Euphoria Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Hawthorne Effect and our BookBrowse Review of Euphoria.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Set against the lush tropical landscape of 1930s New Guinea, this novel charts British anthropologist Andrew Bankson's fascination for colleagues Nell Stone and her husband, Fen, a fascination that turns deadly. How far does the setting play a role in shaping events? Is there a sense that the three have created their own small universe on the banks of the Sepik River, far removed from the Western world? If so, by whose rules are they playing?
2. "She tried not to think about the villages they were passing … the tribes she would never know and words she would never hear, the worry that they might right now be passing the one people she was meant to study, a people whose genius she would unlock, and who would unlock hers, a people who had a way of life that made sense to her" (p. 8). In the light of this quote, discuss Nell Stone's passion and need for anthropology and find ways in which they differ from Bankson's and Fen's. Talk about the significance of her childhood dream of being carried away by gypsies.
3. Continue your discussion by considering Nell's statement: "If I didn't believe they shared my humanity entirely, I wouldn't be here … I'm not interested in zoology" (p. 55). Find instances in the novel in which she demonstrates this. How far do you agree, as Nell states, that it is an anthropologist's role to encourage self-analysis and self-awareness in the tribes he/she studies?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Grove Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.