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Hosted by Goodreads Indonesia at Pasar Festival, Kuningan. Great event, me, Nulisbuku.com and other writers + book lovers are having a great time!
Hosted by Goodreads Indonesia at Pasar Festival, Kuningan. Great event, me, Nulisbuku.com and other writers + book lovers are having a great time!
Hosted by Goodreads Indonesia at Pasar Festival, Kuningan. Great event, me, Nulisbuku.com and other writers + book lovers are having a great time!
4/8/26 My Goodreads review:
Potential spoilers below! I don't think they are, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone because this book really is such a treat from start to finish.
Girls be like, "I needed this," and it's literally just a brilliant novel they feel compelled to inhale in a few sittings and unlocks a younger version of themselves via a very niche interest that's also a period piece.
Love love LOVE. I borrowed this from a pile on my book bestie's desk, and barely read the jacket description beyond, "Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead..." I immediately knew this was for ME. And was it ever.
Set primarily along the tribal villages of New Guinea's Sepik River, married anthropologists Nell Stone and Schuyler Fenwick (aka Fen) are heading to Victoria, Australia to study the Aborigines in the early 1930s. At a Christmas Eve party at the Angoram Club, they meet British anthropologist Andrew Bankson, who introduces them to a different tribe along the Sepik, the (fictional) Tam. As Nell and Fen carry out their research amongst the Tam and Andrew continues his amongst the (also fictional) Kiona, a love triangle develops.
Nell has published a successful book based on her research in the Solomon Islands. Andrew deeply admires Nell's research strategies and methodologies, which all seem to lead with love and care from Nell towards her informants. Nell and Andrew's conversations reflect philosophical viewpoints about anthropology itself, with colonialism looming heavily and unavoidably. Nell's husband Fen can be considered an embodiment of that colonialism, oozing with possessiveness, hunger for power, and proclivity for violence (so basically, toxic masculinity and id).
Nell and Andrew learn from each other, and as in the best works of art, they learn to love. Of course, Fen becomes more selfish and violent as his jealousy of Nell's success grows darker. Things take a deadly turn in more ways than one.
One of the book club discussion questions whether Nell's work with the people of the tribes is as selfish as Fen's needs for recognition, which he aims to fulfill via theft of a flute. Are all anthropologists ultimately betraying those people they study? I say it's a situation where many things can be true.
Based on the legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead (Nell) and two of her real-life husbands, Reo Fortune (Fen) and Gregory Bateson (Andrew). Immediately after finishing this book, I revisited Margaret Mead's Wikipedia article to reacquaint myself with the source material and inspiration.
I wouldn't even be a little upset if this puts me into an anthropology reading bender. Anthropology was one of my majors in college because I genuinely loved it - I never skipped class because it was all fascinating (excluding one or two professors, of course). This novel brought me back to a version of myself that I'm still proud of, one that's able to apply scientific research methods and analytical thought processes to satisfy my curiosity.