Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am an anthropologist and author of ethnographic fiction, and so I was excited to read a novel fictionalizing Mead's fieldwork. I was mortified to read this book: It is a disturbing and anti-feminist retelling of Mead's fieldwork experiences, told primarily from the point of view of a male character (the Gregory Bateson character, Mead's second husband in real life). We are first introduced to Mead in a scene of marital rape (by the Reo Fortune character, her first husband), and this pretty much sums up how this author manhandles Mead. Really, it's awful and I am shocked that this novel has not gotten more criticism. Mead's bisexuality and relationship with Ruth Benedict is almost completely erased; the novel takes Mead's queer love life and turns it into a heteronormative love triangle. Most of the novel is about two men fighting each other over Mead. I was in quite a shock by the time I got to the end of this book, so the ending is a bit of an angry blur, but the book ends with Mead dying in childbirth (this didn't happen in real life) and the Bateson character publishing their research as a single-author after Mead's death. Literally, the author kills off Mead before she publishes (in real life) her bestseller "Sex and Temperament." Also, the author's descriptions of anthropological theory are really wonky and (strangely!) don't mention that Mead's actual research was on sexuality, gender, and violence. All of this is extra troubling because many readers are learning about anthropology, ethnography, and Mead *for the first time* with this book. I can't tell you how many cocktail parties I've been at where I say I'm an anthropologist and then people tell me they only know what that means because they've read this book. This scares me! People think this is Mead and this is anthropology! Let me say this again: The author takes one of the most prominent female, queer scientists of the last century, then rapes and kills her before she publishes her magnum opus, and then has a man publish the research instead. Horrendous. As an anthropologist, I beg you please don't read this novel. Mead's real life is far richer than this novel. Read Mead's books instead.