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edgeworth's review against another edition
1.0
"Jaunty children's pirate adventure story" plus "the dark and brutal heart of children." I understand the clashing tones are the whole point of the book, but Hughes doesn't meld them together well at all and the result is a messy failure. It's far too waffling, meandering in and out of the authorial voice and the viewpoints of both adults and children; I found my attention straying constantly. One of the poorly-sketched child characters actually dies about a quarter into the novel and I was so half asleep that I didn't realise this had happened until the end, when the parents ask where their son is.
Oh, and Hughes wrote the book in a depressive period in his late twenties when his engagement had been broken off and he had, as the Guardian puts it, taken to "borrowing" his friend's children. That, plus the bordering-on-erotic descriptions of a pre-pubescent girl, was enough to give me the willies.
Oh, and Hughes wrote the book in a depressive period in his late twenties when his engagement had been broken off and he had, as the Guardian puts it, taken to "borrowing" his friend's children. That, plus the bordering-on-erotic descriptions of a pre-pubescent girl, was enough to give me the willies.
leerazer's review against another edition
5.0
This somewhat chilling examination of children and of human nature was first published in 1929 and republished decades later as the very first entry in the NYRB classics imprint. Hughes' debut novel, it tells the story of seven British children, ages about 13 to 3, whose ship is captured by pirates around the waters of Cuba; transported to the pirate ship as part of an effort to terrorize the ship's captain, the pirates become accidental kidnappers when they don't notice the ship fleeing from them in the night. At first indifferent to and annoyed by the presence of the children, the pirates discover the children to be alien creatures who provoke conflicting emotions: fondness, desire, and finally fear, while the children themselves adapt easily and joyously to life aboard a pirate ship.
The boundary between childhood and adulthood is presented as a yawning chasm with mutual incomprehension. The children have not yet learned to be "human", a comprehensive transformation which comes with adulthood. Their minds and nature are alien to adults: "I would rather extract information from the devil himself than from a child," a lawyer at the end of the book confesses. Some of the pirates feel affection for the children, these strange creatures, but this difference can provoke dark emotions as well. There is disturbing pedophilia: the oldest child, 13 year old Margaret, becomes the lover of the first mate on the pirate ship, and its captain, Jonsen, in a charged moment while drunk caresses Emily, a child of about 10 or 11, then is overcome by shame, while she does not understand what happened.
The pirates are stupefied by what happens when they capture another vessel and transport its captain to their ship for safekeeping while they sack it. Emily, seeing this captain straining to reach a knife with which to cut himself loose, grabs the knife herself and in a frenzy stabs and slashes him to death. The pirates return from the captured vessel to find the body in a pool of blood and are gobsmacked. But the children have already displayed an apparent cold indifference to death - Emily's 10 year old brother John had broken his neck in an accidental fall while they were with the pirates, and been promptly forgotten about by all.
After rescue, Emily, with what amount of conscious calculation is left unspecified, leaves the impression that Jonsen murdered that captain, in a dramatic courtroom scene. Jonsen is sentenced to death for the murder, while in the novel's final scene, Emily is integrated into a new classroom, while Hughes writes of the little murderer, with a note of ominousness, that "perhaps God could have picked out from among them which was Emily: but I am sure that I could not."
This novel bears obvious parallels with the later novel Lord of the Flies, and I'm left wondering about its portrayal of human nature in childhood. There's an actual real life Lord of the Flies type situation that I read a news story about recently, and happily the children in real life did not become amoral wild things who discard civilization, but rather cooperated and lived peaceably until rescue. On the other hand, you have child soldiers forced into various conflicts worldwide and these children can reportedly become as vicious as you please. However they are forced into it by adults, they don't choose it. Still, it's true that the brains of children are still developing and maturing past their teenage years, so the gulf between childhood and adulthood is real enough, and children surely don't grasp the concepts of consequences and permanence like adults do. There will always be room to explore the difference, and the similarities.
The boundary between childhood and adulthood is presented as a yawning chasm with mutual incomprehension. The children have not yet learned to be "human", a comprehensive transformation which comes with adulthood. Their minds and nature are alien to adults: "I would rather extract information from the devil himself than from a child," a lawyer at the end of the book confesses. Some of the pirates feel affection for the children, these strange creatures, but this difference can provoke dark emotions as well. There is disturbing pedophilia: the oldest child, 13 year old Margaret, becomes the lover of the first mate on the pirate ship, and its captain, Jonsen, in a charged moment while drunk caresses Emily, a child of about 10 or 11, then is overcome by shame, while she does not understand what happened.
The pirates are stupefied by what happens when they capture another vessel and transport its captain to their ship for safekeeping while they sack it. Emily, seeing this captain straining to reach a knife with which to cut himself loose, grabs the knife herself and in a frenzy stabs and slashes him to death. The pirates return from the captured vessel to find the body in a pool of blood and are gobsmacked. But the children have already displayed an apparent cold indifference to death - Emily's 10 year old brother John had broken his neck in an accidental fall while they were with the pirates, and been promptly forgotten about by all.
After rescue, Emily, with what amount of conscious calculation is left unspecified, leaves the impression that Jonsen murdered that captain, in a dramatic courtroom scene. Jonsen is sentenced to death for the murder, while in the novel's final scene, Emily is integrated into a new classroom, while Hughes writes of the little murderer, with a note of ominousness, that "perhaps God could have picked out from among them which was Emily: but I am sure that I could not."
This novel bears obvious parallels with the later novel Lord of the Flies, and I'm left wondering about its portrayal of human nature in childhood. There's an actual real life Lord of the Flies type situation that I read a news story about recently, and happily the children in real life did not become amoral wild things who discard civilization, but rather cooperated and lived peaceably until rescue. On the other hand, you have child soldiers forced into various conflicts worldwide and these children can reportedly become as vicious as you please. However they are forced into it by adults, they don't choose it. Still, it's true that the brains of children are still developing and maturing past their teenage years, so the gulf between childhood and adulthood is real enough, and children surely don't grasp the concepts of consequences and permanence like adults do. There will always be room to explore the difference, and the similarities.
msktprsns's review against another edition
5.0
Magic. All the sensations of fantasy, memory, growing up, and being, in their truest forms. Not the milquetoast platitudes we're meant to believe them to be.
ellisknox's review against another edition
4.0
This is a strange book. It starts out like a children's adventure story but it takes some peculiar turns along the way and they don't end up at all like I thought they would. Highly readable, and a largely-forgotten classic.
antananarywa's review against another edition
5.0
A siódmego dnia, kiedy Bóg odpoczywał, Szatan stworzył sernik z rodzynkami, fizykę i małe dzieci.
dianat's review against another edition
so wtf did I just read?
The title of the book was familiar; the notion that it was “a classic” faintly registered. And it was a re-print by a very reputable publisher (originally published in 1929).
I deliberately didn’t read the introduction by Francine Prose (another marker that this was a serious book) and I didn’t google anything about it or look at any goodreads reviews.
The only thing that gave me a clue of what was to come was the blurb where it said it contained “weird humour and unforeseen violence.”
Well.
I kind of hate this book. It is so dark, but the darkness catches you unawares. Is like you read a sentence and you reach part way through the next paragraph and you have to stop and ask, wait, what really is happening here?
Next thing was the dated language, which was undoubtedly quite acceptable in 1929, is racist and repulsive in the 21st century, and so it was unpleasant and discomfiting.
But.
I’m glad I read it, on many levels and for several reasons.
1. The writing style is quirky and unconventional (at least in the context of the books I usually read). But it works. It’s key to the book’s disturbing effect.
2. I am always interested in books that are deemed #classics, especially any well known book that has anything to do with #Jamaica.
3. The book aims at, and achieves I think, revealing and probing universal truths that we ordinarily don’t think about, some which may not even be apparent to us before the book forces us to confront them. In this story: the inner life of a child and the atavism of the human animal, among other themes.
Would I recommend this book?
Depends on the reader: their sensibilities, and their appetite for multi-layered books that lead the reader to dark places.
The title of the book was familiar; the notion that it was “a classic” faintly registered. And it was a re-print by a very reputable publisher (originally published in 1929).
I deliberately didn’t read the introduction by Francine Prose (another marker that this was a serious book) and I didn’t google anything about it or look at any goodreads reviews.
The only thing that gave me a clue of what was to come was the blurb where it said it contained “weird humour and unforeseen violence.”
Well.
I kind of hate this book. It is so dark, but the darkness catches you unawares. Is like you read a sentence and you reach part way through the next paragraph and you have to stop and ask, wait, what really is happening here?
Next thing was the dated language, which was undoubtedly quite acceptable in 1929, is racist and repulsive in the 21st century, and so it was unpleasant and discomfiting.
But.
I’m glad I read it, on many levels and for several reasons.
1. The writing style is quirky and unconventional (at least in the context of the books I usually read). But it works. It’s key to the book’s disturbing effect.
2. I am always interested in books that are deemed #classics, especially any well known book that has anything to do with #Jamaica.
3. The book aims at, and achieves I think, revealing and probing universal truths that we ordinarily don’t think about, some which may not even be apparent to us before the book forces us to confront them. In this story: the inner life of a child and the atavism of the human animal, among other themes.
Would I recommend this book?
Depends on the reader: their sensibilities, and their appetite for multi-layered books that lead the reader to dark places.
alisiakae's review against another edition
4.0
The High Wind in Jamaica was first published in 1929 as The Innocent Voyage. If you want to draw comparisons, one could consider the story one part Treasure Island, one part Lord of the Flies, with a sprinkle of Lolita thrown in for good measure. Taking place in the late 19th century, we meet the Bas-Thornton children as they explore the jungle and water-holes surrounding their family's Jamaican plantation. After a hurricane practically demolishes their home, the Mr. and Mrs. Bas-Thornton decide to send their children back to England for their safety. Saying anything more than that is hard to do without introducing spoilers. :)
The nature of children is an essential element to the story: how hard it is to tell what they are thinking, how easy it is for them to forget, and how dangerous that can be.
"It is a fact that it takes experience before one can realize what is a catastrophe and what is not. Children have little faculty of distinguishing between disaster and the ordinary course of their lives. If Emily had known this was a Hurricane, she would doubtless have been far more impressed, for the word was full of romantic terrors. But it never entered her head: and a thunderstorm, however severe, is after all a commonplace affair." (p.31-32)
Reading A High Wind in Jamaica feels like a surrealist dream, following the Bas-Thornton and Fernandez children from a decaying plantation to the high seas and beyond. Hughes is a master of showing, not telling, and leaving the reader to connect the dots and draw their own conclusions. As a reader, I appreciate that, it is a skill that is lacking in many modern-day bestsellers. It is a classic that should be more well-known and discussed than it is.
The nature of children is an essential element to the story: how hard it is to tell what they are thinking, how easy it is for them to forget, and how dangerous that can be.
"It is a fact that it takes experience before one can realize what is a catastrophe and what is not. Children have little faculty of distinguishing between disaster and the ordinary course of their lives. If Emily had known this was a Hurricane, she would doubtless have been far more impressed, for the word was full of romantic terrors. But it never entered her head: and a thunderstorm, however severe, is after all a commonplace affair." (p.31-32)
Reading A High Wind in Jamaica feels like a surrealist dream, following the Bas-Thornton and Fernandez children from a decaying plantation to the high seas and beyond. Hughes is a master of showing, not telling, and leaving the reader to connect the dots and draw their own conclusions. As a reader, I appreciate that, it is a skill that is lacking in many modern-day bestsellers. It is a classic that should be more well-known and discussed than it is.
msand3's review against another edition
4.0
The most cynical take on "childhood innocence" I've ever read. It's partly a send-up of childhood adventure stories and partly a psychological examination of how memories are constructed, lost, repressed, or suppressed in absolute moral ambiguity. Fascinating--and at times, very uncomfortable.