Parallel Worlds

“This is a brave book, particularly for Gottlieb. It is well written and interesting reading. Is it anthropology? In some ways, yes. I now know much more about the Beng, as well as fiction writer, than I did before. More importantly, however, this volume documents the ways that knowledge of the self informs our knowledge of those exposed to a social scientist’s analysis.”

“The fine product of a husband-wife partnership conducted in the rain forest of Ivory Coast, Parallel Worlds is a candid and artfully written account of the dilemmas, hazards, and rewards attending ethnographic research. In this perceptive, at times suspenseful and often poignant memoir, anthropologist Alma Gottlieb and fiction writer Philip Graham re-live for us their two stays among the Beng. . . . Perhaps the most valuable message of Parallel Worlds is that there are different paths to knowledge: in Gottlieb’s case, knowledge of the Beng came through constant questioning; in Graham’s case, learning a new culture often took the shape of ‘a novel of manners written in a foreign language.’ . . . The fact that I devoured the book from cover to cover . . . attests to its engaging character. Although interested in the politics of fieldwork and the writing of culture should find this book enjoyable to read and useful to teach.”

"The book becomes a blend of two very different authors: on the one hand, the story of a writer living amid fascinating subjects for his craft; on the other, the story of a fieldworking anthropologist, striving to find a context in which to describe a unique group of people who live as much among their ghosts and spirits as in the world we know."

“Parallel Worlds is an unusual and insightful book coauthored by an anthropologist and her spouse, a writer. The authors chronicle, in an alternating manner, accounts of their three-year sojourn and experiences in Bengland, Cote d’lvoire.”