It's the New Depression. The economy is in the tank. What is an unemployed PhD in rhetoric to do? Well, go to work for the Homeland Renewal Project, of course. And if he can't pay off his student loans, he'll have to go to "Repossession Therapy" and surrender the knowledge that he has yet to pay for. This is the near-future America that Darin Bradley creates in Chimpanzee.
Benjamin Cade dutifully reports for his homeland renewal assignments, and doesn't fail to attend his repossession therapy sessions. But seeking a teaching outlet, he decides to start giving free lectures at a public plaza. His following grows, and soon he finds himself swept up in an underground counterculture that he was only dimly aware existed.
Bradley's future America is believable, if a little exaggerated, developing current trends of a shrinking middle class and subsequent government expansion in social welfare. He takes the lessons of the Great Depression and portrays an America that has forgotten said lessons. I was reminded throughout of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction, only more coherent and with less of a twist at the end. Chimpanzee is much more enjoyable to read than Palahniuk, and it does have a nice twist, but ultimately it's not as satisfying as some of Palahniuk's endings. Also, I haven't seen 12 Monkeys in a while, but the underground movement in Chimpanzee reminded me of that movie, and not just because of the monkey imagery.
Bradley develops the action from Cade's lectures, interspersing academic lectures with action and political commentary. The result is interesting, intelligent fiction, sort of sic-fi-ish. I enjoyed Chimpanzee somewhat, but I wouldn't call it an absolute page turner.
Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!
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