In the not so distant dystopian future, women can no longer hold jobs, learn to read or write, carry money, and they are limited to 100 spoken words per day - monitored by a wristband all the girls and women have to wear. Dr. Jean McClellan is a wife, mother and former linguistics expert who is forcibly recruited to resume her old research on Wernicke’s Aphasia when the President’s brother incurs a brain injury while skiing. The research team includes Lorenzo, Jean’s former lover, and sparks quickly fly when the two are reunited. The research team soon realizes that another, more sinister government plan is underfoot. This book is reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale or The Hunger Games although nowhere near as good. It was a very easy read. The chapters with Jean’s family and Lorenzo are fleshed out, but I could have used a few extra paragraphs explaining the technical parts - the research lab, the government’s doings. I guess it didn’t matter, I got the gist of it anyway.
Euphoria by Lily King
This is a fictional tale of three young anthropologists, Nell Stone, her husband Schuyler Fenwick “Fen”, and their new friend Andrew Bankson. The story takes place on the island of New Guinea (north of Australia) in the 1930’s. This was a heyday for anthropologists; they basically boated upriver, claimed tribes to research, and settled right in. Nell is loosely based on anthropologist Margaret Mead, on whom the author did an immense amount of research. The central theme is the main characters’ love triangle, unfolding in the steamy jungle with the tribal activity going on around them. Fen’s ego was already suffering, as Nell achieves international acclaim for her work. When Bankson enters the picture, Fen can sense the immediate connection between Bankson and Nell - tensions rise. In a rash attempt to boost his ego and anthropological reputation, Fen does something that puts all of their lives in danger. This book is well written, draws you in; it’s intellectual and engrossing at the same time.
What have you been reading lately?
I read Euphoria. It kept my attention between the love triangle and the anthropology aspect of fascinating tribes. I just finished a Handmaid's Tale. That was enough on the suppression topic for me! Now I am reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. She has written 3 novels and they are all fantastic page turners!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by my blog. I can empathize with the weather as I lived in Massachusetts my entire life until relocating to South Carolina in August. There are tons of New York transplants here. The weather is incredible.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I own Vox - I won it in a contest and guess what - no time to read (yet). I've read both The Handsmaid Tale ( many, many years ago) and The Hunger Games (the best, I think, of the trilogy. It also brought me into YA lit, and I've read some good YA books over the years.) I find myself more and more impatient with books - if they don't hook me right away I will skip around a bit and if that doesn't work, they become DNF. I've loved the SF and dystopian genres for years - I'd like to give a shoutout to Station 11 by Emily St.John Mandel as the best I've read in recent years. My recent reading is skimming through books on herb gardening and potpourri. I know I'll get back to fiction reading at some point. Euphoria may hold some interest for me as I was a cultural anthropology major in college.
ReplyDelete