When his girlfriend takes a job in Thailand, Mischa Berlinski goes along for the ride, planning to enjoy himself and work as little as possible. But one evening a fellow expatriate tips him off to a story: a charismatic American anthropologist, Martiya van der Leun, has been found dead--a suicide--in the Thai prison where she was serving a life sentence for murder. Curious at first, Mischa is soon immersed in the details of her story. This brilliant, haunting novel expands into a mystery set among the Thai hill tribes, whose way of life became a battleground for the missionaries and the scientists living among them.
Fieldwork: A Novel
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A fictional version of the author serves as the narrator of Berlinski's uneven first novel, a thriller set in Thailand. Mischa Berlinski, a reporter who's moved to northern Thailand to be with his schoolteacher girlfriend, Rachel, hears from his friend Josh about the suicide of Martiya van der Leun, an American anthropologist, in a Thai jail, where she was serving 50 years for murder. As Mischa begins to investigate Martiya's life and supposed crimes, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the woman. The complications that arise have the potential to be riveting, but the chatty narrative voice takes too many irrelevant detours to build much suspense. Still, Berlinski, who has been a journalist in Thailand, vividly portrays the exotic setting and brings depth and nuance to his depictions of the Thais. Buried within the excess verbiage is a lean, interesting tale about, among many other things, the differences between modern and tribal cultures. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Mischa Berlinski originally intended to write an account of the real-life Lisu tribe of Thailand, but held scant interest in the project until he decided to fictionalize the natives and turned his research into a novel. In this readable and clever debut, told almost entirely in backstory, Berlinski explores the problems inherent in trying to assume the perspective of another person or culture and the enduring conflict between faith and science. While he treats each perspective with genuine empathy, he refuses to take sides. Critics had a couple of complaints—a lagging secondary plot and a few descriptions with a textbook feel—but dismissed them as minor. They unanimously praised Berlinski’s wit, style, and intelligence in this atmospheric "novel that never fails to fascinate" (Minneapolis Star Tribune).
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
57 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Well-researched and excellently paced novel. I was fascinated by the level of detail and found the non-judgmental tone of the author refreshing. The novel ended up being an anthropological study of 3 separate tribes--the fictional Dyalo (who appear to be based on the Lisu tribe the novelist studied extensively--look on [...]), American Protestant missionaries, and the curious tribe that lives in figurative ivory towers who spend their lives studying other tribes. The author seems to suggest that the universal tragedy that serves as the basis for the murder mystery aspect of the novel is the result not merely a simplistic clash between East and West, but one that can happen to any peoples who do not share the same world view or to anyone in any culture subject to common human emotions.
Terrific read, and highly recommended. I look forward to Mr. Berlinksi's future literary output--maybe something set in Italy, or perhaps involving Haitian voodoo cults?
Terrific read, and highly recommended. I look forward to Mr. Berlinksi's future literary output--maybe something set in Italy, or perhaps involving Haitian voodoo cults?
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ten stars. Best book I have read in ages. The author's prose style is impeccable and transparent, and he tells an interesting story in a manner fair to all the overlapping and colliding worlds he describes (missionaries, anthropologists, hill tribes, Thais, and his own generation's Western wanderers in the East). This is worth a million grad school MFA seminar meanderings. Terrific reading; hope he writes another book soon and many, many more in the future.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I decided to read this book after reading Steven King's review of it in the Entertainment Weekly magazine. I found that the beautiful thing about this book is that everyone who read it has opinion about it. It does not matter if it us the title of the book, the characters in the book, or the attempt to figure out which genre the book can be slated for. It is wonderful that all readers find Mischa Berlinski to be talented and smart young writer with a lot of potential. I have truly enjoyed this book because it speaks on many levels at once: beauty of Asia, complexity of people and cultures they are part of, religious conflict(s), tragedy of human existance no matter how hard we all try to understand it and conform to it in order to fit in the society we are part of. I strongly recommend this book -- it is a wonderful read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Serious writing, easy reading
Great book. Well researched and carefully laid out. Much better than all those "best-selling" bland silly story and "award-winning" freakish nonsense.
Published 12 days ago by tsinghuacat
Yes!
I read this book last year and I would recommend it for anyone. It is one that I will not forget, I can't say that about many works.
Published 2 months ago by E-Z Jer'
Haunting
This is a rare novel that works on numerous levels in part because of the mysterious setting and the richly drawn characters. Read more
Published 5 months ago by JSmalls
A beautiful novel
When I picked up this novel a couple of years ago, I had no idea what to expect. It was a gift and I had never read any reviews or other information regarding the author or this... Read more
Published 11 months ago by S. Pierson
A gripping, thought-provoking read
I couldn't put this book down and read it all in 3 days. While Berlinski clearly states that it is fiction and the characters and tribe of villagers are made up, it is obvious that... Read more
Published 16 months ago by A. Azad
Beautiful story intersecting the lives and passions of a UCBerkeley...
I found this book hard to put down the more I read. The story intersects the lives and passions of a UCBerkeley anthropology graduate student doing fieldwork in Thailand with a... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Alexandra Saperstein
Anthropologists, missionaries and murder in Thailand - 4½ stars
Mischa Berlinski, the eponymous narrator, is an American freelance journalist living abroad. He becomes fascinated by the mystery of an anthropologist living in tribal Thailand... Read more
Published 20 months ago by M. Bailey
First half great, second half a chore
This novel has one of the best beginnings I've come across - it reeled me in immediately, and I thoroughly enjoyed it until about half way through. Read more
Published 20 months ago by paffle
A very engaging writer, but a so-so book
Berlinski is an engaging writer, so much so that he's able to get away with lengthy, digressive excursions. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jeffrey Pariser
A gift to it's readers
Can't wait to read whatever Mischa Berlinski writes next. Fieldwork was given to me as a gift, and from the first page to the last, was a gift that kept on giving. Read more
Published on March 3, 2010 by Elizabeth Alexandra
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First Sentence:
WHEN HE WAS A YEAR out of Brown, my friend Josh O'Connor won a Thai beach vacation in a lottery in a bar. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rice whiskey, big pink house, cooking hut Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Chiang Mai, Dan Loi, Khun Vinai, Eden Valley, David Walker, Tom Riley, Sings Soft, George Washington, Dead Tour, Raymond Walker, Joseph Atkinson, Opium Man, Tim Blair, Aunt Helena, Thomas Walker, Kamtoey Theater, Laura Walker, Christian Family Alert, Pak Nai, San Francisco, Karen Leon, Mission Station, Old Grandfather, Star Wars, Hiker Hut New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
WHEN HE WAS A YEAR out of Brown, my friend Josh O'Connor won a Thai beach vacation in a lottery in a bar. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rice whiskey, big pink house, cooking hut Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Chiang Mai, Dan Loi, Khun Vinai, Eden Valley, David Walker, Tom Riley, Sings Soft, George Washington, Dead Tour, Raymond Walker, Joseph Atkinson, Opium Man, Tim Blair, Aunt Helena, Thomas Walker, Kamtoey Theater, Laura Walker, Christian Family Alert, Pak Nai, San Francisco, Karen Leon, Mission Station, Old Grandfather, Star Wars, Hiker Hut New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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