Euphoria

Dear Reader,

I am so happy it's November because it means Lily King Month has officially begun! I'm so excited to share Ms. King's writing with you. Every week this month, I will review one of her books and on the last week, I will feature an interview with Ms. King. If you have any questions for her, please email them to me at abbysbookreviews@yahoo.com or post them in the comment section below.

Happy November and Happy Reading!

Abby

Genre: Fiction

This is the story of Nell and Fen, anthropologists studying native tribes in New Guinea in the early 1930’s. The husband and wife team are looking for a new tribe to settle with and learn about when they meet Andrew Bankson, also an anthropologist, who has lived with a tribe near the Sepik River for some time now. Andrew, who suffers from loneliness and depression, helps his new friends settle in to their new home with a new tribe. Slowly, the three become close friends (perhaps too close) and what has started as an effort to learn about a new tribe has slowly transformed into them learning about themselves. This story, based on the life of the researcher, Margaret Meade, is one of love, friendship and learning that no matter where we live in this world and who we are, the urge to love, protect and find truth resides in us all.

I read this book once and then listened to it on audio once (the actors narrating this book are phenomenal, in particular Nell) and after having just written the above description, I want to read it all over again. Here, King achieves it all: characters with depth, an intriguing storyline, teaching the reader about new and different worlds and a really entertaining read.

King does an amazing job striking a balance of teaching her readers about this new tribe, but also weaving the stories of these three complex and interesting characters so seamlessly into the storyline that I felt lulled into the story like the flow of the river surrounding the characters.

I think good authors fall into a few different categories. Some are wordsmiths. They can describe everything from the mundane to the sublime in the most particularly satisfying way. Others are really good at describing feelings or emotions. One of my favorites in that category is Fredrik Backman. He has a way of clearing out all the noise to zero in on just the right way to describe his character’s feelings. And then there’s King. King, who should have been an anthropologist herself, possesses a talent for describing life events, from the most mundane, like using the bathroom, to the most profound, like childbirth, in simple terms and has a way of elevating the human experience.

To say that I liked this book is an understatement. This book is so eloquently profound in its simplicity. I loved it a thousand times over. Please read this one. It’s most definitely going on my book shelf (see my Tiny Beautiful Things review)!