Bookworm: Concise and well written book reviews so you can decide what to read next.
"Me Cheeta" by Cheeta
Review by Jemma Hooper, 3rd July 2009 . Tags: animals, autobiography, chimps, Hollywood, money, non-fiction
Quite simply the best book by a primate I've ever read.
From the heartwrenching innocent account of his kidnap from Africa through his truncated film career to latter years of touring circuses and the nursing home, you can't help but sympathise with this cutest of Hollywood Stars. If you've never seen “Tarzan gets a Mate”, do so as Cheetah's performance is truly Oscarworthy in it.
Seeing the sex, sleaze and gossip of Old Hollywood from this fresh angle is delightful. Cheetah is the Candide of Hollywood, a favourite moment being when he finds the doorhandle more interesting than the lesbian encounter he's stumbled in on. Well, which would be more unusual to a chimp?
So sad that his career was over at 14, that former Olympic medalist Wiesmuller died of cancer, swindled of his earnings and that the whole book might be a hoax and that this may not be Cheeta after all.
Still very worthwhile though for the points made about the use of animals in the entertainment industry and the wider society - ironically presented by a chimp disagreeing with them. I expect that an appeal for more humane treatment of animals was the author's motivation for writing.
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