National Book Award Winner
Mating
by Norman Rush
Summary
An unnamed American anthropologist adrift in 1980s Botswana hears about a remote experimental community founded by a charismatic theorist and sets out across the Kalahari to find him and, on her own terms, win him. Rush narrates in a dense, allusive, almost essayistic voice that turns the courtship into a wide-ranging argument about gender, utopia, and intellectual ambition. The novel is celebrated for its sustained, idiosyncratic interior monologue.
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Historical Context & Significance
Rush spent five years as a Peace Corps director in Botswana; the novel is famous for its dense, intellectual 'voice'.