Review: A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam

Caution: May Contain Spoilers

I received an advanced copy of A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam and I've recently finished reading it. While I've never heard of Colin McAdam before now, I am adding his other novels to my never-ending list of books I need to read. McAdam is the author of two other novels: Fall and Some Great Thing (a finalist for the 2004 Governor General's Literary Award For Fiction). This is an author who can tell a story so riveting that you'll never want to put the book down!

A Beautiful Truth is a wonderful story about a couple who adopts a young chimpanzee after finding out that they are unable to have children. Told in alternating points of view, A Beautiful Truth is about a chimpanzee named Looee's life as an adopted son and as a member of the Girdish Institute, where he eventually ends up after a devastating incident.

McAdam uses both human and chimpanzee perspectives, managing to capture a realistic experience of the chimps in a human world, as well as their humanlike existence both in a family setting and in a scientific facility. I was touched by the story and quickly fell in love with Looee, whose love for his parents and his struggle to fit into a human world is both tragic and heartwarming. McAdam does a wonderful job of writing the narratives of the chimps; it feels very primal and realistic.

The book does contain some violence and has a graphic nature, but these scenes are so important to the readers' understanding of the chimpanzees that the shock factor of some of the scenes and horrifying treatment of the chimps at Girdish does not detract from the narrative. Animal lovers will find this book illuminating and interesting, sad, but also beautiful and heartwarming. The narrative pulls you into the complicated lives of these intelligent creatures and explores the love between family and friends, and human and beast. The book feels well-researched and is [without question] well-written.

My only complaint is that I wanted a little more closure on the lives of Walt and Judy (Looee's adoptive human parents) after Looee is moved to Girdish. I really enjoyed reading this book from Penguin Canada and I strongly recommend that you pick up a copy come March 19th! McAdam's novel is different from a lot of animal-centered stories and is unique in its narrative and plot. It's edgy, captivating, and insightful. This is truly a reading experience that you do not want to miss.

A Beautiful Truth is a story about beautiful, yet sometimes uncomfortable truths about the relationship between humans and chimps; how we're different, how we're the same, and how we both crave love, friendship and acceptance.

Click to go to Chapters.ca
A Beautiful Truth, Chapters.ca


A Beautiful Truth is available on March 19th, 2013

First posting!

Hello blogging world, 

So begins my attempt at becoming a blogger...

I'm at that point in my life where I'm finally leaving the warm, easy, confines of school and hopefully heading into a career in the publishing world. It's incredibly scary, full of fears about paying rent and buying groceries, but also extremely exciting!

I've been accepted as an intern for Scholastic Canada, which is VERY exciting! I'll be starting this spring and it's really nice that at least I know I'm going from school to an internship-- especially one that I'm really excited about. We all know Scholastic is an AMAZING house. It has beautiful offices, too. 

In this industry, it is important to be familiar and well-versed in social media, so I've gone from being solely a Facebook-user to really expanding my use of social media platforms. I'm now a faithful user of Twitter, Pinterest and GoodReads. Actually, I may have a bit of an addiction to GoodReads-- I use it more than Facebook and Twitter. 

Then again, it's a social media platform all about books-- and my love of books may be driving my slight over-use of GoodReads. 

Blogging is an excellent way to keep up with writing, but it's also an excellent tool for someone like me who wants to work with books. Reading and reviewing books is something that I love to do, so I'm thinking that this blog will mainly be used for that purpose. 

Of course, I'm sure I'll cover many other things, too. I love a good tangent, just as much as I love a good book and a good cup of coffee. 

Here's to finding time to blog, as well as to post, tweet and pin!