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The Undiscovered Country
Despite misgivings about moving to such a remote and primitive place (and bringing their young daughter with them), Peter and June Campbell leave Massachusetts for the lush rain forest of Papua New Guinea where Peter will conduct a year of medical research for his doctoral thesis. Dark undercurrents of their feelings for one another rise inexorably to the surface. And, as the ties that bind the Campbells slowly unravel, they begin to explore the undiscovered in themselves. Spare and evocative, The Undiscovered Country offers an uncompromising vision of the fragility of the family and of the resiliency of the human spirit.
- GenresFiction
226 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 6, 2013
I was unexpectedly impressed by this little book. A somewhat naive, wealthy, young American couple travel with their young daughter to a village in Papua New Guinea, so that Peter can do research for his PhD on the causes of various diseases out there. Their marriage is a bit rocky, but they hope that this trip will bring them closer together. In reality, what happens is, not to put too fine a point on it, one hell of a culture clash. American values and understanding of life have no meaning in this culture.
For Peter, to begin with, it's more of a big adventure - he is incredibly naive and excited about it all. For June, it's hard from the beginning, because she feels alienated from Peter, and soon becomes alienated from her daughter too, as little Taylor goes wandering off with the village children and learns to speak their language.
It's a dark book - exploring the depths of human relationships, and the superficialities, the selfishness, the weakness, and what can happen to a relationship when all semblance of familiarity is stripped away from one's world and each other. And what makes it incredibly effective is how the perspective constantly changes. We have chapters that show June's point of view, chapters that show Peter's point of view, but also chapters of random people who encounter them along the way - so we are suddenly distanced from June and Peter, seeing them from more of an anthropologist's eye, from people who find their behaviour as odd as they find the natives. There is no sentimentality in this novel, although it is actually quite a heartbreaking story. It's one of the few books that I would like to reread. The evocation of life in Papua New Guinea is amazing - I've never been there, but now have a very strong sense of what it's like.
For Peter, to begin with, it's more of a big adventure - he is incredibly naive and excited about it all. For June, it's hard from the beginning, because she feels alienated from Peter, and soon becomes alienated from her daughter too, as little Taylor goes wandering off with the village children and learns to speak their language.
It's a dark book - exploring the depths of human relationships, and the superficialities, the selfishness, the weakness, and what can happen to a relationship when all semblance of familiarity is stripped away from one's world and each other. And what makes it incredibly effective is how the perspective constantly changes. We have chapters that show June's point of view, chapters that show Peter's point of view, but also chapters of random people who encounter them along the way - so we are suddenly distanced from June and Peter, seeing them from more of an anthropologist's eye, from people who find their behaviour as odd as they find the natives. There is no sentimentality in this novel, although it is actually quite a heartbreaking story. It's one of the few books that I would like to reread. The evocation of life in Papua New Guinea is amazing - I've never been there, but now have a very strong sense of what it's like.
July 22, 2009
Although The Undiscovered Country offered me a pleasant journey to Papua New Guinea, the people I was forced to stay with were ninnies. The husband was a research scientist without a grant, the wife is a somewhat recent heiress without a clue, and the daughter is an 8-year-old without true protectors. (She also has a trendy-yuppie name, a sort of not-your-real-name: Taylor.) I cannot picture this little girl. She is smart and resilient, quick to learn the language and make friends with the village children. Her parents are tangled up in a marriage that will never be happy. For me, the undiscovered country in this novel describes the space between Taylor's parents and the gap between her parents and the rest of the world. Each parent was supremely irritating, impractical, inconsistent, selfish, and foolish. I wanted to pull them aside and throw out most of the junk in their luggage. I wanted wild animals to drag at least one of them into the bush to be eaten.
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January 3, 2021Papua New Guinea
October 4, 2024
top 10 books about sort of hating your husband
October 22, 2009
"Expatriate literature" is one of my favorite genre, but I was disappointed by The Undiscovered Country by Samantha Gillison.
Personal observation and experience convinces me that the story's tale of the havoc wrought upon June and Peter's relationship by geographic isolation amidst a very alien culture (i.e. life in the New Guinea bush) is both plausible and credible. The allusions to snobbery and cliques among expat communities was also spot on. However on certain other plot elements, I don't think Gillison got it right. It strains credulity to believe that this western couple would turn their very young daughter loose for hours at a time in the remote and rugged New Guinea highlands, with manifold natural and human (including implied sexual abuse) threats abounding. Wouldn't the authorities also have intervened? It just doesn't ring true. Nor does her daughter's schizophrenic character, one minute sinisterly precocious and aloof and at other times a toddler content to sit and color. Another albeit minor plot element that is simply unbelievable is that an episode of climactic pleasuring of oneself would take place and go undetected in a temporary bush shelter among closely packed sleeping indigenes! It just wouldn't happen as described. The tragedy that befell Peter and Taylor upon returning to their compound in the penultimate chapter while plausible, didn't jibe well with the protected status afforded to white foreigners that was alluded to in the foregoing chapters. Maybe rascals had penetrated to the jungle, but I don't think so in the story's time frame. Perhaps June's fate had something to do with the event, but it wasn't deftly implied.
Gillison was also clumsy in her treatment of language. While she used the right amount of indigenous flavoring, she was inconsistent in the amplification of foreign and scientific terminology. In many instances a foreign term was introduced followed by its English equivalent. Just as often such a term was used with no clarification. Referring to Raggianna birds of paradise simply as "raggianas" implies that the readership are all ornithologists. Never explaining that "(tok) pisin" comes from "talk pidgin" and that it is the name of the lingua franca of PNG and nearby areas was a large oversight. This applies to her single reference to "(hiri) motu" too. Similarly, "tok ples" was mentioned without explaining that it comes from "talk place" (local language). If including amplifications was considered too cumbersome for the reader, the use of end-notes has been an effective device in other expat-lit. Her use of tok pisin was sloppy. While perhaps there is no one definitive source on orthography, perhaps one of them should have been adopted and applied consistently in the book.
Personal observation and experience convinces me that the story's tale of the havoc wrought upon June and Peter's relationship by geographic isolation amidst a very alien culture (i.e. life in the New Guinea bush) is both plausible and credible. The allusions to snobbery and cliques among expat communities was also spot on. However on certain other plot elements, I don't think Gillison got it right. It strains credulity to believe that this western couple would turn their very young daughter loose for hours at a time in the remote and rugged New Guinea highlands, with manifold natural and human (including implied sexual abuse) threats abounding. Wouldn't the authorities also have intervened? It just doesn't ring true. Nor does her daughter's schizophrenic character, one minute sinisterly precocious and aloof and at other times a toddler content to sit and color. Another albeit minor plot element that is simply unbelievable is that an episode of climactic pleasuring of oneself would take place and go undetected in a temporary bush shelter among closely packed sleeping indigenes! It just wouldn't happen as described. The tragedy that befell Peter and Taylor upon returning to their compound in the penultimate chapter while plausible, didn't jibe well with the protected status afforded to white foreigners that was alluded to in the foregoing chapters. Maybe rascals had penetrated to the jungle, but I don't think so in the story's time frame. Perhaps June's fate had something to do with the event, but it wasn't deftly implied.
Gillison was also clumsy in her treatment of language. While she used the right amount of indigenous flavoring, she was inconsistent in the amplification of foreign and scientific terminology. In many instances a foreign term was introduced followed by its English equivalent. Just as often such a term was used with no clarification. Referring to Raggianna birds of paradise simply as "raggianas" implies that the readership are all ornithologists. Never explaining that "(tok) pisin" comes from "talk pidgin" and that it is the name of the lingua franca of PNG and nearby areas was a large oversight. This applies to her single reference to "(hiri) motu" too. Similarly, "tok ples" was mentioned without explaining that it comes from "talk place" (local language). If including amplifications was considered too cumbersome for the reader, the use of end-notes has been an effective device in other expat-lit. Her use of tok pisin was sloppy. While perhaps there is no one definitive source on orthography, perhaps one of them should have been adopted and applied consistently in the book.
February 25, 2016
From the back cover: A very interesting story.
Despite misgivings about moving to such a remote and primitive place (and bringing their young daughter with them), Peter and June Campbell leave Massachusetts for the lush rain forest of Papua New Guinea where Peter will conduct a year of medical research for his doctoral thesis. Dark undercurrents of their feelings for one another rise inexorably to the surface. And, as the ties that bind the Campbells slowly unravel, they begin to explore the undiscovered in themselves. Spare and evocative, The Undiscovered Country offers an uncompromising vision of the fragility of the family and of the resiliency of the human spirit.
Despite misgivings about moving to such a remote and primitive place (and bringing their young daughter with them), Peter and June Campbell leave Massachusetts for the lush rain forest of Papua New Guinea where Peter will conduct a year of medical research for his doctoral thesis. Dark undercurrents of their feelings for one another rise inexorably to the surface. And, as the ties that bind the Campbells slowly unravel, they begin to explore the undiscovered in themselves. Spare and evocative, The Undiscovered Country offers an uncompromising vision of the fragility of the family and of the resiliency of the human spirit.
July 11, 2008
Well I must say this was rather a depressing book! There were certainly beautiful aspects to the writing and everything, but last night when I read the last few sentences I uttered aloud: "Well f*** that was depressing!"
Things are a bit up in the air at the end of the story. And I must say that although I sort of pitied the character of Peter, I also sort of REALLY disliked him.
Idiot man!
Anyway...it was a good read, if a little tragic.
Things are a bit up in the air at the end of the story. And I must say that although I sort of pitied the character of Peter, I also sort of REALLY disliked him.
Idiot man!
Anyway...it was a good read, if a little tragic.
June 10, 2012
Very interesting story telling about a small American family who lives at 12,000 ft in Papua New Guinea. Quite moving revelations for the adults, but not much is revealed by the daughter. Gillison is good at creating suspense, thus I found it hard to put this book down. The movie by the same name is based on this book and is also very good.
August 15, 2022
Luckily I found this book at a re-use it center and grabbed it, knowing nothing about it. A compelling, realistic page turner. Having spent time in West Papua and Timor-Leste, I could picture the setting perfectly, the characters, the alienation felt by members of the family. Three years later, this book still haunts me. It's that good.
January 12, 2018
This book had me riveted up until the last couple of chapters. Something tells me the author was staring down a publisher's deadline ... the story just ends way too abruptly. Still a worthwhile read.
July 7, 2008
This book is a very quick read, but it isn't that good. A lot of the reviews compared it to Heart of Darkness, but that seemed a little too kind for my opinion
October 27, 2012
Ugh. Do not read this.
December 8, 2012
A well written biologist's discovery of life from basic PNG culture, well researched and a good story.
January 18, 2017
loved the descriptions of the rain forest.
readable, not exactly the most uplifting book.
readable, not exactly the most uplifting book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews