Far Afield
SynopsisPlot
Jonathan Brand, a graduate student in anthropology, has decided to do his fieldwork in the remote Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. But, despite his Harvard training, he can barely understand, let alone "study," the culture he encounters. From his struggles with the local cuisine to his affair with the Danish woman the locals want him to marry, Jonathan is both repelled by and drawn into the Faroese way of life. Wry and insightful, Far Afield reveals Susanna Kaysen's gifts of imagination, satire, and compassion.
Story
About this book
Jonathan Brand is a Harvard-trained anthropology graduate student who travels to the Faroe Islands to conduct fieldwork. The archipelago, a small cluster of eighteen volcanic islands in the North Atlantic between Norway, Iceland, and Scotland, becomes the setting for his attempt to observe and document a culture that resists easy classification. Jonathan arrives equipped with academic frameworks but finds that his training does little to prepare him for the reality of daily Faroese life.
His difficulties range from the practical to the personal. The local food challenges him, the social customs confuse him, and his relationship with a Danish woman becomes entangled with the expectations of the community around them. The locals have opinions about who he should marry and how he should behave, and Jonathan finds himself caught between the role of outside observer and reluctant participant. Kaysen, known for her memoir Girl, Interrupted, uses fiction here to explore what happens when an outsider tries to study a place while simultaneously being absorbed by it.
The novel carries a satirical edge, particularly in its treatment of academic fieldwork and the gap between scholarly method and lived experience. Kaysen sets the tension between attraction and discomfort at the center of Jonathan's time on the islands, letting neither feeling win out completely.
