Serpent in Paradise

Rating:
Summary: Expectations be Damned!!
Review: It's funny to see the bias of "readers" who can't connect with what's being written. A read of the sleeve will tell you this isn't a travel, sociological, anthropological or any other kind of 'behind the veil' writing. Ms. Birkett has written a book that follows exactly what she describes at the outset: her own personal, spontaneous journey to an acknowledged fantasy. Her experiences on Pitcairn Island dispell quickly such a fantasy world. This lesson seems to have upset many readers despite the title being an obvious reference to herself. The highly collectivized, anti-individualized prisoners of Pitcairn/oblivion ritually refuse to answer even the simplest questions or equally spontaneously ignore her completely is a clear scuttling of the touchy-feely environmentalist fallacy of the Garden of Eden. Her book is ultimately about herself (the title?????) because it is her own self-motivated whim that took her there. So what? It might have been interwoven with other views, if the islander's facade of friendliness wasn't a complete sham. As for claims that she was self-absorbed, what "acclaimed" travel writer isn't narcisistic? Chatwin? Marco Polo? Birkett is brutally honest and her contribution is worthwhile, even important if only for the fact that she dispells the notion of today's globe-hopping my-room-with-an-"X" naive belief that you can vicariously understand a people or a culture at all from ANY distance outside the peoples themselves, day-tourist trinket buyers and reviewers to the contrary. Boo. Hoo. The grumbling armchair adventurers would do well to follow in her footsteps before venting well out of their league. Good 'un D.B.

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile Read
Review: Like many people I have found the story of the founding of Pitcairn Island fascinating and have always wondered about the descendents of the Bounty. Although somewhat gossipy in tone, I don't fault Ms. Birkett so very much. She is obviously not a trained observer of human nature. But she does bring us tales of a lifestyle completely unknown to most of us, and isn't that what a book should do, transport us beyond our own daily lives?

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps she should live on an uninhabited island
Review: Rarely have I started a book with so much anticipation and been so disappointed. Ms. Birkett seems to understand very little about the Pitcairn Islanders, and about human foibles. Her paranoia, pettiness and lack of character destroy almost any credibility she tried to give this book.

Rating:
Summary: Missed opportunity
Review: Sadly, a wonderful opportunity for a vivid description of this remote island and its inhabitants was missed. The reader received an unwanted play-by-play description of a visiting captain's "pass" at Ms. Birkett, but is left with many unanswered questions about what life is really like on Pitcairn. The school is mentioned, but what is it like? What do the children do there? In fact, little is said at all about the Pitcairn children--what do they do, how do they play? There was mention of a birthday party, but all that is described is the food and the hearty appetites with which the Pitcairners ate it. Simple but interesting things are omitted--do they bring presents? Where do the islanders bathe? As another reader asked, what do they do with their garbage? The writer was unfair and harsh in her descriptions of the hospitable islanders. This book is a big disappointment and not what the reader expects.

Rating:
Summary: Narcissism and Travel Writing
Review: There is an element of narcissism in most travel writing. "Look at me! I'm in Borneo." "Listen to my thoughts on train travel through Central America..." However, this book is so over the top it is repellent. Dea Birkett is incapable of seeing anything about the entire culture of Pitcairn Island except how it affects her! She actually appears to believe the hype on the cover jacket that exclaims how few people ever visit Pitcairn, and she expects to be treated like some prestigious royal visitor. When she is not, she feels hurt and rejected and proceeds to slander everybody she describes. But why would they welcome her? She confesses that she is incompetent. Despite the hype, I am sure the Islanders are quite used to visitors and it is only natural to be a little distant towards "tourists." I don't think I would welcome her anywhere either. She reveals early on that she views other people solely as a means to her own ends. She flirts with some guy because he owns a yacht that might get her to Pitcairn. When she doesn't get what she wants she ridicules him. In the rest of the book, she seems to imagine that every man she meets wants to be with her. This is travel writing? I cannot imagine how any editor would accept this book for publication. I suppose anything with the word "Pitcairn" in the title will sell. What is good about the book is that it is not just another romanticized tale that leaves all the realistic part out. I'm glad that the Islanders are portrayed as lazy and a little neurotic -- it rings true. Birkett, however, can maintain no distance from these observations. She thinks she is the centre of the story! I don't think that is what anybody who picks up the book was expecting.

Rating:
Summary: Narcissism and Travel Writing
Review: There is an element of narcissism in most travel writing. "Look at me! I'm in Borneo." "Listen to my thoughts on train travel through Central America..." However, this book is so over the top it is repellent. Dea Birkett is incapable of seeing anything about the entire culture of Pitcairn Island except how it affects her! She actually appears to believe the hype on the cover jacket that exclaims how few people ever visit Pitcairn, and she expects to be treated like some prestigious royal visitor. When she is not, she feels hurt and rejected and proceeds to slander everybody she describes. But why would they welcome her? She confesses that she is incompetent. Despite the hype, I am sure the Islanders are quite used to visitors and it is only natural to be a little distant towards "tourists." I don't think I would welcome her anywhere either. She reveals early on that she views other people solely as a means to her own ends. She flirts with some guy because he owns a yacht that might get her to Pitcairn. When she doesn't get what she wants she ridicules him. In the rest of the book, she seems to imagine that every man she meets wants to be with her. This is travel writing? I cannot imagine how any editor would accept this book for publication. I suppose anything with the word "Pitcairn" in the title will sell. What is good about the book is that it is not just another romanticized tale that leaves all the realistic part out. I'm glad that the Islanders are portrayed as lazy and a little neurotic -- it rings true. Birkett, however, can maintain no distance from these observations. She thinks she is the centre of the story! I don't think that is what anybody who picks up the book was expecting.

Rating:
Summary: A Bore, and Awash in Bad Faith
Review: This book is both boring and brimming with bad faith. The author, a foot-loose, thirty-something Englishwoman, develops an obsession with the remote island of Pitcairn and becomes determined to go there. She never makes clear why this is so important to her, other than a vague boredom with her life in London. She lies her way onto the island, taking money from an English organization by promising to study the Pitcairn postal system. Once there, she pretends she wants to stay forever, while never for a moment intending to do so.

Her condescension toward the island's natives, nearly all descendants of the famous mutineers from the Bounty, is infinite. She toys with their lives as if they were something less than human, noting their intense desire for privacy even as she accumulates their intimate secrets for her book. She has a "one-night stand" with a married man whose wife was away, rather than with one of the bachelors whose clumsy efforts at courtship she brushes aside. When she abruptly leaves, catching a ride on a passing ship, she arrives back home and begins telling lies again, this time denying that she's had any sexual contact while on Pitcairn.

The author comes across as a shallow, self-serving, contemptible human being. And worst of all, life on Pitcairn as she describes it is simply BORING! Curiously, there is no hint that she knew anything about the scandal that subsequently came out, about the sexual abuse of young girls by the older men of Pitcairn. No doubt it escaped her notice, along with everything else not directly concerned with her own little life. The serpent in paradise is obviously the author herself.

Rating:
Summary: THE REVIEWS ARE AS GOOD AS THE BOOK!
Review: This book is too much! ...My absolute favorite part of the book, is when, after sleeping with the married guy on the island (which she did as a way of "reaching out" to the Pitcairners), she finds out that he wasn't really a Pitcairner at all, and she is so angry and feels so "cheated!" I laughed so hard I almost cried when I read that part! I also loved the part where she was furious with her friend, who unbeknownst to her sent her a piece of pork along, since it wasn't allowed on the island. She was furious at the insult to her host. However, she could go drink alcohol with the group of islanders who drank, when she knew her host was even more opposed to alcohol than pork, and that it's illegal to have alcohol on the Island. How in her mind did she justify the alcohol as not being an insult to her host and not justify the pork? Her drinking as well as her affair would have been known about by all on the Island, and the reader could tell her hosts knew about it, but the author never figured out "why" they changed toward her. And she NEVER DID get the fact that they all turned on her after she slept with that guy. I guess when that happened and they began shunning her is when she thought they were trying to kill her? PLEASE!!!!!!! The book did leave a lot to be desired information-wise on how they lived, but it also gave a good bit of information. I found the book to be exciting and consuming. It DEFINITELY was worth the read. She was nasty to worm her way into their homes and then turn on them in her book. I sincerely hope the Pitcairners do not think everyone is like her. (I also feel kudos are due Royal Warren...) What a fascinating, unique privilege the author had. I do admire her resourcefulness in getting to Pitcairn as well as her physical fortitude in the sometimes horrific experiences she encountered. It's too bad she couldn't match that with a modicum of warmth, compassion and humility. P.S. WHY does everyone get the impression from the book that the Islanders were lazy? I got the opposite impression. I thought they worked very hard.

Rating:
Summary: Anthropology in the tell-all format of a Hollywood Biography
Review: This book is worth reading, not so much for a view of life on Pictcairn Island or for a history of The Bounty, but rather because of the fascinating and powerfully disturbing portrait of a completely self absorbed author. She lacks the most basic respect for the subject she rights about. The gall of this woman. She lies about he reason for visiting the island and is welcomed as a guest into these peoples homes and community, and then had the nerve to criticize the intimate details of their lives. At the same time she behaves like a spoiled adolescent who expects to be universally accepted and the center of attention. It's no wonder they didn't like her.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book
Review: This book was sorely deceiving. I kept reading and waiting for the "danger" to appear. By the last page of the book, no danger other than gossiping old ladies had appeared. I also agree with a previous reviewer that the author was narcisstic. There is little characterization of the inhabitants of the island or follow-through on events or characters introduced. I had no prior feelings toward the Pitcairn Islanders, but I feel they were grossly misrepresented and maligned in this book.