A novel built around three linked stories and characters, with each story unfolding in a different time. The first and the last sections I found interesting to read, but the middle one dragged a bit as it was mostly reported conversation until the last bit.
Martel seems to see animals as representing some form of state of grace or innocence from which we have fallen. He seems to circle around the biblical notion of animals and people as somehow qualitatively different, with people superior. There are hints of seeing technology and the modern complex, bureaucratic society also as responsible for leading us from this state of grace. He refers repeatedly to a quote along the lines of, "We are not fallen angels, we have come up from the apes."
The last section, where the main character lives with a chimpanzee in a remote Portuguese village, exploring the countryside, is quite beautiful.
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