Euphoria

I am a little bit obsessed with this book. It's funny because even at the 75% point I wasn't really sure of the point of the book. Don't get me wrong - the writing is fantastic, the story was interesting, but I was unsure of the point of the book. And then, by the end, I loved everything about it. King is a storyteller. She's a fantastic writer. I loved the impetus for her writing this book - I love how she framed it, and I love all of the characters. I finished the book and immediately ordered two biographies of Margaret Meade and one of her books. Looking back, I really think the feeling I got upon finishing the book was the euphoric feeling described in the book (the one anthropologists feel while studying individuals). I loved all the anthropology talk (and the debating about the best ways to write ethnographies (and study people). I already want to go back and read it again!

The publication of this book coincided with my recent interest in Anthropology and hence my reading of it was more pleasurable than it would otherwise be. I do recommend anyone attempting this book to do some reading on basic tenets of anthropology of indigenous tribes. Some preliminary background makes this even more fun to read. It would also be useful to learn a little bit about Margaret Mead, an American anthropologist who became famous during the interwar years, before sitting down with this book. Good news is that this is predominantly fiction! It is based on the life of Margaret Mead, appearing here as Nell Stone, but does not trace out her entire life story, probably a wise decision by Lily King. The male characters Fen, the dark-hearted Aussie, and Bankson, the gentlemanly Brit, are based on Margaret Mead’s real life husbands. I like the idea of changing the arc of life in a biographical fiction, as in this case, as it grips the reader not only from “How?” angle, but also from the “What?” angle. My sense was that the novel was somewhat truncated after Chapter 28. One could debate whether the novel had enough momentum left at that point to continue on in the civilized world. Perhaps the quick wrap-up of characters’ lives in the remaining chapters was a good way to satisfy some readers’ curiosity and also keep the novel at a commercially attractive length. There is a fair amount of authentic-sounding detail about the work habits of anthropologists and their life among indigenous tribes. However, I did not know what to make of the bits that seemed a bit forced. On page 182, we get a description of “scarification,” a ritual to make cuts to the initiate’s body and infect them with salt to get a crocodile like skin features, and Bankson’s reactions to it: “I had seen dozens of sacrifications, but it does not get any easier.” Well, perhaps this bit tells us a bit more about the tribe, reinforces Bankson’s humanistic outlook, and help complete the portrait of an anthropologist. Perhaps these are useful bits, do we absolutely have to have psychoanalytic backgrounds attached to all characters? Does that enrich them, or trivialize their pursuits? The narrative point of view alternating between Nell and Bankson propels the story forward at a good clip, while reaching back to characters’ formative years. It is a bit over the top to learn on page 107 that Nell, “as a little girl in bed at night, when other girls were wishing for ponies or roller skates, wished for a band of gypsies to climb up into her window and take her away with them to teach her their language and their customs…. She would tell her family all about these people.” Bankson’s science oriented family putting pressure on the siblings, and the elder brother being killed in the Great War, sound a bit canned. We are also given the background of Bankson’s failed suicide, perhaps following in the footsteps of his other brother, in an exquisite paragraph where his native rescuers either have no concept of suicide or never suspect it “The stones are beautiful, but leave them on land before you swim. And do not swim in clothes. This is also dangerous. And do not swim alone. Being alone you will only come to harm.” Later in the book, when Bankson mentions his failed suicide attempt to Nell, he gets no reaction from her. In a way, Bankson commits scientific suicide by getting swept into Nell’s paradigm, but she is as helpful to him on that front as the natives who rescued Bankson from his real suicide attempt. Fen’s background is related to us through his musings over an outwardly subconscious Bankson. We learn about his family’s incestuous entrapment of his younger sister by his band of brothers: ….. These traumas of his past, come to explain his violent streak! Nell thinks that “Fen didn’t want to study natives; he wanted to be a native. His attraction to anthropology was not to puzzle out the history of humanity… It was to live without shoes and eat from his hands and fart in public.” Yet, Fen is openly contemptuous of Nell’s book’s success and also materially ambitious as he arranges a raid to steal the one and only “writing” sample of indigenous tribes. Whether real or imaginary, but Fen takes his place among theoretically open-minded men who cannot bear the success of their spouses. The brewing conflict between Bankson and Fen never blows into open, the two men remain collegial to each other. What about Nell? Does she jump out of the pages of the novel? She makes a grand entrance as the wounded warrior, fearless, and selfless. Nonetheless, we see the ambition as she rejects the nearby tribes, and hence the safe harbor Bankson offers for her. We see that Nell has the courage to seek the next, never taking comfort in what she has at hand. We hear her assessment: “I love that Amy Lowell poem when I first read it, how her lover was like red wine at the beginning and then became bread. But that has not happened to me. My loves remain wine to me, yet I become too quickly bread to them.” So what are we to make of her sailing away with Fen after Fen had shown his naked ambitions, after she had slept with Bankson? Having learned that she had ditched her earlier lover, Helen, for Fen, and her desire to remain wine to her loves, what do we make of her departure with Fen, leaving Bankson behind? Was she trying to be evasive to avoid being turned into Bankson’s bread? Or was it a re-enactment of the post-conflict separation of the warrior parties, as the winner leaves with the trophy, the vanquished cry out: “Go. Go to your beautiful dance, your beautiful ceremonies. And we will buy our dead.” Could it be that Nell felt like a victor, her methodologies having unearthed a rare, female-dominated society and Fen found his proof of writing, with Bankson as the vanquished, left alone with his ineffective genealogies? Nell’s tragic decision was perhaps linked to her earlier comments on the indigenous people: “They know their ancestors have a plan for them. There’s no sense that it was wrong. Tragedy is based on this sense that there’s been a terrible mistake.” Perhaps that is reading too much into it. Perhaps my efforts to read more into it is the discomfort of observing the novel’s central character to remain the same, almost inert despite whatever happens around her. In both Fen and Bankson, we observe significant tectonic shifts in character, yet Nell remains almost numb to what is happening around her. Although she is advertised as the change agent, she herself remains steady, almost boringly predictable. Always charging forward, nagging, and haggling to get what she wants, either a piece of information or a baby. In the real life, Margaret Mead’s descriptions of a female-dominated society had been mostly discredited: her evidence could not be replicated. In the novel, Nell vanishes with her myths as well.

I usually finish a book, and write the review the next day, at the very latest. This time, I’ve been ruminating about and contemplating what to write, not agonizing, but definitely obsessing a little, for over a week. I needed this time, because I loved this story and these characters so much. Lily King is obviously a brilliant and inspired writer, and I felt the same way when I was reading Euphoria (inspired, not brilliant (I wish!)). It’s the fascinating and dramatic tale of a love triangle, set in 1930’s New Guinea. The three characters involved are anthropologists, two men and a woman. While they’re experiencing their own desire-fueled, jealous emotional turbulence, they’re exploring, and documenting the culture and customs of the Tam tribe, including the gender-bending roles and rituals between the men and women of the tribe. Nell Stone, the woman, is married to Schuyler Fenwick (Fen), and they’ve left the Mumbanyo tribe (“fierce warriors”) because Nell couldn’t relate to, or tolerate the tribe’s violent and aggressive nature. Fen, however, resents her because they left. He also resents her accomplishment. She has written a best seller, and is currently a famous anthropologist. She has kept her maiden name. He seems to feel like he’s merely regarded as Nell Stone’s husband. She wants to stay married to him. She wants very much to have a child. There have been some tragic and dark incidents involving babies, Nell’s own, and the babies of the Mumbanyo tribe. These incidents torture and haunt Nell. Let’s get the one complaint out of the way (not enough to subtract a star, or even a fraction of a star – actually, I wish I could give this book more than five stars). Sometimes the author hints darkly at an event instead of clearly explaining. She infers. Now, some literary-type readers prefer the subtlety of inferences. I admire those who understand them. I do not consider them posers. I love the ambiguities and possibilities of an unanswered (or unanswerable) question. But, in this instance, and some others, I wish I knew more about what happened before the story opens, especially Fen’s dark past, as part of a huge family, living in isolation in the Australian outback. I’m pretty sure about the type of behaviors that this one, dark hint refers to, but not entirely sure. The resulting twist in Fen’s character, however, is more important than the particular, salacious details of his nefarious family history, and his acceptance and expectation of evil and violence in every civilization steers his actions as an adult anthropologist living with the tribes along the banks of the Sepik River (“flamboyantly serpentine, the Amazon of the South Pacific” – see? Isn’t she brilliant?). Of the three main characters, Fen is the only one who doesn’t have a narrative voice. The reader only knows him through the first person narration of Andrew Bankson, and the third person limited narration of his wife, Nell Stone (loosely based on the real-life anthropologist Margaret Mead). We only get to hear his voice through dialogue and observe his actions. He’s the least sympathetic character throughout. Although I did not love him as a person, I loved the creation of him, the complexity of his sometimes-evil nature. And, I understood him, although I could never empathize with him. I’ve met him many times, here in the real world. He reminds me of so many men I’ve known well. He’s Australian, but in many ways, like an American man. So, let’s get on with my love letter to Lily King. I plunged under, into the world she created with her words, and did not care to come up for air, ever. I once had a writing teacher who told us to create a list when we got “stuck”. Here’s the best list I’ve ever read (describing Andrew Bankson’s past): “The house I grew up in there, Hemsley House, had been in the possession of Bankson scientists for three generations, its every desktop, drawer, and wardrobe stuffed with scientist’s remnants: spyglasses, test tubes, finger scales, pocket magnifiers, loupes, compasses, and a brass telescope; boxes of glass slides, and ento pins, geodes, fossils, bones, teeth, petrified wood, framed beetles and butterflies, and thousands of loose insect carcasses that turned to powder upon contact.” A positively Dickensian list, but better, less preposterously wordy and more utilitarian. I wanted to walk through Hemsley House, and touch those things. In a way, I felt like I had. I could go on and on. I underlined passages and made notations in the margins. I lived inside these pages. There are so many layers, and so many insights and ideas to explore and rethink. I keep going back. After all, anthropology is the study of humans and their lives, their relationships to each other and to their environment, their art, their chronicles. It’s everything. I keep going back to a diagram (a “grid”) that Fen, Andrew and Nell create together, categorizing personalities into the four main directions on a compass. You don’t have to be just North, South, East, or West, though, you can be a Northwest personality, or a Southeast personality. This novel is so complex and so deep. It asks so many beautifully unanswerable questions. Above all, this story leaves the reader with a way to look at, appreciate and observe cultures that are highly civilized, but considered to be primitive and inferior to traditional Western culture. These characters view anthropology through a wide, panoramic lens, a zoom lens, a microscopic lens, and just about any other lens you can think of, including no lens, just immersion. It’s also about how our ideas, like our children, take on a life of their own once they’re launched out into the world. You can take aim, but you have no control after they’re flying free. It’s about how we think and work as individuals and how we work collectively. It’s about everything that’s important in life.

I was impressed by the amount of research King put into this novel, loosely inspired by the lives of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. It made me think of Andrea Barrett's wonderful work which also draws from key scientific figures and movements. I found King's character development to be an interesting study of culture and temperament depicted through individuals rather than groups, the novelist playing a role alongside her anthropologist characters. I appreciated the nuanced sense of how colonization and appropriation operated on many levels, and how exploitation could involve very different groups of people with different motivations. Government officials, capitalist entrepreneurs, missionaries and scientific researchers make strange bedfellows but can operate similarly at times, nonetheless. This is a romantic novel, sometimes bordering on melodrama which is the main reason I gave it only three stars. I puzzled over my response because the main characters' star-crossed passion for each other and their intellectual "euphoria" was certainly plausible. I think the need to convey some basic anthropological concepts and history perhaps took some focus off the kind of character development that might make the passion depicted more contagious. Melodrama generally demands more emotional response than the reader can actually feel when action and characterization aren't fully developed . So there were a few moments in the book like that for me, but overall I enjoyed the book and it made me want to read anthropology again. I also wanted to learn more about the actual Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, so no matter how you measure success, I can say the book succeeded by sparking my curiosity.

I enjoyed this book and learning about the work of these anthropologists. The story was a little slow in the middle. The final scene is brilliant and the final line a treasure.

For several decades intrepid individuals with college degrees set out to study “primitives”, groups or tribes of people who lived in remote areas in mostly tropical climates. This field was called anthropology, but living, observing and documenting the details of these people’s lives was a new approach to a study that had previously been based on studies of artifacts. It was a very controversial approach, as are all procedures that try to improve on an established order. Did the very fact that a scientist was present in the culture, living there, conducting interviews, and interacting affect the culture so much that any finding would be completely compromised? After Nell Stone published her controversial study describing the sexual behavior of children in Kirakira, and other important aspects of that culture, her book became an enormous success. (Think Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead.) Nell Stone, an American, marries another anthropologist Schuyler Fenwick, an Aussie, and they are fleeing a rather aggressive native New Guinea group, giving up all their research because the tribe’s aggression makes Nell afraid. This group had been cannibals, surely enough to make anyone nervous, but the government did not allow cannibalism now. However, this tribal group had broken into two warring groups and so on Christmas Eve, 1938, Nell and Fen leave and make a stop for the night at a small hotel on their way to Australia. There they meet Andrew Bankson, who narrates the rest of this story. Both Nell and Bankson stick to the protocol they have learned to use to keep their data as unsullied as possible. They are not with these people to live with them, but rather to observe them and record as many aspects of their culture as possible. Bankson said: “how we believed we could be objective in any way at all, we who each came with our own personal definitions of kindness, strength, masculinity, femininity God, civilization, right and wrong.” Nell said: “We’re always in everything we do in this world, limited by subjectivity. But our perspective can have an enormous wingspan, if we give it freedom to unfurl. Fen does not actually follow the protocol of the objective observer. He learns languages easily and he dives right in and practically lives with the men. He takes his notes after the fact. Nell carries her notebook with her at all times and writes down everything. Fen focuses on religion and religious items, ceremonies and warfare genealogy. Nell focuses on economics, food, government, social structure and child-rearing. Bankson, with no partner, must do it all. This book is dense with the details of a social science and the passion of native peoples, and a devastating romantic triangle. Fen has a temper. He is jealous, possessive and very competitive. He wants to earn a name and fame that will outshine that of his wife. By the end you may wonder who the savages are or if human interactions have become any less primitive under our coating of civilization. Euphoria is the title of Lily King’s novel and the word also describes the feeling anthropologists get when they think they understand what makes the group they are observing tick. But there is more than one kind of euphoria happening in this little gem of a novel inspired by Margaret Mead and by the ethnographies which became everyone’s passion for a while, until there were no unknown peoples left to explore. These anthropologists, while going through all the biological imperatives all young people experience did so in strange and dangerous corners of the world with a thin veneer of scientific method to keep them in line. They probably ended up exposing quite a lot about modern life to these primitive people. Often, when able to establish rapport these anthropologists discovered that these primitives were human in every sense of the word. They were simply isolated. This is not something we knew when the whole business started. Euphoria by Lily King made me euphoric. Truthfully, I didn’t even notice the writing; there was just the story. This kind of novel based on history makes it hard to guess what Lily King will tackle next, but I bet it will turn out to be another very good read.

This is my second Lily King novel (which I'm reading for book club) and while I definitely liked it, I didn't love it as much as her newest novel Writers and Lovers, which I read earlier this year and loved. Of course, this one was beautifully written, with breathtaking, evocative prose that flowed seamlessly, which is a writing style I've come to expect from Lily King. With that said though, this was actually a bit of a tedious read for me, especially the first half of it, mostly because I found it difficult to engage with the subject matter (which I'll get into later). The story revolves around three talented anthropologists — Nell Stone, Schuyler Fenwick (Fen), and Andrew Bankson — who spend much of their time living among the tribes of the South Pacific (along the Sepik River in New Guinea) in order to research them. Nell has already established a name for herself in the field, having written a book that was well-received and made her famous. Her husband Fen is intelligent but has an aggressive personality, which gets further aggravated as he feels more and more overshadowed by his wife's success and by her magnetic personality. Bankson is a fellow anthropologist studying the Kiona tribe along the River, and after being rescued from the brink of suicide by the couple, he becomes drawn to them. Over the course of the few months they spend together, their collective brilliance helps them produce their best work (which only becomes apparent later), but at the same time, they develop an intimate yet fiery relationship that ends up spiraling out of control and ultimately threatens to consume them. As I mentioned earlier, it was hard for me to get into the story at first, mostly because I had no interest whatsoever in anthropology (or any of the sciences for that matter). With Lily King's writing here so incredibly atmospheric, plus the research was so well-done, there were many detailed descriptions that honestly ended up going a bit over my head. To this point, I guess it also didn't really help that much of the story was the "slow burn" type where the focus was more on character than plot (though actually these are usually the types of stories I love). So in a sense, I technically only truly engaged with the story a little after the halfway mark when things started actually happening. Having said that, I couldn't put the book down after that and pretty much read through to the end in one sitting. Lily King states in her Author's Note that this story was inspired by Margaret Mead and a moment described in a 1984 biography the famous anthropologist, but the story itself is a completely different one and does not in any way mirror Mead's real life experiences. Even so, after I finished reading this book, I was fascinated enough with the story that I couldn't help doing further research of my own and looking up some information about Mead so I could better understand the inspiration behind the scenes. For me, this is the beauty of historical fiction, especially the well-written kind, where the story impacts me in such a way that I feel compelled to do follow up reading and/or research on my own. Overall, I definitely enjoyed this one, as I found the writing enthralling and though a word of warning that there are some graphic, explicit descriptions in here that might be a turn off for some. For me personally, I love the way Lily King writes and so the overall experience was well worth the effort, despite a few uncomfortable scenes here and there. King actually has a new short story collection out this month, which I can't wait to get my hands on (it's been pre-ordered and should arrive at the end of this month). I also intend to continue exploring her backlist, which will take some time, but I know will be well worth the effort.

Brief summary and review, no spoilers. This novel is fictionalization of the lives of Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune and Gregory Bateson. The three anthropologists in reality spent a few months together in 1933 on the Sepik River in New Guinea but the account of what went on in this terrific novel has been changed by the author. In this way we may not know what actually occurred, but we get a good feel for what these people were like and what motivated them. In this story, the woman anthropologist who is named Nell, is married to another anthropologist referred to as "Fen." When the story starts, they run into a third anthropologist named Bankson. Bankson had been by himself for a long time and was lonely and had contemplated suicide. He is a sensitive (and wonderful) character who is trying to find meaning in his work and in his life, and he immediately falls in love with Nell. Nell and Fed and just come from studying and living with a fearsome tribe called the Mumbanyo. Nell is obviously sick and hurt but she is so dedicated to her work that she continues on seemingly obviously to her problems. Fen, her husband, seems a little insensitive to her problems at the same time, he seems to genuinely care for her and they are trying to have a child together. Nell had become famous for writing an anthropology book about sexual mores and conduct among the tribes she was studying with a focus on the differences in the behavior and power between females and males. This book had become wildly popular in the United States and she was famous - to the consternation of her husband Fen. Shortly after meeting, there is an obvious connection between Bankson and Nell - and between other parties as well. In fact one of the things the book does is show us is the universality and and complexity of sexuality, role models and gender identification. Whether among "civilized" westerners or aborigines in the wild. As the book goes on, Nell and Fen are studying a new tribe with the help of Bankson who is with a different tribe nearby. We see the complex relationship between the three. We also witness the various social constructs and behaviors of the different tribes and the difficulty for any culture to truly understand another. Important to the story is a flute - a flute that had supposedly contained writing from one of these tribes. I won't say more about this but it becomes important later on in the story. This is a really fine book. I have my B.A. in Anthropology and back in the day when I got my degree, we read a lot of Margaret Mead. Although I don't remember so much sexuality in her books, I do remember that she did broach the subject and talk about matriarchies - all sort of groundbreaking for that time. This novel is told from two points of view - that of Bankson and that of Nell. In this way we go back and forth in time, sometimes for very short chapters where it may take a few seconds to figure out who is narrating. It's an effective method. What's really terrific about this book is that it really gives you a feel for the experiences of early anthropologists like Mead and others. You go right into the jungle with them, and feel their physical discomfort and pain and the sacrifices they made for science and for their own intellectual curiosity. I wanted to add that I thought the denouement of the book was just terrific - it really left me thinking about it afterwards. Recommended.

A couple of newly married Anthropologists, Fen, the groom, and Nellie, the bride, were studying New Guinea tribes in the early 1930's. Soon, Schuyler Fenwick, a Brit, and Nell Stone, an American as they were known professionally, met up with a colleague named Bankson. He also studied different tribes along the same river. Although their training was similar, their goals were very different. This book describes the tribes, the goals of these anthropologists and the day-to-day life amongst these tribes believed to be primitive. It also brings the characters of these scientists into play. The acknowledgments section of this book that the author was initially inspired by another book, Margaret Mead: A Life, and later she read anything she could concerning the anthropologists, Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson, when they spent a few months together in 1933 on the Sepik River of New Guinea. The book is fiction, and the tribes are fictional as well as most of the villages and places. But, I for one, was drawn into the life in the villages, the tribal people, especially the woman, and of course relationships among the three anthropologists. This was a fascinating read, written by a wonderful author, Lily King.

Very good.

WOW! A pageturner! Now I need to read Margret Mead in original! A book sooo sensual - fragrance, heat, sound heartbeat, awe - all there!

I JUST LOVED THE BOOK. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I am not a fan of romance--I am usually turned off a book when the major conflict revolves around romance (unless the author is Jane Austen or a Bronte). But this book is different--it is amazing. The story it tells feels more real than the reality it is very loosely based on--and it is clear that the author did a lot of anthropological and historical research, and did it well.