Ark Baby

by Liz Jensen | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0747539766 Global Overview for this book
Registered by chunniemonster of Colne, Lancashire United Kingdom on 2/1/2007
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by chunniemonster from Colne, Lancashire United Kingdom on Thursday, February 1, 2007
Amazon.com
Liz Jensen's second novel, Ark Baby, is a dark, randy, and riotous romp back to the future featuring twin plot lines as tightly twisted as a double helix. The novel (if not the story) kicks into gear on New Year's Eve 1999 when a sudden, heavy rainfall over Britain signals the end of fertility on the Emerald Isle; with the turn of the millennium, every last specimen of British womanhood is rendered mysteriously barren. In the aftermath of this event, child-starved couples start turning to lower primates to satisfy their baby lust; enter veterinarian Bobby Sullivan, the hapless hero of Jensen's quirky meditation on evolution and survival of the fittest. After accidentally killing a client's beloved macaque monkey and being charged with murder, Bobby escapes to a remote northern seaside town called Thunder Spit and eventually gets involved with two, slightly hirsute twins whom he manages to impregnate--the first fertile women in England since the millennium.

Not content to chronicle Bobby's adventures in Thunder Spit circa 2000-something, Jensen weaves in the 19th-century adventures of foundling Tobias Phelps as counterpoint. Discovered abandoned in the Thunder Spit church by a childless vicar and his wife, Tobias is raised by the couple as their own, but his unusual appearance (squashed features, odd feet, hairy body) spur him to find his biological parents. As Bobby muddles towards 21st-century parenthood and Tobias gets tangled up in Victorian England's fascination with the theories of Darwin, the two plots begin to converge in a welter of diary entries, exotic recipes, strange artifacts, and curious coincidences. By the end of Ark Baby readers might well conclude that far from being "red in tooth and claw," Nature has one hell of a sense of humor.

Journal Entry 2 by chunniemonster from Colne, Lancashire United Kingdom on Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Stolen from me via bookswap.com. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 3 by molekilby from Brithdir, Wales United Kingdom on Saturday, July 14, 2007
And the culprit was I. Although I didn't resort to a frying pan! Picked it up from the Post Office today (thanks chunniemonster).

I did like the look of this (I still do) and will probably read it quite soonish.

Journal Entry 4 by molekilby from Brithdir, Wales United Kingdom on Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Quite soonish, being almost precise as this has already a prospective new home.

I enjoyed the storyline, at times it made me laugh out loud. Although it can be a little confusing jumping from one of the storylines to the other I managed to work through it. Thanks chunniemonster for sharing.

I have another of Jensen's books lined up as a bookring 'My Dirty Little Book Of Stolen Time', great title and synopsis, hope it will be as funny.

This also allows me to tick 'J' off my 2007 Author A-Z Challenge.

Journal Entry 5 by teachie from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Thanks molekilby, arrived today.Looks great although it will be joining my TBR pile for the moment.

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