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105th out of 781 books
—
1,336 voters
The Names of Things
by
John Colman Wood (Goodreads Author)
The anthropologist's wife, an artist, didn't want to follow her husband to the remote desert of northeast Africa to live with camel-herding nomads. But wanting to be with him, she endured the trip, only to fall desperately ill years later with a disease that leaves her husband with more questions than answers. When the anthropologist discovers a deception that shatters his...more
Paperback, 276 pages
Published
April 1st 2012
by Ashland Creek Press
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I was almost an anthropologist. I majored in the subject in college, drawn to it by my own unusual childhood, which was spent traveling for years among different cultures than that of my birth. The fundamentals of anthropological field work resonated with me: always observing and learning, participating only at arm's length, yet somehow making usefulness out of the loneliness of never quite belonging. I found appealing this idea that somehow there was a special point to a liminal existence, that...more
The Names of Things by John Colman Wood is the journey of an anthropologist through the grieving processes he documented among the Northeast African Dasse nomadic camps following the passing of his wife sometime later. Beautifully written in alternating time frames from the anthropologist’s past field work that helped him create two books on the nomadic lives of these people and their grieving rituals and the present when he returns to the African Chalbi Desert to cope with his wife’s passing. W...more
Wood weaves a wonderful tale here. The narrator, having once lived among nomads in Africa with his unwilling wife, returns after his wife has died of an unnamed illness. This current trip is wonderfully and evocatively described, but Wood subtly weaves in how the narrator's journey is more inside than external. He journeys through whether or not his wife may have cheated on him during their last trip, potentially resulting in the unnamed disease, as well as his entire relation to his wife and ev...more
The Names of Things by John Colman Wood
This is probably going to be one of the rare books that I read more than once. I do love anthropological studies, but this is much more than that. The author writes about the way he and his wife experience their marriage differently. It is said that when you lose a parent or partner for whom you felt no love, there is still grief, grief for what you wish had been. That is the main story I took away from this book. I found reading it a touching experience -...more
This is probably going to be one of the rare books that I read more than once. I do love anthropological studies, but this is much more than that. The author writes about the way he and his wife experience their marriage differently. It is said that when you lose a parent or partner for whom you felt no love, there is still grief, grief for what you wish had been. That is the main story I took away from this book. I found reading it a touching experience -...more
An anthropologist goes on a pilgrimage across northeast Africa after the death of his wife, coming to terms with her loss and wondering whether he really even knew her at all.
It's interesting that I can't tell you the anthropologist's name, as I don't believe it is ever mentioned in the book. He is simply referred to as "he" and "him", or by the native word "ferenji" used for Westerners. Likewise his wife is simply referred to as "she".
This story is at once very simple, getting to the heart of t...more
It's interesting that I can't tell you the anthropologist's name, as I don't believe it is ever mentioned in the book. He is simply referred to as "he" and "him", or by the native word "ferenji" used for Westerners. Likewise his wife is simply referred to as "she".
This story is at once very simple, getting to the heart of t...more
Jun 16, 2012
Ixachel
marked it as to-read
The Names of Things, by John Colman Wood, tells the story of an unnamed anthropologist studying the nomadic Dasse people of the Chalbi Desert. In his field work, he observes the customs and rituals, as well as the normal day-to-day interactions, of the camel-herding Dasse. He is entranced by them, falling easily into their life. He builds a friendship with one of the nomadic men.
“You seized a bit of life, and life damaged you.”
The anthropologist’s wife, an artist, goes with him. She does not ad...more
“You seized a bit of life, and life damaged you.”
The anthropologist’s wife, an artist, goes with him. She does not ad...more
Life, love, death, & betrayal; they are all in the Names Of Things.
The story jumps from a present day journey to memories of an anthropologist. He just lost his wife to disease, and took a trip back to the Dasse clan that he visited years ago. The names of the couple or the disease are never mentioned, which might keep you from connecting with them. But the story itself is interesting and captivating.
The story jumps from a present day journey to memories of an anthropologist. He just lost his wife to disease, and took a trip back to the Dasse clan that he visited years ago. The names of the couple or the disease are never mentioned, which might keep you from connecting with them. But the story itself is interesting and captivating.
Jun 11, 2012
Amber Berry
marked it as to-read
I need a category: To Read, Maybe.
The author was at my local bookstore on Sunday night. I even had a reminder email. And I'd planned to be there, but I didn't want to go back out into the night. After reading his bio here, I think it would have been an interesting evening. Still... sometimes the author visits are disappointing.
The author was at my local bookstore on Sunday night. I even had a reminder email. And I'd planned to be there, but I didn't want to go back out into the night. After reading his bio here, I think it would have been an interesting evening. Still... sometimes the author visits are disappointing.
When a chance discovery challenges everything an anthropologist understands of his wife's lingering illness and death, he returns to the African plains where their parting began. The journey is told through objective discourses on Dasse tribal mourning rituals contrasted with a narrative of the anthropologist's own thoughts and experiences.
This book left me thinking of John Banville's The Sea (Man Booker Prize 2005) because of the way the wording and cadence evoke a feeling of place, in this ca...more
This book left me thinking of John Banville's The Sea (Man Booker Prize 2005) because of the way the wording and cadence evoke a feeling of place, in this ca...more
I had to change my rating from 4 to 5 stars after I finished this book, because it was a moving and haunting journey all the way to the last page. Wood is a truly gifted writer, able to create suspense and wonder out of seemingly quiet prose.
If you are sick of the hollow bestsellers, this is the cure. Beauty and substance to feed the soul.
If you are sick of the hollow bestsellers, this is the cure. Beauty and substance to feed the soul.
Excellent book with very evocative images!
Wood takes us- so vividly- to a place most of us will never see, the Chalbi Desert. He tells a haunting story - a mystery really - that shares the inner and outer landscapes of a man (and a marriage)on a journey to understand the past and the relationships between what we do and don't (can never) know.
Well, what would I say?
Jun 08, 2013
G Wheeler
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John Colman Wood teaches at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. His field research with Gabra nomads of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
His fiction has appeared in Anthropology and Humanism, and he has twice won the Ethnographic Fiction Prize of the S...more
More about John Colman Wood...
His fiction has appeared in Anthropology and Humanism, and he has twice won the Ethnographic Fiction Prize of the S...more
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