to what I found to be a satisfying conclusion.
There are two more sections in the book which contrast dramatically with the first section.
In ‘More of everything’ the author gives us a fable about wanting to make one’s senses develop and how the hero comes to a profound conclusion. This fable can go off at any tangents, surprising the reader.
The third section, ‘Into the thunderbolt land’ takes us to Tibet, the Chinese invasion, and the quest for Buddhist enlightenment.
What a contrast- kindness and transcendence.
Thus the book gives us three levels of existence, from lurid gross materialism, through surreal sensations to acceptance, ending with spiritual enlightenment.
The journey leaves this reader in no doubt which is preferable.
Jeremy Schanche recently also published a compendium of writings called ‘The Horned Whale’
No comments:
Post a Comment