Brazzaville Beach

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And when conversing with her friend Meredith, Hope muses on what it means to possess the capacity to enjoy oneself when alone, that is, not to forever hanker after the company and conversation of others. I felt the novel also drew parallels between the Chimp War and the civil war happening within the country. To give the book some more depth (hope and faith may not be enough), Boyd throws in a lot of mathematical theory. He wanted a mathematical theorem named after him, like Fermat, and what he failed to realize is that even geniuses are often forgotten by society at large; the important thing is to be happy with yourself, and to be important to those who love you. In one, set in England, Hope relates the story of her marriage to a brilliant mathematician, John Clearwater, whose mind is finely balanced between brilliance and madness.

Greek philosopher Epicurus warned his followers of the great dangers when one's identity becomes closely entwined with fame and reputation, a need that is neither natural nor necessary. Boyd has written about Africa before, though his previous novels set on “the Dark Continent,” were darkly comedic.

She doesn't know what she wants, but defines herself by what she doesn't want: the ordinary, dull and dependent life. WILLIAM BOYD has received world-wide acclaim for his novels which have been translated into over thirty languages. The book is published in 1990 and the only civil war I could find for this country was from 1997-1999.

As she walks the beach at the end, as in interludes elsewhere in the book, the theme of permanence despite perpetual change is realized. Hope Clearwater faces many challenges with her work as a scientist - much of the time observing chimpanzees near a remote, academic camp in Africa, as well as the emotional upheavals in her marriage to an eccentric mathematician. The only piece of misunderstanding is the fact that once someone enters a field of study, say botany ecology, there is no way you would be employed to conduct behavioural studies - the different studies are just too disparaging.She is trying to figure out what went wrong, and why and if she was guilty and what could have been changed. Mallabar repeatedly tells Hope that, as the world’s foremost expert, he knows everything there is to know about chimpanzees. At one point, traveling north by jeep, rebels take Hope prisoner where she must duck down from an enemy patrol. D. in ecology, this is the first time she has worked with chimps and now she is working for the world's expert in the field.