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'Newsreels gave way to cartoon rabbits, theatre announcements and featured pictures, the ticker of the projector lighting the way through an empty sky. And there was Siggy, scene after scene, riding elephants and running from lions, laughing and jumping and swinging through the trees, smiling and kissing, wet lips puckered and arms open wide, his beautiful grey face filling the silver screen and dissolving into the white-hot light of the sun.
'Jozsef Kiss, amateur Hungarian physician and animal trainer, arrives in Hollywood in the summer of 1931 with his African travelling companion, an orphaned chimpanzee. That chimpanzee becomes Siggy the Wonder Chimp, Jungle Man s faithful jungle companion, and a bona fide star.
'Wonderful is the story of a movie star monkey and his hapless, drunken partner. Complete with exploding coconuts and chimpanzee antics, it follows the adventures of a man and his animal sidekick as they encounter the strange and dusty landscape of California, agents and starlets, cowboys and elephants, the Depression and fascism, and the onset of the Second World War. It is a comic and sometimes sad emigrant s tale, a story of the invention and reinvention of people and nations, of history and of dreams. Above all, it is a story of loyalty, friendship and love.' (Synopsis)
Notes
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Dedication: For my Grandma Cookie Lookie, lookie, lookie
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Editor's note: They gave me a test. It was all right in the face. But they talk now. The picturs, I mean. And when I began to talk, up there on the screen, they knew me for what I was, and so did I. A cheap Des Moines trollop, that has as much chance in pictures asa monkey has. Not as much. A monkey, anyway, can make you laugh. James M. Cain. The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Monkey Business
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 7 February 2004; (p. 8)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel -
Other Voices
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 April 2004; (p. 10-11)
— Review of Top Bloke 2003 single work novel ; Wonderful 2004 single work novel ; The Secret World of Annette Robinson : A Novel 2004 single work novel ; Forever Shores : Fiction of the Fantastic 2003 anthology short story extract -
Monkey Business in an Outsider's Life
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 March 2004; (p. 5)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel -
Paperbacks
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 21 March 2004; (p. 19)
— Review of A Private Man 2004 single work novel ; Wonderful 2004 single work novel ; The Ghost Writer 2004 single work novel -
The Day of the Chimp
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 258 2004; (p. 37)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel
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Untitled
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Bookseller & Publisher , December 2003 / January vol. 83 no. 6 2004; (p. 36)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel -
Wonderful Whirl
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 10 February vol. 122 no. 6407 2004; (p. 68-69)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel -
Fine Line Between Fame and Tragedy
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 February 2004; (p. 14)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel -
The Day of the Chimp
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , February no. 258 2004; (p. 37)
— Review of Wonderful 2004 single work novel -
Paperbacks
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Canberra Sunday Times , 21 March 2004; (p. 19)
— Review of A Private Man 2004 single work novel ; Wonderful 2004 single work novel ; The Ghost Writer 2004 single work novel
Awards
- 2005 joint winner The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
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Hollywood,
Los Angeles,
California,
cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
- Europe,
- Africa,