Alive in the Writing is a gem of a book. Insightful and lively to read, it is of use to both beginning and seasoned ethnographers, as well as to anyone who wants to improve his or her writing about social life. Kiren Narayan is a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the author of an ethnography (Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels), a collection of folktales (Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon), a novel (Love Stars, and All That), and a memoir (My Family and Other Saints). Inspired by her own work as an anthropologist and folklorist, Narayan draws on Chekhov’s life and his ethnographic work, Sakhalin Island, as well as the works of other ethnographers, to offer an imaginative, engaging, and highly useful series of exercises and advice to make ethnographic writing come alive.
This slim book is not prescriptive, but instead offers a variety of different approaches to the building-blocks of ethnography. The book’s five chapters cover story and theory, place, person, voice, and self. Instead of being a “how to” manual on writing ethnography, it is, as her husband says, a “how-about?” manual (x). A postscript distills practical advice to the writer on such topics as working with words and the writing process, including getting started, moving forward, moving past writer’s block, and finishing. Prompts in boldface, given throughout the book, can be used to initiate freewriting that will be polished later, while the exercises at the end of the book are intended to generate writing for other readers. While there are many books on fieldwork techniques and ethnographic observation and interaction, it is rare to find a book devoted to the artistry of ethnographic writing.
One of the most engaging dimensions of this book is Narayan’s analytical, yet personal and evocative, use of Chekhov as a model of an excellent ethnographic writer. She draws upon a number of sources about Chekhov, as well as extracts from his writing, to illustrate principles of effective writing about culture. Frequently, she juxtaposes her insights about Chekhov with extracts from the works of other ethnographers that illustrate key points. Thus, not only do readers get a good appreciation of Chekhov as a man and as a writer, but they also get introduced to a wide variety of ethnographers, such as Keith Basso, Anna Tsing, Dennis Tedlock, Sidney Mintz, Kenneth Read, Thomas Belmonte, Clifford Geertz, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Karen McCarthy Brown, to name but a few.
The last chapter in the book, “Self,” illustrates through its own structure the principles that Narayan recommends to integrate the ethnographer’s own life experiences into the ethnography without becoming self-indulgent or guilty of “TMI”—too much information. Narayan begins the chapter with her own dream of having a phone conversation with Chekhov to conduct an interview, only to have the phone line go suddenly dead. In her dream, her husband suggests that she Skype Chekhov instead. Although in her dream she finds Chekhov’s thumbnail Skype picture, just as she tries the Skype connection she wakes up.
Yet the dream image leads her to a book in her library with a striking 1891 photograph of Chekhov that looks remarkably like a person gazing into a computer camera for a Skype call. Narayan is able to use her dream, coupled with a copy of the real photograph, to illustrate Chekhov’s continuing power to communicate with readers in the twenty-first century, as well as to involve readers imaginatively in her quest to understand Chekhov’s writing. She succeeds in bringing Chekhov to life and illustrating how to incorporate personal stories of one’s relationship to one’s research, while creating a lively read.
Alive in the Writing would work well in any course dealing with ethnographic fieldwork and writing, and it will be of help to experienced ethnographers and nonfiction writers as well. I highly recommend it.
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[Review length: 638 words • Review posted on March 20, 2013]