For Jessica and Jane, or The Murder of the Missing Link by Vercors

Regarding Untitled, To Post or Not to Post, one of my fav fans Jessica suggests I post only when I feel like it, and not try to make it perfect.

Here it is.

Time used: 0 minutes (already written awhile ago)

This crazy book has a really nice romantic story at the beginning but then lives up to its title when the protagonist, afraid to tell the woman he loves her, instead heads off to the middle of the jungle with some archeologists and discovers some beings which are half man half monkey. The rest of the book tries to decide which.

Note: I guess I could just post the above. But the first problem is, the title in the image is in French, so I have to look up the title in English or it makes no sense. And it turns out there are three different English titles. That leads to more research unless I force myself not to, then, one thing leads to another...

Bookclub buddy Jane agreed that to save time, it would be acceptable to use one word reviews.

Here it is.

Time used: 1 minute (add a minute if you want the image in English)

Odd.

Here's a longer version, and I tried to keep it short and not make jokes about the odd plot.

Time used: 25 minutes

This odd book (published in 1952) starts with a romantic story but then lives up to its

title when the protagonist, afraid to tell the woman he loves her, instead announces he's heading off to the middle of the jungle with some archeologists. There, the scientific smarty pants are stumped when they come across beings which have characteristics of both apes and humans . So what are they? The rest of the book is spent trying to find out if these beings are humans or animals. During the process the romanticism of the first few pages is totally lost when the protagonist comes up with the lovely idea of offering to be a sperm donor to artificially inseminate one of the creatures, then murder the baby in order to go on trial to answer the question What is a Human? (If he's acquitted it means the baby isn't human, if he's condemned, it is.)

Review:

https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v53n03_1954-05_cape1736/page/n147/mode/2up

Racist?

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/217841/what-are-the-differences-between-the-different-translations-of-les-animaux-déna

Then, to be considered, extra time needed when I can't resist saying things like the following:

Time used: 15 minutes

I picked up this book (The Murder of the Missing Link) in a free book box inspired by my experience reading a beautiful story by the same author, Vercors, The Silence of the Sea. Written in 1942, it dealt with the French Resistance.

*Why so long for 2 sentences? Rewriting can't be helped, looking up the title of the book in English. Writing down another title in English that was also used (Put Out the Lights), then deciding to just use one. That's it! 10 minutes.

And finally,

Time used to comment on all the stuff above: 25 minutes.

Oh, I get it! I should quite commenting on all the stuff!