In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull

I was gratified that Dr. Grinker wrote this book because Colin Turnbull was my cousin, and I knew almost nothing about him. I echo the postive comments by the other reviewers, but what made the book special for me were the references to his family and his relations with them. Dr. Grinker does a wonderful job of not bringing his personal feelings about Colin's work, his homosexuality, or his relationship with Joe Towles into the book. Grinker does, however, give a wonderful sense of Colin and Colin's take on life. One doesn't have to be interested in either anthropology or homosexuality to like this book; it is, simply put, an excellent study of an all-too-human man.

Quite naturally biographers are frequently drawn to understand some famous person's contribution to history or the world of ideas and letters. Such stories inevitably involve that famous person rubbing shoulders with some other famous person and we lucky readers gain insights into a world we thought we had already known. Grinker's biography of Colin Turnbull takes an entirely different tack. He tells the story of an apparently second rate anthropologist -- if he was an anthropologist at all -- but a character of the first order. And through his incredibly rich life, we are introduced to, among other things, English boarding school, Indian ashrams, the world of the Pygmies and other African peoples, death row, academic intrigue, and a bizarre relationship with his true love. Grinker spins the tale deftly and is a delightful tour guide through the life of a man who had an uncommon zest for adventure and a passion for the world.

This was the best read I've had in years. The story of Turnbull's life, as Grinker tells it, is a page-turner but also leaves you with much to contemplate. It was, for me, a window into worlds I've always wanted to travel to but know I'm not likely to visit. Turnbull, born in England to a life of privilege, was passionate and iconoclastic as both a man and an anthropologist. He lived among the Mbuti Pygmies of the African rain forest, whom he romanticized, as well as the starving and aggressive mountain people of Uganda known as the Ik, whom he reviled. The African parts of the story would be reason enough to read this book but there's so much more - Turnbull's early experiences in the world of the English boarding school, with its sometimes brutal homosexuality; his life in a Hindu ashram in India under the tutelage of a famous female guru; museum politics and academic infighting in America; the theatre world of Peter Brooks, who dramatized Turnbull's book on the Ik; redneck homophobic Virginia, where Turnbull and his long-term companion made their home; anti-death penalty advocacy; ordination as a Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama; and death by AIDS. Perhaps most important, Turnbull was also a gay man totally devoted to - in fact obsessed with - his partner of thirty years, Joseph Towles, whom he sought to protect and mentor and whom he idealized in the same way he idealized the Pygmies.What makes the book hang together is the cohesive psychological portrait of Turnbull. Reacting to the cold isolation of his advantaged childhood, Turnbull was a seeker of goodness and beauty with an overwhelming need to find those qualities among the disenfranchised or less privileged and then to become one with them. This need allowed him to see the positive essence of other people(s) but it also blinded him to unpleasant truths about those he idealized. His strengths as a person and as an anthropologist, in other words, were also his weaknesses. Ultimately, it is only because of the psychological insight Grinker brings to this biography that we can begin to understand the otherwise incomprehensible pull that the generally unimpressive and often unappealing Towles had on the larger-than-life Turnbull. All this without leaving your armchair!

This is a terrific biography about a fascinating 20th century mind: Colin Turnbull. What a life Turnbull had from academia to ashrams, Africian culture to the African queen, homoerotic british school boys to the emergence of the gay bar scene in 1960's New York, the devastation of WW II to the devastation of HIV, and above all a profound love story. Richard Grinker does a marvelous job of recreating the personal life of one of the centuries great intellects. This is a fascinating work on so many levels. It traces the development of an important new contribution ot the study of man while keeping the reader step by step in touch with the man who added a humanistic and compassionate insight to the field of Anthropology. Mr. Grinker lends his considerable psychological and anthropological insight to helping the reader understand who and what this great man was. I strongly recommend this book to any reader who wants a gripping read about an extraordinary 20th century intellect who ultimately transcends all of his great achievements through love. Five stars to Mr. Grinker.

What a fascinating and eye-opening book! I vaguely remember Colin Turnbull from my freshman anthropology class, but Grinker's book brings to life just what motivates people to fall in love with other cultures. As it turns out, it's not so different from love affairs in general -- and just as heartbreaking -- and this is the lesson gleaned from this chronicle of one extraordinarily brave British anthropologist. While I did learn alot about African traditions, this book reads like a novel, not an academic treatise. Grinker is a fluent and imaginative writer whose prose swept me along from the very first page. I suggest this book for people who enjoy reading psychologically astute biographies as well as gripping love stories -- it's probably the most affecting biography of the season.