Recapitulations

A distinguished anthropologist tells his life story as a wistful novelist would, watching himself as if he were someone else

This memoir recaptures meaningful moments from the author's life: as his childhood on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, his psychiatrist father's early death, his years at school in Switzerland and then at Harvard in the 1960s, his love affairs, his own teaching, and his far-flung travels. Taken together, these stories have the power of a nothing-taken-for-granted vision, fighting those conventions and ideologies that deaden the creative and inquiring mind.

Un antropolog distins isi povesteste viata asa cum ar face un romancier ingrozitor, urmarindu-se ca si cum ar fi altcineva. Acest memoriu recupereaza momente semnificative din viata autorului: copilaria sa pe motivul unui spital psihiatric, moartea timpurie a tatalui sau psihiatru, anii sai la scoala din Elvetia si apoi la Harvard in anii 1960, relatiile sale amoroase, propria invatatura si calatoriile sale indepartate.