Making anthropology sexy: Euphoria

Euphoria, Lily King

  

Fast Facts

• Based loosely on a steamy summer in the life of Margaret Mead, an anthropologist researching and living amongst river tribes in New Guinea
• Presents a love triangle heavily stacked against the heroine's husband
• Listed on the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2014
• A sexy love story mixed with mystery and exoticism
• At 256 pages, certainly worth the read

Background

When you meet successful American anthropologist and author Nell, without a doubt the idealized heroine of the book, she is on a canoe with her Australian anthropologist husband Fen in New Guinea.  She and Fen are traveling along the Sepik River in search of their next study project, having fled the Mumbanyo, a river tribe characterized as cruel and cannibalistic.

Shifting in perspective, time, and narrative format, the story follows Nell as she and Fen begin studying the Tam, an isolated tribe notable for the social dominance of its women, and the absence of the village hero, the beloved Xambun.

And in a nutshell - love, lust, upheaval and disaster ensue.

Euphoric?  I'll say...

From the start, something about Nell and Fen's relationship feels off - a charged tension related to Nell's greater professional accomplishments, their struggle to have a child, and an air of mystery surrounding Fen.  

Of course, these marital tensions are amplified by the backdrop of heated jungle and tribal customs and the arrival of a famed British anthropologist named Andrew Bankson, who in the throes of depression becomes quickly obsessed with Nell and entangled in their marriage and work.

The scene is set for impossible love and a forbidden affair and unrequited passions and the threat of violence, all as these social scientists embark on morally questionable research in the summer of 1933, with World War II lurking just over the horizon.  

King immediately throws you into a thrilling set-up, and a finely crafted delivery.  You barely realize that you're holding your breath as you turn the pages.

Bottom Line

There is a remarkable amount of heft in this relatively short story, and I've found myself thinking about it since I've finished, particularly the disturbing, page-turning conclusion.  How much is accurately based on Mead's life?  How much is accurately based on the tribes in New Guinea?

Lingering thoughts and questions are a sign of a good read, even if Bankson's narration and whininess grated on my nerves at times.  Euphoria deserved the NYT Book Review commendation, and I'll definitely keep an eye on what other work King has in store.