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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.9142
EAN: 9780345411433
ISBN: 0345411439
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: January 30, 2001
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: January 30, 2001
Sales Rank: 1524641
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
They inspire feelings of great passion, serenity, and sometimes fear . . . they give people the opportunity to find themselves--or to lose their minds . . . they are revered as paradise or treated as junkyards . . . both haunted by and respectful of history . . . they are central to the myths and religions of many peoples throughout time . . . they provide a real, friendly community or the hell of repetitive social encounters . . . What is it about islands that has captivated millions of people around the world and through the centuries?
In a penetrating, brilliantly written book that weaves sociology, history, politics, personality, and ancient and popular culture into one compelling narrative, Thurston Clarke island-hops around the oceans of the world, searching for an explanation for the most passionate and enduring geographic love affair of all time--between humankind and islands.
Along the way Clarke visits the remote and silent Mas À Tierra, the island off the coast of Chile that inspired Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe; tropical Banda Neira, one of the Spice Islands, where its self-crowned prince hopes for nothing less than nutmeg's complete and glorious revival; sleepy, simple Campobello, the Canadian island where Franklin D. Roosevelt spent his boyhood summers; Patmos, with its imposing mountaintop monastery; Malekula, once the most notorious cannibal island in the world; and Jura in Scotland's Hebrides, where George Orwell wrote 1984--the island that turned Clarke into a islomane, someone Lawrence Durrell says experiences an 'indescribable intoxication' at finding himself in 'a little world surrounded by the sea.'
Despite colonialism and missionary conversions, wartime scars and shrinking coasts, islands have thrived. Though each island is unique in its own way, Clarke discovers that the islanders themselves are a distinct people-- tranquilized by their watery horizons yet sensitive to the first shift in weather, conservative yet more likely to drop their inhibitions because no one is looking. And over every island falls the shadow of Robinson Crusoe, persuading us that islands are more liberating than confining, more contemplative than lonely, more holy than barbaric because we have been 'removed from all the wickedness of the world.' In a stunning work of wit, adventure, and incisive exploration, Thurston Clarke brings a unique passion to dazzling life.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - FAULTLESS
Buy this book. Save a bundle on your vacation and cruise. Clarke shows you there are no islands left. They are all Marriots with shopping malls and water slides and fake cuisine. You are served and your room is cleaned by the grandchildren of people who used to be royalty on these islands.
Want to go to an island? Go to Clarke's; he found them hours before extinction. Appreciate your own special island: your home, your family, your neighborhood.
Rating:  - An enjoyable and entertaining trip from island to island
The author presents and enjoyable book about different islands from the standpoint that many of them have a personality of their own. I have often thought it would be nice to live on an island...that is a remote island. Maybe that's a bit of a pipedream...but this author sure got me thinking again how that might just be the thing to do to renew the spirit and rejuvenate the soul. This book is not for everyone...but it may be just right for readers with an inquisitive interest in an 'island attitude'.
Rating:  - The reality is quite a bit different
I had to chuckle as I browsed the book. In the area of the Pacific with which I am familiar, I found Mr. Thurston's writings were pure fantasy. Not to say he was devious or untruthful. He was just repeating the old myths that have been going around for years. I'm sure his personal experience with the islanders was pleasant. But having lived there, I can assure you the truth is a bit different.
The biggest myth the islanders propogate is their relationship with the Japanese during WWII. ... Read More
Rating: - Run Away
I like to lie on the beach and disappear----this book took me to another time and place. I shall be reading it again lying on the sands of the Grand Cayman----I say, read it feel the sun on your pale skin....take the one you love.
Crusoe- the romance is in us all. Even if u lie in your own backyard this summer--read, feel Father sun on your pale flesh longing for freedom. Adventure is there, close your eyes.......
Rating:  - Not worth the time
Pompous, patronizing, hypocritical - this book is all surface and no depth. Its too bad the author used so much energy to write it. The author is immersed in self in each vignette, thus sees his characters in only two dimensions. He sees his islands with the same perspective as the Luddites. It could have been a wonderful read.
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Dewey Decimal Number: 910.9142
EAN: 9780345411433
ISBN: 0345411439
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: January 30, 2001
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: January 30, 2001
Sales Rank: 1524641
Studio: Ballantine Books