Talk to Me
-
- £6.99
-
- £6.99
Publisher Description
How far would you go to save someone you love? And what if that someone was ... not exactly human?
Guy Schermerhorn, brilliant young professor of psychology and disciple of the pioneering Dr Moncrieff, is making a name for himself on the talk show circuit with an unusual protégé in tow: a chimp by the name of Sam. Sam lives in Guy's apartment, wears diapers and neckties, devours pizza and Macdonalds – and, through Guy's careful training, can communicate through sign language.
But living with Sam is wreaking havoc on Guy's personal life, and when shy, meek undergraduate Aimee Villard volunteers to take on babysitting for him, he can't believe his luck. Aimee and Sam have an immediate rapport, and before Guy knows it she's moved in, proudly devoting herself to Sam's care and Guy's project.
Aimee has never known purpose and happiness like this; but when Guy's funding is imperilled, and Sam is taken away by the sinister Moncrief, her world falls apart. Aimee discovers just how far she'll go to, and just what she'll risk, to be united with the chimp she's come to love so much.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Boyle's diverting latest (after Outside Looking In) is equal parts road novel, campus drama, and roundabout love triangle focused around Sam, an intelligent chimp raised among humans who communicates through sign language, making him a brief cause célèbre in the mid-1980s. Behavioral scientist and college professor Guy Schermerhorn has a lot to prove—his life's a ruin and his custodianship of Sam is in question—leading him to stake everything on an appearance with Sam on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, lest Guy's sinister superior, Dr. Moncrief, cart Sam off to be experimented on, or worse. Guy enlists Aimee Villard, an eager student with an immediate connection to Sam. Professor and student embark on a halfhearted relationship, but both are focused on the increasingly demanding chimp, and, as Dr. Moncrief moves to make good on his threats, Aimee takes Sam on a cross-country road trip, winding up in a trailer court in Arizona, where the two eke out a life among the local misfit community. Chapters from Sam's perspective make him a captivating creation, but fans of Boyle will recognize a bit of retread from his previous novels and stories. It's a fun ride, but it doesn't exactly break new ground.
