By Holly Aguirre

For the AJC

One of the luckiest things that happened to best-selling author Sara Gruen was getting fired. Gruen was a technical writer preparing manuals for a software company when she was let go. Her husband suggested she write that novel she had been considering.

“I was really grumpy about it, being given the boot, because I really liked that job,” Gruen said.

Two years went by before Gruen finally landed a publisher for “Riding Lessons,” and later “Flying Changes,” and it came at just the right time.

“It was getting really bad,” Gruen reflected, laughing a bit nervously. “I had run out of day-care money.”

Her third novel, “Water for Elephants,” a runaway success, recently was made into a film starring Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon and “Twilight” leading man Robert Pattinson, with a spring release expected. “Elephants” was optioned for $1 million, so we can surmise that Gruen’s day-care issues won't reoccur.

Gruen’s latest, “Ape House,” weaves a satirical tale of humans and bonobos, their interaction and society's obsession with reality TV. It hits shelves on Sept. 7 and was inspired by the Great Ape Trust, a controlled research facility in Des Moines that studies bonobos. Most of the primates at the Trust were born at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University. (http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/index.htm) Gruen makes two stops in Georgia this week, one at the Margaret Mitchell house and one in Lawrenceville, on her nationwide book-signing tour. She spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from her home in Asheville, N.C., prior to her departure.

Q: So your husband is an integral part of your success?

A: The writers that I know who are the most successful have really great spouses or partners who are absolutely behind them. It’s great to have someone pick up the slack when we’re just being crazy, nutty writers; you know, those of us who can’t do anything else and don’t get dressed for days. Somebody has to pick up the slack and feed the kids!

Q: Tell me about your interaction with the apes at the Great Ape Trust?

A: It’s really an eye-opener, having a two-way conversation other than our own. It’s seriously like talking to your dog and having it answer back. In spite of my efforts, I don’t think there is any preparation on Earth for conversing with an ape where a conversation can segue from requesting breakfast to requesting the return of the Easter Bunny.

Q: If an ape can be generous, do you think that selfishness is learned?

A: That is one thing that I try to explore in the book. Apes have culture and we have culture. For so many years we have explained away our warfare and our violence towards each other by saying that it is hard-wired into chimpanzees and that since we’re so closely related to chimps that we obviously cannot help it ourselves. We have these other species that are so closely related that don’t fight, that don’t kill anybody; they all live together, share food. When bonobos meet up with another group of bonobos in the wild they have an orgy and they all feast. If another group of chimpanzees meets up with another group of chimpanzees, it’s all out warfare. Now we suddenly have this different model of behavior. We’re not chimps and we’re not bonobos, and we’re more than just a mix, but it does give us a completely different model and it does take away that excuse.

Q: You also address our culture’s obsession with “celebutantes” in the book. What’s that about?

A: I think because we suddenly have instant access with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, we have a constant stream of data coming at us. You release a sex tape and you’re a celebrity; it’s crazy. People are famous for just being famous and I have no idea how they got started in the first place.

Q: Being with the apes, was there anything that you learned about human beings and the way we treat each other?

A: Yes, I think that part of the tabloid culture is plain schadenfreude; everyone loves a good train wreck. That’s just plain voyeurism and it’s a pretty ugly side of us.

Q: Do you see any elements of your personality reflected in the apes?

A: I hope so; they’re so lovely. They’re very, very good with their children. Infants enjoy a very high status in their society. I am being the best mother I can be and I hope that it’s a good one and that is stacks up to the way the bonobos treat their children.

Q: Being Canadian, is there anything in particular that you’ve come to love about the South?

A: I love that everyone waves to each other when you pass them in a car. They could be total strangers, but you’d better wave. My neighbors have become very accepting of me gardening in my flannel pajamas. They just wave. I guess that’s part of my role as the town eccentric. I once scared my postman when I came to the door in a ripped-up T-shirt, sweatpants and mismatched socks. I had been eating pot roast over the sink in the kitchen when he rang the doorbell. Just before I answered I caught a glance of myself in the hall mirror. The roast had dripped all the way down the front of clothes. I frightened him and he’s not easily shaken.

Q: Anything else?

A: Grits! My husband Bob says that I’d be burned as a heretic based on some of things that I do with grits. I decided that anything you do with risotto you can do with grits. You throw a pound of brie on grits and it’s really good. I love Southern cuisine.

Q: Do you have a favorite spot in Atlanta?

A: Oh, yes, Watershed in Decatur. I love that place. When I was in town (last year) for the Decatur Book Festival we went there and ordered just about one of everything on the menu. I think there was food flying around our table and it got pretty disgusting. Oh god, it was so good. Seriously, I think there were three things on the menu that we didn’t get.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?

A: I belong to the church of Julia, so I love to cook. My husband loves my chicken pot pie. It takes two days to make, Everything is done by scratch right down to the shelling of the peas. And then I make a Hollandaise sauce for it and it’s so delicious. You could put Hollandaise on gravel and I’d eat it.

BOOK TALK, SIGNING

6 p.m. Wednesday. $5 members, $10 nonmembers. Reservations required. Margaret Mitchell House, 990 Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-814-4150, www.margaretmitchellhouse.com.

7 p.m. Thursday. Gwinnett Community Reads Event, Aurora Theatre, 128 Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222, www.auroratheatre.com.