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Publication
Harper Perennial (2009), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 352 pages
Description
In the heart of a civil war-torn African nation, primate researcher Hope Clearwater made a shocking discovery about apes and man . . . Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelities of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science . . . and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Smiler69
Hope Clearwater is a young woman who has already accumulated quite a few harrowing life experiences, and she tells the story of what has led up to her living on Brazzaville Beach in some unnamed part of Africa. First comes a marriage to a mathematician shortly after having finished her own studies
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as a researcher. Completely obsessed by his research into the mathematics of unpredictability, her husband displays more and more distressing signs of mental instability until Hope must face the fact that she cannot continue living with him. Then comes her work in Africa as part of a research organization that focuses on studying primates in the wild. Here again, she soon sees some disturbing behaviour on the part of the chimps under her observation, which runs contrary to the long-held belief that they are peaceful and gentle animals, and rather more like humans than anyone, including her boss, is willing to accept. Brilliantly written and filled with unexpected twists and turns, I was continually impressed with the way Boyd incorporated what must have been an incredible amount of research (into primate behaviour and advanced mathematics, among other things) into a very engaging novel. My first William Boyd and certainly not my last. Great narrations by Harriet Walter, who does a very convincing job as Hope Clearwater. Show Less
LibraryThing member ivanfranko
This is a favourite book. It's intelligently researched; it has a believable and gripping storyline. The writer knows what he's doing. He adopts the female first person in the African section of the novel, as Hope Clearwater the ecologist; and this he does extra well. He adopts third person
The novel suggests we ponder on the effects our lives have on others, something that Boyd tells us is one of the last things we learn, if ever.
The vicious anger displayed by chimps, scientists and political foes is a sobering aspect of the book, and it is at the end that Hope finds herself reassessing this turmoil. How responsible is she for some of it? Did she possess enough foresight? Was all the action inevitable?
A great and recommended read.
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reportage when writing about Hope, before her repositioning to Africa, during her marriage to a gifted and mentally ill mathematician, John Clearwater.The novel suggests we ponder on the effects our lives have on others, something that Boyd tells us is one of the last things we learn, if ever.
The vicious anger displayed by chimps, scientists and political foes is a sobering aspect of the book, and it is at the end that Hope finds herself reassessing this turmoil. How responsible is she for some of it? Did she possess enough foresight? Was all the action inevitable?
A great and recommended read.
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LibraryThing member bibliobibuli
It's the first William Boyd I've read, I'm ashamed to say, and I wonder just why it took me so long because it's such an intelligent, well-written novel that now I want to plunge into the others.
Hope Clearwater lives alone in a small beach house of Brazzaville Beach in an unnamed African country.
She recalls her relationship and marriage to a brilliant but psychologically unstable mathematician genius. At the same time describes how she came to Africa to participate in a primate research project at The Grosso Arvore Research Center (there are echoes of Jane Goodall's work here) and finds herself uncovering an unnerving truth about the nature of chimpanzees (and by extension perhaps, about mankind's predisposition towards violence). Her discoveries have far reaching consequences and she finds herself pitched against her employer and mentor who refuses to accept her findings.
Boyd is particularly good here at pointing out the dangers of narrowly focused dogmatic belief and academic obsession. I enjoyed the way Hope refers to the mathematical principles she's learned from her husband, John, and tries to draw a philosophy from them to illuminate the seeming chaos of her own life.
The characters, human and ape, were all well-drawn. Here's a male author convincingly able to inhabit a female skin - I felt a lot for Hope. (And I like to imagine for her the happy ending that isn't quite reached in the book.) I also felt deeply for the manic-depressive John Clearwater who fails to fulfill his dream of great Mathematical discovery and suffers terribly because of it.
This book has one of the best first sentences ever:
I never really warmed to Clovis-he was far too stupid to inspire real affection-but he always claimed a corner of my heart, largely, I supposed, because of the way he instinctively and unconsciously cupped his genitals whenever he was alarmed or nervous.
And while anyone who loves a well-written thought provoking novel will enjoy this book, it will appeal particularly to those of you with a love and understanding of maths and science.
Hope Clearwater lives alone in a small beach house of Brazzaville Beach in an unnamed African country.
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(There actually is a Brazzaville Beach in the republic of Congo though!). She looks back on the cataclysmic events which have changed the course of her life, and throughout the book two stories run parallel, at times echoing each other.She recalls her relationship and marriage to a brilliant but psychologically unstable mathematician genius. At the same time describes how she came to Africa to participate in a primate research project at The Grosso Arvore Research Center (there are echoes of Jane Goodall's work here) and finds herself uncovering an unnerving truth about the nature of chimpanzees (and by extension perhaps, about mankind's predisposition towards violence). Her discoveries have far reaching consequences and she finds herself pitched against her employer and mentor who refuses to accept her findings.
Boyd is particularly good here at pointing out the dangers of narrowly focused dogmatic belief and academic obsession. I enjoyed the way Hope refers to the mathematical principles she's learned from her husband, John, and tries to draw a philosophy from them to illuminate the seeming chaos of her own life.
The characters, human and ape, were all well-drawn. Here's a male author convincingly able to inhabit a female skin - I felt a lot for Hope. (And I like to imagine for her the happy ending that isn't quite reached in the book.) I also felt deeply for the manic-depressive John Clearwater who fails to fulfill his dream of great Mathematical discovery and suffers terribly because of it.
This book has one of the best first sentences ever:
I never really warmed to Clovis-he was far too stupid to inspire real affection-but he always claimed a corner of my heart, largely, I supposed, because of the way he instinctively and unconsciously cupped his genitals whenever he was alarmed or nervous.
And while anyone who loves a well-written thought provoking novel will enjoy this book, it will appeal particularly to those of you with a love and understanding of maths and science.
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LibraryThing member Bookmarque
The chief complaint I see in reviews of this book is that Hope isn’t very feminine. Seriously, what was she supposed to do, cry a lot and paint her nails? Other than not being worried about rape when captured at the end, I thought Hope was portrayed well. I’m not a particular girly girl. I know
So leaving that aside, I tore through this book very quickly. It weaves two timelines in Hope’s past, connected by her present state which is living on Brazzaville Beach. Boyd skillfully builds each story, dropping hints, moving the action forward with just the right amount of tension. For me, the parts that tore my heart were the ones about the chimps. I’ve long known that chimpanzees aren’t the platonic ideal of great apes. They’re crafty and violent when needed. Hope wonders about whether they’re also cruel after witnessing what seemed to be an egregious attack on a weakened and already injured chimp. She decides yes and with the escalating skirmishes between the groups of apes and the final scene between her and Mallabar, it shows just how close we are as species.
One thing that bothered me to no end was that Hope didn’t take pictures of these awful events. She wasn’t the only one with a camera, but like UFOs, the chimps seem to evade photography. All down the line she’s being balked and sabotaged because her research doesn’t support the accepted model of chimp behavior. Instead she invites the chief denier to join her in the field and witness the savagery first hand. Even this doesn’t work though. I’m a little baffled at her decisions in this area.
With the story of her marriage, things are less clear, as they always are when love is concerned. At first I thought the problem would boil down to infidelity and it does, but it’s a minor threat. The real threat is insanity. John starts acting nutty out of a desperation to achieve a mathematical victory. I don’t know if it’s an indictment on the field of mathematics itself or another on academia as a whole, but when John can’t reach his goals he cracks up and electroconvulsive therapy seems like a good idea. I wrote a quick note in my ebook copy of when Hope cottons to the final idea about John and races outside to find him; I was right and she was wrong so only one of us was surprised by the outcome.
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about guns. I lift weights. I don’t scream when I see a bug/bat/snake. I’m heartlessly pragmatic about a lot of stuff. Just what kind of narrow-minded idea of femininity are we dealing with here? Hard to say. So leaving that aside, I tore through this book very quickly. It weaves two timelines in Hope’s past, connected by her present state which is living on Brazzaville Beach. Boyd skillfully builds each story, dropping hints, moving the action forward with just the right amount of tension. For me, the parts that tore my heart were the ones about the chimps. I’ve long known that chimpanzees aren’t the platonic ideal of great apes. They’re crafty and violent when needed. Hope wonders about whether they’re also cruel after witnessing what seemed to be an egregious attack on a weakened and already injured chimp. She decides yes and with the escalating skirmishes between the groups of apes and the final scene between her and Mallabar, it shows just how close we are as species.
One thing that bothered me to no end was that Hope didn’t take pictures of these awful events. She wasn’t the only one with a camera, but like UFOs, the chimps seem to evade photography. All down the line she’s being balked and sabotaged because her research doesn’t support the accepted model of chimp behavior. Instead she invites the chief denier to join her in the field and witness the savagery first hand. Even this doesn’t work though. I’m a little baffled at her decisions in this area.
With the story of her marriage, things are less clear, as they always are when love is concerned. At first I thought the problem would boil down to infidelity and it does, but it’s a minor threat. The real threat is insanity. John starts acting nutty out of a desperation to achieve a mathematical victory. I don’t know if it’s an indictment on the field of mathematics itself or another on academia as a whole, but when John can’t reach his goals he cracks up and electroconvulsive therapy seems like a good idea. I wrote a quick note in my ebook copy of when Hope cottons to the final idea about John and races outside to find him; I was right and she was wrong so only one of us was surprised by the outcome.
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LibraryThing member SUS456
This is a well written gripping story which I read some time ago. It's one of my all time favorites. I've read other works by Boyd but personally I find his early works like this one and A Good Man in Africa to be his best.
LibraryThing member submarine
You never know where you will wind up when you start a book by William Boyd but the trip is always interesting.
LibraryThing member miketroll
An absorbing tale of Europeans in equatorial Africa, this novel is redolent of authentic local knowledge. The only disappointment in reading Boyd is the persistent hope that he might top his own masterpiece, A Good Man In Africa, but that’s hardly possible.
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
Another of his wonderful stories. Three periods in the heroine's life: marriage to a bipolar mathematician; work with chimpanzees and capture by rebel insurgents; and living alone on the beach, alternating in a very satisfying way, illuminating her character.
LibraryThing member LukeS
Hope Clearwater makes a discovery while observing chimpanzees in their native habitat that runs her afoul of her boss; she's in Africa because she ran afoul of her bipolar husband first.
Her discovery of chimpanzees at war is deadly to her employment. She's forced to sit at Brazzaville Beach in
I'm not sure why the scenes of her on the West Aftican beach stay with me at the expense of the rest of this well-told story. Hope (she of the very evocative name) faces the abyss from the edge of the world, keeping her toe-hold, not being denied.
A worthwhile read.
Her discovery of chimpanzees at war is deadly to her employment. She's forced to sit at Brazzaville Beach in
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exile from all employment, family, and career. Eventually she returns to work and vindication - whether this will endear her to the ethologists' establishment is not really known.I'm not sure why the scenes of her on the West Aftican beach stay with me at the expense of the rest of this well-told story. Hope (she of the very evocative name) faces the abyss from the edge of the world, keeping her toe-hold, not being denied.
A worthwhile read.
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LibraryThing member dreamreader
It's been some time since I've read a book that satisfied on so many levels - vividly created characters, a sense of time and place, an engaging multi-level plot, and philosophical, scientific, and psychological theories. Now what? What to read next that will measure up? I'm hoping it's more of
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William Boyd. Show Less
LibraryThing member Oregonreader
Brazzaville Beach is one of the best novels by a very good author. The book combines thought-provoking ideas and a gripping plot. Hope Clearwater is a young Englishwoman who marries a math genius primarily because she envies the way his mind works. A retrospective look at his ideas and her
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observation of his breakdown is woven between her life in a camp in the Congo where she is one of the observers in a large study of chimps. The camp is situated in a region where constant fighting occurs between government and rebellious forces. Hope makes a shocking discovery about the behavior of the chimps and this sets off unexpected repercussions. Her experiences as she moves between the chimps, the scientists in the camp and the war all around her create an amazing story. This is a book that can be enjoyed on many levels, from the philosophical to the simply suspenseful. Show Less
LibraryThing member jintster
From what I can tell from the three novels I've now read by Boyd, he is consistently solid. None of them would qualify for my book of the year but they are all very readable and interesting. As Boyd likes to work in different genres, this is more of an achievement than it sounds.
Hope Clearwater
The marriage strand is naturally the more introspective of the two. There are some interesting observations on the higher echelons of mathematics, on the dynamics of a marriage in which one party will always play second fiddle to the other's vocations and on madness brought on by the elusiveness of one's goals.
The chimpanzee strand was even more interesting. The band that Hope is asked with observing has split off from a larger group for the north. The northerners start a war against the southerners. But this is not standard chimp behaviour and it goes against all the academic theory of her boss, who becomes desperate to supress Hope's findings.
There's a lot of action, twists and turns stuffed into this book and towards the end it does strain credulity a little. But overall another fine story by Boyd.
Hope Clearwater
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looks back from her beach hut on the two main espisodes of her adult life. The end of her marriage to a genius mathemetician who goes slowly mad and her work observing chimpanzees. The two stories are told in parallel and are clearly meant to be linked in some way (other than through the protaganist) but I couldn't spot it myself. However, this had no bearing on my enjoyment of the narratives. The marriage strand is naturally the more introspective of the two. There are some interesting observations on the higher echelons of mathematics, on the dynamics of a marriage in which one party will always play second fiddle to the other's vocations and on madness brought on by the elusiveness of one's goals.
The chimpanzee strand was even more interesting. The band that Hope is asked with observing has split off from a larger group for the north. The northerners start a war against the southerners. But this is not standard chimp behaviour and it goes against all the academic theory of her boss, who becomes desperate to supress Hope's findings.
There's a lot of action, twists and turns stuffed into this book and towards the end it does strain credulity a little. But overall another fine story by Boyd.
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LibraryThing member TheoClarke
An astonishing novel interweaving three narratives by the same narrator to explore academic aspiration, self-actualization and power.
LibraryThing member lindawwilson
Too much a hodgepodge of ideas with various unrelated scientific pontifications that did not fit in with the story. The heroine was plucky, certainly, but I did not like her and did not understand her. The story jumped around in time and place which was confusing and annoying.
LibraryThing member probably
I liked this book enough to read it twice. Not the most upbeat book in the world.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
I haven't encountered too many books written by male authors but narrated by female characters. This is one of the few - and unfortunately I didn't think Boyd created a woman here, or at least if she is she's a bit butch. He did a better job in 'Restless'.
There were good points to this novel -
Left me slightly disappointed.
There were good points to this novel -
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Boyd's writing is always entertaining, there were some good bit-part characters (I liked Meredith, she has the perfect life IMO!), and the ape storyline taken in isolation was very good. I had difficulty following the past/present strands of the plot, however, even though these were differentiated by first person/third person narration. Interesting literary device but a bit confusing. The writing was a bit nebulous in places....I just would have liked a bit more explanation of some of the sections.Left me slightly disappointed.
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LibraryThing member sas
Perhaps my favourite modern novel - a deeply profound, rich meditation on exactly what makes us human. Which also manages to be an entertaining read - with a bit of chaos theory thrown in for good measure. Multiple readings have not dimmed its power at all.
LibraryThing member SandDune
Hope Clearwater lives alone in a rundown beach house next to Brazzaville Beach, a nondescript beach in an unnamed African country where she makes a living by doing odd bits of translation work for a friend's company. But why is a previously career focused woman with a doctorate in science content
Hope is in Africa to carry out a research project at the world famous Grosso Arvore research station run by the equally famous Eugene Mallabar, the acknowledged world expert on chimpanzee behaviour. She has been employed to investigate the behaviour of a group of chimpanzees who have broken away from the main Grosso Arvore pack, but as she becomes more and more familiar with them she gradually becomes aware that the behaviour she is witnessing is not the peaceful view of chimpanzee society which is espoused by Mallabar and which forms the basis of his definitive and shortly to be published book on the subject. As Hope becomes more and more convinced of her own conclusions, it becomes obvious that Mallabar will not countenance challenge to his own views. And interspersed with this story, is the story of what took Hope to Africa in the first place: her ill-fated marriage with the brilliant mathematician John Clearwater, who becomes more and more mentally unstable as he attempts to recapture the brilliance of his earlier work.
I first read this over twenty years ago when it first came out and while I certainly enjoyed it this time as well, I was much less shocked by the behaviour of the chimpanzees than I had been for my first read. But whether you think you are interested in chimpanzees or not this is a well-written book that is strongly recommended.
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to fritter her life away in a place like that? It is clear from the start that there has been some traumatic event in her past which is colouring her current life, and the remainder of the novel tells the two intertwined tales of what has brought Hope to that beach.Hope is in Africa to carry out a research project at the world famous Grosso Arvore research station run by the equally famous Eugene Mallabar, the acknowledged world expert on chimpanzee behaviour. She has been employed to investigate the behaviour of a group of chimpanzees who have broken away from the main Grosso Arvore pack, but as she becomes more and more familiar with them she gradually becomes aware that the behaviour she is witnessing is not the peaceful view of chimpanzee society which is espoused by Mallabar and which forms the basis of his definitive and shortly to be published book on the subject. As Hope becomes more and more convinced of her own conclusions, it becomes obvious that Mallabar will not countenance challenge to his own views. And interspersed with this story, is the story of what took Hope to Africa in the first place: her ill-fated marriage with the brilliant mathematician John Clearwater, who becomes more and more mentally unstable as he attempts to recapture the brilliance of his earlier work.
I first read this over twenty years ago when it first came out and while I certainly enjoyed it this time as well, I was much less shocked by the behaviour of the chimpanzees than I had been for my first read. But whether you think you are interested in chimpanzees or not this is a well-written book that is strongly recommended.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Excellent novel of Africa, chimps and human nature -- this novel has it all. Includes lots of action and suspense as well as love interests and sex. Boyd's novels read best sipped at like fine wine as they are full-bodied and multi-layered. Despite a few awkwardly frustrating moments, this book
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rates very high because it touches on so much in a very clear, subtly disciplined way and because our female narrator's perceptions ring so true. Show Less
LibraryThing member jonfaith
Despite its heading trappings, I couldn't say I was moved by the novel and its examination of nature and science, its flourish of systems and the inexplicable margins where our emotions have left us stranded.
My wife was listening to RadioLab and I mentioned this novel. We discused territory and
My wife was listening to RadioLab and I mentioned this novel. We discused territory and
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trespass. The consequences explored in the novel are grim. There's some terror in the feral. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
This is one of William Boyd’s earlier novel, and shows strong indications of the glories that were to follow. Set in Congo, it takes the form of recollections of Hope Clearwater, which in turn fall into two separate narratives. As the novel opens, Hope is living in a beach house on the
She had met, and then married, John Clearwater, an aspiring and innovative academic mathematician. She herself is an ecologist, engaged in postgraduate study of ancient hedgerows. While john struggles to bring his maths research to fruition, he gradually loses his grasp on ordinary life, and suffers a descent into mental turmoil.
Escaping from the emotional wreckage of that failed relationship, Hope joins a project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which is studying in minute detail the behaviours of a community of chimpanzees. Some of the team observe unexpected activity among the chimpanzees, but are encouraged not to pursue it, as unwelcome results might endanger the fragile funding streams which keep the project going. Against this context, Hope is sent off to collect the latest batch of provisions from the nearest big city. This is not simply a case of a ten or fifteen mile drive, but rather an expedition taking two or three days, and requires driving hundreds of miles on dreadful roads, in territory which is lawless, and subject to military action between the strict, tyrannical regime, and zealous armed rebels.
As always, Boyd weaves the separate threads of his complex plotline with great deftness. Hope is an empathetic, but far from saintly character, who has suffered great hardship but managed to fight back against life’s vicissitudes. Boyd always writes with great clarity and conviction, and from his own experience of growing up in Africa, conjures the local atmosphere vividly (at least to my little-travelled mind).
This is not his finest novel, but that leaves wide scope for it still to be very good, and there are clear signs of what was to come in his future work.
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Brazzaville Beach of the title. She is impecunious but composed, in stark contrast with the tone of the two disturbing stories on which she muses.She had met, and then married, John Clearwater, an aspiring and innovative academic mathematician. She herself is an ecologist, engaged in postgraduate study of ancient hedgerows. While john struggles to bring his maths research to fruition, he gradually loses his grasp on ordinary life, and suffers a descent into mental turmoil.
Escaping from the emotional wreckage of that failed relationship, Hope joins a project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which is studying in minute detail the behaviours of a community of chimpanzees. Some of the team observe unexpected activity among the chimpanzees, but are encouraged not to pursue it, as unwelcome results might endanger the fragile funding streams which keep the project going. Against this context, Hope is sent off to collect the latest batch of provisions from the nearest big city. This is not simply a case of a ten or fifteen mile drive, but rather an expedition taking two or three days, and requires driving hundreds of miles on dreadful roads, in territory which is lawless, and subject to military action between the strict, tyrannical regime, and zealous armed rebels.
As always, Boyd weaves the separate threads of his complex plotline with great deftness. Hope is an empathetic, but far from saintly character, who has suffered great hardship but managed to fight back against life’s vicissitudes. Boyd always writes with great clarity and conviction, and from his own experience of growing up in Africa, conjures the local atmosphere vividly (at least to my little-travelled mind).
This is not his finest novel, but that leaves wide scope for it still to be very good, and there are clear signs of what was to come in his future work.
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LibraryThing member nocto
Picked this up to read on holiday and wasn't quite sure if it was going to be my cup of tea. It seemed to feature a lot of African chimpanzee watching and this is what I wasn't at all sure about.
Couldn't have been more wrong. Strong female lead - a chimpanzee watcher, yes, but also good scientist
Good stuff and definitely an author to read more of.
Couldn't have been more wrong. Strong female lead - a chimpanzee watcher, yes, but also good scientist
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in a facility who are not quite straight with their research data. And her relationship with a slightly mad mathematician making up more of the storyline than I thought at the outset.Good stuff and definitely an author to read more of.
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LibraryThing member raggedprince
I think this is one of the only stories I've read based around scientists doing research in the field. I'd like to read others - when the personalities of the animals come into play it seems like fertile ground for good fiction - which this most certainly is.
LibraryThing member ruthseeley
One of my all-time favourite works of contemporary fiction. I would so love to write the screenplay for the movie that begs to be made from this novel.
Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Winner — Fiction — 1990)
McVitie's Prize (Winner — 1991)
Language
Original publication date
1990
Physical description
352 p.; 7.98 inches
ISBN
0380780496 / 9780380780495