From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Euphoria

Lily King

Start date: October 15, 2016

Finish date: November 1, 2016

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Mary Anne

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What Members Thought

Jan 24, 2015 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: location-papua-new-guinea, anthropology, read2015, around-the-world, worldlit2015, location-new-guinea

I had a review copy of this book for months last year and now I'm kicking myself for never getting into it. At the same time, it fits perfectly into my month of reading books from and about New Guinea, so the bookish universe must have known I needed to wait.

I've read several novels about anthropologists - some I loved, like Mating by Norman Rush, and some I liked slightly less but still enjoyed, like State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

In Euphoria, Lily King takes the person of Margaret Mead and he I had a review copy of this book for months last year and now I'm kicking myself for never getting into it. At the same time, it fits perfectly into my month of reading books from and about New Guinea, so the bookish universe must have known I needed to wait.

I've read several novels about anthropologists - some I loved, like Mating by Norman Rush, and some I liked slightly less but still enjoyed, like State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

In Euphoria, Lily King takes the person of Margaret Mead and her first research in New Guinea and that becomes the basis of her novel (she doesn't say this within the novel but it is pretty obvious, and others have pointed it out as well.) I have a copy of Growing Up in New Guinea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education coming my way, so I will have the experience of dipping into her actual writings. The field of anthropology was in its infancy in the 1930s, and that is well reflected in this novel. The characters question themselves and are questioned by the others in their lives.

"I asked her if she believed you could ever truly understand another culture. I told her the longer I stayed, the more asinine the attempt seemed, and that what I'd become more interested in is how we believed we could be objective in any way at all, we who each came in with our own personal definitions of kindness, strength, masculinity, femininity, God, civilization, right and wrong."

Lily King also gets quite a bit of PNG culture right, and some of it she stretches in a pretty believable way. Especially in the 1930s, anthropologists had to take what they were given, and often got it wrong (or didn't get the whole picture.) What she gets more right is the isolation and difficulties of anthropologists in the field, and how they might relate to one another when they are so needful of contact. Although I'm not sure anyone, anyone could successfully transport two desks and a mattress that far up the Sepik River (small detail.)

"And now I am engulfed in this new flavor, so different from the light but humorless flavor of the Anapa and the thick bitter taste of the Mumbanyo, this rich deep resonant complex flavor that I am only getting my first sips of and yet how do I explain these differences to an average American who will take one look at the photographs and see black men & women with bones through their noses and lump them in a pile marked Savages?"

There is even an element of self-examination, why does the anthropologist do the work? What is he/she looking for? These are fictional anthropologists but I have often found this in the books I've read by journalists and researchers who travel deep into New Guinea. Michael Rockefeller, Carl Hoffman, Kira Salak so far.

"I think above all else it is freedom I search for in my work, in these far-flung places, to find a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be. And maybe I will never find it all in one culture but maybe I can find parts of it in several cultures, maybe I can piece it together like a mosaic and unveil it to the world. But the world is deaf."

"When only one person is the expert on a particular people, do we learn more about the people or the anthropologist?"

The intense focus on research is interesting, the relationship triangle is compelling, and the differences in tribes along one river is fascinating. ...more

35 likes · Like · see review

Mar 10, 2015 Kate rated it really liked it

A really interesting read based partly on the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead and her work in New Guinea. Euphoria is one of those books that asks you to think about the roles men and women play, but also the roles these anthropologists played in the lives of the tribes they studied. What I liked about this book was that it didn't end the way I expected it to. It surprised me. ...more

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Apr 23, 2018 Inder rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: culture, fiction, 21st-century, read-2018

I really enjoyed this page-turning fictionalized account of anthropologist Margaret Mead in Papua New Guinea. I have some mild reservations, but overall the portrayal was thoughtful, compelling, and well done. If the story had stayed closer to real life, I actually think I would have felt more critical of the fictionalized elements, but because the story goes in a very different direction than Mead's, I could accept more poetic/literary license overall. I was left wanting to get back into readin ...more

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Sep 15, 2015 Joyce rated it liked it

Shelves: 100-nyt-books, book-club-choice

Great discussion with friends about a book that I gave a great deal of thought about. I struggle with historical fiction and I did not care for the twist given to Margaret Mead's story. Then I went back and re-read the beginning and recognized this was really the story of a man's view of a woman and that allowed me to see this in a better, more forgiving light. ...more

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