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nialiversuch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Violence, and Racism
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Child death
jamesdavid's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
sarahjsnider's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
This book has nothing new or insightful to say about its topic. I do not understand why the voice of a white South African woman is weighing in on African colonialism, but there are far better options out there to read. The author did weave the past and present together well, but for what?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Torture
deedireads's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
An Island was the darkhorse of the 2021 Booker Prize longlist, publishing in the US almost a whole year after the prize put it on people’s radar. I appreciated it more than enjoyed it, but it’s a quick, impactful read that will probably stay with me longer than I think.
The story is about an old man named Samuel who lives alone on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country, caring for the lighthouse and subsisting off the land. He spent 25 years in jail for his role in a violent protest to overthrow the (corrupt) government before moving to the Island. Sometimes, bodies of drowned refugees wash ashore, but this time the man is alive. As Samuel brings him back to health, flashbacks to his past mix and mingle with his present circumstance to blur the line between fact and fantasy, companionship and violence.
Some parts were slower than others, but the thing I liked best about this book was the form: how it alternated so smoothly between past and present to really show how Samuel’s current reality was informed by the trauma and circumstances of his past. Also, I sympathized with Samuel even though he’s not really a good person; it does a good job of exploring the fact that there are no winners in colonization or coups. And the ending shocked me, but also felt true and earned, which was impressive.
An Island was the darkhorse of the 2021 Booker Prize longlist, publishing in the US almost a whole year after the prize put it on people’s radar. I appreciated it more than enjoyed it, but it’s a quick, impactful read that will probably stay with me longer than I think.
The story is about an old man named Samuel who lives alone on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country, caring for the lighthouse and subsisting off the land. He spent 25 years in jail for his role in a violent protest to overthrow the (corrupt) government before moving to the Island. Sometimes, bodies of drowned refugees wash ashore, but this time the man is alive. As Samuel brings him back to health, flashbacks to his past mix and mingle with his present circumstance to blur the line between fact and fantasy, companionship and violence.
Some parts were slower than others, but the thing I liked best about this book was the form: how it alternated so smoothly between past and present to really show how Samuel’s current reality was informed by the trauma and circumstances of his past. Also, I sympathized with Samuel even though he’s not really a good person; it does a good job of exploring the fact that there are no winners in colonization or coups. And the ending shocked me, but also felt true and earned, which was impressive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Moderate: Animal death
thequeenofsheba3's review
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, and Slavery
Minor: Confinement
the_bitchy_booker's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a book about trauma, about the past breaking in on you, about how memory lives in your body and cannot be escaped, and about how loneliness sharpens who you are into a fine point that doesn't wear away with time in the way you expect that it should.
Samuel is a lighthouse keeper living alone on an island off the mainland of the country that was once his home. He bears within him the memory of fleeing the countryside as a child, removed by colonizers. The memory of his father crippled in the fight for independence. The memory of his own imprisonment after attending a rally against their dictator. Becoming an informant there under threat of torture, despised by everyone. The memory of being released from prison and finding his sister wants nothing to do with him, his infant son died long ago, the mother of his child a prostitute who abandoned him. A lifetime of poverty, of his own terrible actions, a tide of violence within him that he has never been able to fully restrain or release.
These memories break through his current reality: a stranger, the survivor of an illegal refugee boat, has washed up on his island. He is, by turns, deeply suspicious of and grateful to the stranger. Their overall wordless relationship is characterized by Samuel's own paranoia and the shape of his past.
<Spoiler>He finally murders the stranger by bludgeoning him to death with a rock
The endless ebb and flow of the ocean, wearing away the island, unceasing, is like the pattern of fear and violence that made up his life finally coming to fruition in the same way that the sea wears away the coastline into itself; the island life is hard, relentless, amplifying who he is and has always been. Finally he is returned to his isolation there, unchanged, unchanging as the sea which never could be restrained.
Samuel is a lighthouse keeper living alone on an island off the mainland of the country that was once his home. He bears within him the memory of fleeing the countryside as a child, removed by colonizers. The memory of his father crippled in the fight for independence. The memory of his own imprisonment after attending a rally against their dictator. Becoming an informant there under threat of torture, despised by everyone. The memory of being released from prison and finding his sister wants nothing to do with him, his infant son died long ago, the mother of his child a prostitute who abandoned him. A lifetime of poverty, of his own terrible actions, a tide of violence within him that he has never been able to fully restrain or release.
These memories break through his current reality: a stranger, the survivor of an illegal refugee boat, has washed up on his island. He is, by turns, deeply suspicious of and grateful to the stranger. Their overall wordless relationship is characterized by Samuel's own paranoia and the shape of his past.
<Spoiler>He finally murders the stranger by bludgeoning him to death with a rock
The endless ebb and flow of the ocean, wearing away the island, unceasing, is like the pattern of fear and violence that made up his life finally coming to fruition in the same way that the sea wears away the coastline into itself; the island life is hard, relentless, amplifying who he is and has always been. Finally he is returned to his isolation there, unchanged, unchanging as the sea which never could be restrained.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Abandonment, Colonisation, and Torture
Minor: Rape
bubaubz's review
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Animal death
leahebinns's review
medium-paced
4.0
a very affecting story about isolation, a single-sitting kind of read
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder and Violence
Minor: Child death and Vomit
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