The Anthropologist is a cute 150 page book about a 59 year old anthro professor who's done with it all! His problems start when he finds a hair in his bed!

The book is engaging, funny and light hearted. It makes mundane jokes paralleled by a good dose of questioning the status quo. The cultural relativism, the plurality of religious bias, god vs culture are well articulated in the book. It refrains from turning into a boring encyclopaedia with a vibrant cast of characters!

Imagine a sort of Dan Brown narration without the mystery! Initially, the writing feels very first draft but eventually I realised the author probably wanted it that way die to Fuller's personality.

The book is a 5/5 on my easy readability factor. I flew through the pages in under 2 hours. The direction this plot takes is weird to say the least, but good weird? It's fun.

However, the book features ABSOLUTELY ABHORRENT descriptions of females ("watermelon chest?"). What I found interesting was Fuller describes his own daughter's body as VERY AVERAGE? Parallel this with the fact that, descriptions of Rufus are very limited to his clothes and in general demeanor, but for even the slightest mention of a women we get explanations like "she was cute until she opened her mouth.”

Secondly, the flirting is sooooo cringey at various points, it's hard to discern if this is Fuller's devil may care attitude or just pure tone deafness.

Even though the effort was in a good direction with Rufus, the climax falls flat due to the rushed ending. Further, I love anthro as a subject but in an effort to give us a watered down version by the author, I think the ultimate result was a lot of repetition.

Regardless, of its blatant shortcomings, The Anthropologist is a good, fun one time read.

I wasn't sure what to expect but the topic of a professor near the end of his career grappling with academia piqued my interest. I actually found this to be a very interesting and at times very funny book. It is a quick read but it was very enjoyable and provocative. It's refreshing too, to see someone at the end of their career who is ready to retire so has a "devil may care" attitude about things. Very refreshing! A fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Huge Jam for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

Our hero, Fuller, seethes with banked energy, the irony is gentle but pointed, and the witty dialogue snaps and crackles. Lots to chew on here, all of it entertaining.

This novella is readable but the central mystery is unresolved which I found frustrating. Fun characters though.

Having taught in universities, I enjoyed this short book which nicely illustrates the issues facing academic staff today because of cancel culture. Very enjoyable.

Reminiscent of the brilliant, but nonsense book A Confederacy of Dunces, this book had me in fits if laughter at times, but it is also sprinkled with some very interesting observations on the human condition. I think Professor Fuller is the perfect archetype of the disillusion academic and I loved the way in which the book as a whole explored the idea of societal expectations.