Euphoria

by Lily King

From New England Book Award winner Lily King comes a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the '30's caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.
English anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in the Territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers' deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband Fen, pulls him back from the brink. Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell's poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone's control.

Set between two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is an enthralling story of passion, possession, exploration, and sacrifice from accomplished author Lily King.

• ISBN10: 0802122558
• ISBN13: 9780802122551
• Publish Date: 3 June 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

I’ll say it— I really want to read the version that’s genre, where the emotions aren’t left simmering politely under the surface because Literary Fiction. Forget restraint and denial. This is loosely inspired by Margaret Mead, and from what I know of that story, real life far exceeds the half-baked, pallid, predictable love triangle here.

There’s a great book in here somewhere, but every time I thought we might get there, I was left baffled by King’s choices. It’s told from such a remove despite being (mostly) first person. Everything to do with the tribe(s) only exists for Nell/Fen/Bankson’s story. Fen (the abusive husband, natch) seems to be the only one with agency. King takes the fascinating, unconventional life of Mead and makes it as bland and conventional as possible. And the ending planted my forehead directly in my palm. Instead of reflecting real life, it’s as overwrought and cliched as a made-for-tv movie. And I’m left saying, WHY?

It looks like I’m in the minority, but truly, I’d rather read nonfiction about Mead than microwaved leftovers. It wasn’t a bad read, there’s just so much wasted potential. Ah, what could have been.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Do you remember when Elaine Benes saw The English Patient? Well, that is how I felt about Euphoria by Lily King. it was long, boring and “how bout it sucked.”

I typically like books that have romance and were based on or inspired by real persons and events. Although, like Lee Daniels’ The Butler “inspired by Margaret Mead” was used loosely.

There is a relationship between Nell (Our Margaret Mead) and a Count Laszlo de Almásy-like character. This encounter felt forced, unnatural and considering this was a focal point of the book was extraordinarily lackluster.

There is also a small fling between Nell and another woman. I wasn’t sure what the point of this was. It seemed irrelevant to the story. To me, it appeared the author was aiming for a Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore pottery moment only to fail miserably. Instead, it was as sexy as Miley Cyrus with a foam finger — ew it just didn’t work.

I wish I could say the writing and narration were good but the plot was so drawn out that it was hard to focus and Simon Vance and Xe Sands’ droning voices did not help matters.

Unfortunately, Lily King’s novel was a bust for me with the only euphoric aspect of the novel being that it was finally over.