‘Well-Dressed Ape’: Humorous look into evolutionary mirror - Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

‘Well-Dressed Ape’: Humorous look into evolutionary mirror

Science journalist Hannah Holmes started connecting with nature as an infant at her family farm in Maine. Not only did she grow up tending to farm animals, but, with both parents working as biologists and no veterinarian in town, her home became a refuge for orphaned and rescued wild critters. Some of her best childhood pals included a couple of raccoons, a chipmunk and an owl. Her flying squirrel exercised by ricocheting off her bedroom walls. One sparrow even learned to hop on the door handle to let itself in.

So what could be more natural than Holmes’ latest book, “The Well-Dressed Ape,” seeking a better understanding of her place and that of the human species in the world of nature?

Sure, it brings to mind Desmond Morris’ groundbreaking “The Naked Ape,” which in 1967 analyzed humans compared with other animals. But in this Homo sapiens saga, Holmes devotes much of her attention to examining herself and how she, as representative of her species, fits into the natural scheme.

The book begins with the author standing buck naked before a mirror, inspecting all of her attributes feature by feature — unabashedly, though not always with clinical dispassion.

The author of “Suburban Safari” (a look at the creatures and plant life in Holmes’ own backyard) and “The Secret Life of Dust” (about, yep, dust), Holmes expands from her personal characteristics to explore how the human species evolved into what we are today. She investigates territorial behavior, reproduction, diet, communication — just about everything about human mental and physiological life.

In the process, she dishes up a feast of provocative science and engaging trivia, from how the human neck evolved ideally for running without head-bobbing to how human “odorprint” affects choice of mates. Wonder why humans cook their food? It’s here. So is why humans have so little “fur,” why human mammary glands are enlarged, and why we’re among the sweatiest of species.

The book is saturated with hard-core scientific evidence as well as theories, mysteries and arguably some pseudoscience. Most of Holmes’ answers revert back hundreds of thousands of years to interpretations of how the species evolved. A fascinating though not a fast read, “The Well-Dressed Ape” clearly is not destined for the creationists’ best-seller list.

It should be noted that in fleshing out the bio basics, Holmes has way too much fun. Though much of the book is written well, with a Discovery Channel demeanor, the author wisecracks nearly page-by-page. Clever humor seems as irresistible to her as the cookies she confesses are “too easy to capture” in her section on body fat.

Holmes writes that she wanted to crank herself through “the biologist machinery” to see her animal self more clearly. After all, trying to understand ourselves is an attribute exclusive to Homo sapiens. To that end, her book succeeds affably.

And where it falters, the result of excessive wordplay and obsessive science, well, that’s only human, too.