BOTM May 2024 The People in the Trees

[Celia]

The People in the Trees is the 2013 debut novel of author Hanya Yanagihara. Yanagihara stated that her book was in part inspired by Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who was revered in the scientific community before being accused of child molestation.

The bulk of the novel is made up of the fictional memoirs of Dr. Abraham Norton Perina, a scientific researcher who discovers a turtle with life-prolonging qualities on the fictional island of Ivu'ivu.

Yanagihara based the physical look and shape of Ivu'ivu on Angra dos Reis. The book received critical acclaim

[Amanda]

I just finished this one and gave it 5 stars based on the writing quality, intrigue, success at weaving magical realism into the bones of the true story, and way it explored themes like morality and science, deconstructing the 'lone scientific genius' trope and the toxicity and horror this enables if left unchecked, colonist ideals in science, and other deep themes.

I won't say more until others have had a chance to read, but looking forward to see if others get to this one and how they interpreted it.

[Gail]

This is one disturbing read and yet the author manages to walk a line that keeps you engaged although our two narrators, the Main Character and his colleague who writes in the footnotes, are unreliable and morally suspect. From the introduction we know that the "tropical paradise" theme is going to be trashed and that we are going to witness the western scientific greed that will destroy all it comes in contact with, but this book does it in such a unique and personal way as we meet an ensemble of characters. The magical realism horror is reined in so that one is constantly disturbed but not pulled out of the story. A book that demonstrates an amazing balance.
And it checks off Micronesia

[GailW]

Apologies. I stopped reading it. Not because of the writing. Mainly because I have been reading quite a bit of "disturbing" topics as of late and decided I needed to pull back for now. It's still on my list!

[Gail]

I have to admit, this book was incredibly disturbing on many levels so I totally support your deciding to shelf it for now.