EUPHORIA by Lily King

4 Stars

Being alone is bad, but being left behind is unbearable. There are moments we can distract ourselves, but when they're gone it is miserable.

Yes, I did pick this because of the cover--Gorgeous! But then I scanned reviews and saw my friend Katie had beat me to it, and her comments are what sent me to click the button. It was a great story based on the intersection of three individuals and their accounts of native tribes in New Guinea during the Interwar period.

How can I describe it except as beautifully tragic.

"Was she wine or bread to you?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"It's from an Amy Lowell poem we all loved in college. Wine is sort of thrilling and sensual, bread is familiar and essential."

There is so much loss in this. Characters still reeling from the catastrophic losses of World War I and drifting inexorably into WWII. In many ways, Fen, Andy and Nell are fleeing the modern world and those pressures, but each has their own motivations.

History hung suspended for months. I took solace in the not knowing.

The indigenous tribes being compressed and forced into Western ideals while the observers watch the effects of change. Even their presence living amongst them is a catalyst. The arguing among the three as to the nature of their work and their interpretations is very interesting.

I suppose a reader could take this as an armchair novel, but it's really not. It's filled with issues of self agency and oppression. The prose is lovely, so lovely that the horror creeps in on silent feet. It's always there, waiting for you to notice.

They want to tell their stories[...], they just don't always know how.

I recommend this book. If you read this review, then read the blurb and decide for yourself, but I think if you got to the end of this with any level of curiosity then you might enjoy it.