Krippendorf's Tribe - Softcover

Parkin, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006172547 ISBN 13: 9780006172543

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1986

Synopsis

Anthropologist James Krippendorf prepares and publishes his field notes on the Shelmikedmus of the Amazon--a fictitious tribe whose supposed customs and behavior are actually based on Krippendorf's North London family

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

To qualify for a research grant (to pay for his Volvo, his daughter's voice lessons and a vacation), house-husband and anthropologist manque James Krippendorf invents an Amazonian tribe, the Shelmikedmu, whose name and behavioral traits are inspired by his somewhat savage children, Shelley, Mickey and Edmund. He writes several well-received tracts on the "tribe" and publishes lurid photos of the children, their babysitter, and the mother of one of their schoolmates in Exotica, a soft-porn magazine formerly known as the British Journal of Structural Anthropology. Krippendorf's fantasy tribe and reality soon merge beyond recognition, as he and his offspring dine on the remains of their dead nanny and celebrate in ritual Shelley's first menstruation. The domestic and academic spoofery in this unsettling black comedy are a bit facile, but Parkin eventually persuades the reader fully of Krippendorf's mania, and the laughter it inspires partially redeems the more grotesque and tasteless aspects of the story.January 24
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

British anthropologist James Krippendorf invents an Amazonian tribe to qualify for a research grantthe money actually having been spent on a new Volvo, a vacation, and elocution lessons. The tribe, the Shelmikedmu, is patterned after and named for his three relatively uncivilized children, Shelley, Mickey, and Edmund. Krippendorf writes a series of popular articles on the tribe, accompanied by salacious photos of his children and several unsuspecting women, for the pseudo-anthropological journal, Exotica. Bizarre rituals, cannibalism, and incest are the improbable result as Krippendorf and family succumb to the fantasy of tribal life. While the plot may strain credulity, Parkin makes this closely observed and deftly written black comedy work surprisingly well. Laurence Hull, Stanly Cty. P.L., Albemarle, N.C.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0006172547
• ISBN 13: 9780006172543
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 192