I picked up Lily King’s Euphoria last night and started reading–and immediately felt euphoric! I had forgotten why (if I knew) I wanted to read this book, except for a vague sense that it was supposed to be good, and I liked the title. But when I realized that it was a fictionalized account of Margaret Mead’s career (or a portion of it), I was so excited. As a former anthropology student and a former intern at the American Museum of Natural History, I grew up, so to speak, hounded by Margaret Mead. Going to college in the 1970s, everyone I told I was studying anthropology commented, “another Margaret Mead.” This always annoyed me, with its implication that there could be only one woman anthropologist. Well, I was young, and easily annoyed, but I have another reason for being euphoric about this book now, which is that I’ve had it in mind to write an historical novel based on an actual person, but highly fictionalized as King has done. I’m excited to have found this model and inspiration, not to mention just excited about reading a good book about someone whose life holds some personal meaning for me.