Review: Euphoria (by Lily King)

My Rating: 4 stars

This is my second Lily King novel (which I'm reading for book club) and while I definitely liked it, I didn't love it as much as  her newest novel Writers and Lovers, which I read earlier this year and loved.  Of course, this one was beautifully written, with breathtaking, evocative prose that flowed seamlessly, which is a writing style I've come to expect from Lily King.   With that said though, this was actually a bit of a tedious read for me, especially the first half of it, mostly because I found it difficult to engage with the subject matter (which I'll get into later).

The story revolves around three talented anthropologists — Nell Stone, Schuyler Fenwick (Fen), and Andrew Bankson — who spend much of their time living among the tribes of the South Pacific (along the Sepik River in New Guinea) in order to research them.  Nell has already established a name for herself in the field, having written a book that was well-received and made her famous.  Her husband Fen is intelligent but has an aggressive personality, which gets further aggravated as he feels more and more overshadowed by his wife's success and by her magnetic personality.  Bankson is a fellow anthropologist studying the Kiona tribe along the River, and after being rescued from the brink of suicide by the couple, he becomes drawn to them.  Over the course of the few months they spend together, their collective brilliance helps them produce their best work (which only becomes apparent later), but at the same time, they develop an intimate yet fiery relationship that ends up spiraling out of control and ultimately threatens to consume them.

As I mentioned earlier, it was hard for me to get into the story at first, mostly because I had no interest whatsoever in anthropology (or any of the sciences for that matter). With Lily King's writing here so incredibly atmospheric, plus the research was so well-done, there were many detailed descriptions that honestly ended up going a bit over my head.  To this point, I guess it also didn't really help that much of the story was the "slow burn" type where the focus was more on character than plot (though actually these are usually the types of stories I love).  So in a sense, I technically only truly engaged with the story a little after the halfway mark when things started actually happening.  Having said that, I couldn't put the book down after that and pretty much read through to the end in one sitting.

Lily King states in her Author's Note that this story was inspired by Margaret Mead and a moment described in a 1984 biography the famous anthropologist, but the story itself is a completely different one and does not in any way mirror Mead's real life experiences.  Even so, after I finished reading this book, I was fascinated enough with the story that I couldn't help doing further research of my own and looking up some information about Mead so I could better understand the inspiration behind the scenes. For me, this is the beauty of historical fiction, especially the well-written kind, where the story impacts me in such a way that I feel compelled to do follow up reading and/or research on my own.  

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this one, as I found the writing enthralling and though a word of warning that there are some graphic, explicit descriptions in here that might be a turn off for some.  For me personally, I love the way Lily King writes and so the overall experience was well worth the effort, despite a few uncomfortable scenes here and there.  King actually has a new short story collection out this month, which I can't wait to get my hands on (it's been pre-ordered and should arrive at the end of this month).  I also intend to continue exploring her backlist, which will take some time, but I know will be well worth the effort.

Review: Writers and Lovers (by Lily King)

My Rating:  5 stars

Lily King's newest novel Writers and Lovers came out last year and even though I'd never read her works before, so many of my reader friends recommended this one to me that I ended up buying a copy with the hopes of getting to it soon (but of course, didn't get a chance to unfortunately). Therefore, when one of my book clubs chose this for our read of the month, I knew this was the best opportunity to finally pick this one up, so I made sure to schedule it in for this month, no matter what.  I'm so happy I did, as I ended up loving this one so much!   

I enjoy reading stories about characters who go on some type of personal journey of self-discovery and eventually they come into their own, where they either realize their full potential or recognize something about themselves that they were previously unaware of (or had been suppressing to the point that they don't remember its existence).  This was certainly the case for this story's main character Casey Peabody, a thirty-one year old aspiring writer struggling through the many challenges of her life, including (but not limited to):  a writing career that might be over before it ever officially takes off, a waitressing job that enables her to pay the rent on the moldy little shed that she lives in but sucks the life and joy out of her, mountains of debt from student loans that have rendered her poor and broke, potential health issues from not being able to afford to see a doctor in years, etc (yes, that's not even all of it). Emotionally, she is a wreck, as she's not only reeling from a recent failed relationship and breakup, she is also grieving for her mother, who died suddenly and unexpectedly while on a trip.  Aside from her brother Caleb, who lives thousands of miles away, Casey only has 2 friends left: Muriel, a fellow writer who stuck with the profession and actually became successful, and Harry, her eccentric co-worker at the restaurant she waitresses for — having these two friends to confide in seems to be the only "positive" thing that Casey has got going for her at the moment.  Lost and trying to find herself, Casey meets two fellow writers — Silas, a young, poor, struggling writer just like herself, and Oscar, an older, much more accomplished writer who was recently widowed, left to raise 2 charming little boys on his own — and finds herself torn between the two men, which only adds more stress to her life.  

Casey is a character whom I connected with on so many levels, even though our lives and backgrounds couldn't be more different.  For me, the part I was able to relate to the most was Casey's determination in continuing to pursue her writing despite the odds, and even with everything seemingly working against her.  As a once-aspiring writer myself who got sidelined by the realities of life (not to mention also buried under mountains of debt) and has since given up all hope of pursuing a writing career, I admire Casey's persistence as well as her ability to stay true to herself despite everything she is up against.  I wish I'd had the fortitude and the drive she did when faced with so many challenges all at the same time. One of the scenes from the book that resonated most with me was when Casey is sitting at her desk staring at what she's written so far and reflecting on the encounter she just had with her jerk of a landlord Adam, who had insulted her with "I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say"...though she doesn't respond to his face, she tells us (the readers) this:  "I don't write because I think I have something to say.  I write because if I don't, everything feels even worse."  Reading this line brought tears to my eyes because it summed up so perfectly my own personal writing journey — for me, writing is therapy of sorts, it's a way for me to cope with difficult situations and an outlet that helps me "deal with" some of the real-life issues bogging me down physically, mentally, and emotionally. So many of the struggles that Casey experiences on her writing journey, I've also experienced at some point in my own life.  The connection I felt to Casey definitely made her an easy character to root for, even during the moments when I disagreed with some of the decisions she made.

One of the other things I loved about this book was the writing, which I found to be exquisite and beautiful in the way it brought forth Casey's voice and personality.  The book's jacket summary states that Lily King wrote this story with her "trademark humor, heart, and intelligence" which perfectly describes how I feel about what King was able to accomplish here.  Having Casey narrate the story from her own first person perspective was very fitting and worked so well here.  I loved Casey's "voice" in this story, specifically the way she would never be afraid to admit her own vulnerabilities, but most of all, how she was still able to maintain her sense of humor even when so many things were going wrong in her life. 

It's not often that I read a book where I had too many favorite scenes to count — this book was definitely one of them!  In addition to all the scenes where Casey interacts with Oscar's two boys (both of whom were super-cute!), I also loved all the scenes that showed Casey's thought process while writing, but my most favorite of all was about a third of the way into the book when Casey interviews for a writing job at a charity organization and they have her write a thank you letter to one of the donors — it was a brief scene, only a few short paragraphs, but it made me laugh so hard because Casey's thought process as she was composing and typing that letter mirrors my own process whenever I sit down to a writing project (it can literally take me hours to write one paragraph because I keep deleting and re-writing in order to get the wording perfect).

In reading through the reviews, it looks like the reactions to this book have been a mixed bag — some readers loved it, some hated it, and a few fell somewhere in between.  I obviously fall into the "love it" category, but of course, that's based on my personal experiences and resonance to the story as well as the characters.  If you're interested in this one, I would suggest checking out both the positive and negative reviews to get a better sense of whether this one would work for you.  (As for me, I definitely just added another "favorite author" to my list!  Now to go back and read King's previous works, especially the much acclaimed Euphoria, which I already have a copy of on my bookshelf).