Book Review: Euphoria by Lily King
Euphoria Lily King Picador, 2014 (I own a copy courtesy the publisher) 9781473534991 In the deepest part of the rainforest, a lone anthropologist named Andrew Bankson decides that he can no longer go on living, and wades into the Kiona River with his pockets full of rocks. Moments before he drowns, he is pulled from the river by a native man, who laughs and tells him he had better be careful and clear the rocks out of his pockets before he goes swimming, lest he should accidentally drown. Thus Bankson is prevented from killing himself, and not long after, he is informed of the arrival of two more European anthropologists. Desperately lonely, he goes to meet them, and everything changes. Partly inspired by the life of Margaret Mead, Euphoria is a book which uses anthropologists as characters in order not to study a foreign culture, but to study our own. The book takes place in the 1930s, and in the shadow of the second world war, which seems imminent. ...