Book Review: Far Afield by Susanna Kaysen

As a fan of Girl, Interrupted I thought it only decent that I check out further work by Susanna Kaysen. I had ordered it for my holiday to Kavos but it did not arrive in time. I took it with me on this second holiday and here are my thoughts on the book...

I was previously familiar with author Susanna Kaysen through her "Girl, Interrupted" memoirs which I really enjoyed. Far Afield, I can certainly say, is not a book that I enjoyed at the start. It follows a recently graduated anthropology student who travels to the Faroes for his Masters degree. A tale about a graduate? At this point in my life that's something I can totally relate to...

The novel quite effectively captures a really wonderful and vivid essence of the location from the bland flavours of the food to the smell down at the pier. Kaysen uses some beautiful descriptive phrases throughout to really paint each picture with grace and skill.


The narrative is, in places, about as appetising as the traditional Faroese meals sound. What I enjoy in a book is travelling to a new place and learning about a country I've never been to. I want the book to transport me there with details of the terrain, the food, the people. This book does that perfectly. In fact I'd never even really heard much about The Faroes before reading this book and so it was a wonderful retreat and an educational experience. If you like reading about travel then I'd say add this to your "to read" list because it instantly transported me to this strange, peaceful island.




Tórshavn, as pictured on the right, seems so strange in contrast to the Western world and I enjoyed learning about it through this book. I liked learning about their diet and about things like their alcohol licences. Only tax paying natives can get alcohol and you have to submit an application for alcohol in advance and can only get a certain amount of whatever solitary alcoholic beverage you want and so the people of Tórshavn in the book often order their booze and then have this big three day binge whilst they all have access to drink.

If you're the sort of person who really loves to travel and learn about new places but maybe can't currently afford to then this is the book for you. I feel a book has been worth reading if you've managed to learn something from reading it and with this book I can say I've come to learn quite a bit.

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