Book Review – Pigeon Series by Mo Willems

At MMN, we have reviewed many books of interest to monkeys—King Kong, The Jungle Book, Curious George, Grumpy Monkey and Five Little Monkeys among them. Without question, however, Mo Willems’s Pigeon series is a landmark of modern fiction: a body of work that will resonate profoundly with the average monkey in the street. Cleverly disguised as a collection of children’s picture books, it is in fact a searing indictment of the treatment of monkeys in the modern world. Willems bravely confronts alienation, discrimination, disillusionment and the systematic denial of perfectly reasonable requests—all experiences painfully familiar to monkeys today.

The titular character is ostensibly a pigeon, but readers should not allow themselves to become distracted by mere questions of plumage. Here is a handsome, intelligent and exquisitely sensitive creature struggling against a succession of injustices and disappointments with remarkable fortitude—clearly intended by the author to embody the experience of monkeys everywhere, particularly chimpanzees. Whether he is refused permission to drive a bus, denied an iceberg or prevented from eating considerably more hot dogs than medical science might recommend, he faces adversity with a calmness and dignity in which any monkey will recognise something of himself. His occasional raised voice, wild gesticulation and emotional collapses should not be mistaken for petulance. They are the righteous protests of an oppressed individual whose modest ambitions are continually frustrated by officious meddlers claiming to “know better.”

The parallels are subtle, yet impossible to ignore. What monkey has not dreamt of a 65-acre banana plantation with its own distillery, only to be obstructed by planning regulations, financial institutions and people asking tiresome questions about “responsible ownership”? Who has not longed for a bedroom free from canaries, or endured a baboon delivering an unsolicited lecture on healthy living, moderation and the supposed nutritional advantages of banana yoghurt? Who has not faced unwarranted threats of baths or having to attend school? Who has not been emotionally manipulated by a supposed friend into accepting second best? Pigeon’s disappointments are therefore not his alone. They belong to every misunderstood monkey whose perfectly sensible desires have been thwarted by rules, rationing and unwanted advice.

MMN awards the series five bananas, a bottle of fermented banana juice to the author and our highest possible recommendation.