Scan barcode
A review by gorecki
An Island by Karen Jennings
3.0
There’s this popular saying, “No man is an island”, which I generally consider true, except when it comes to this book by Karen Jennings. Because here man and island often seem to merge together and to become synonyms.
Samuel is an old lighthouse keeper on a small island off the coast of an un-named country in Africa. He is the only person living on the island, which he never leaves, and if it’s not for the weekly shipment of supplies he’s being brought from the mainland, he would probably never even speak to anyone. One day, though, a half-dead stranger is washed up on the island’s shore, and while they only spend four days together, Samuel’s whole life unravels before us during this time.
An Island is a short book that compresses a lot of major issues such as political oppression, xenophobia, justice, lack of justice, and much more. With it’s tightly packed narrative, An Island shows Samuel as a metaphor for all of these things. Through his turbulent life and the way Samuel has become a remote and isolated version of his former self, Jennings shows us all of these complex topics and feelings, and how easy it is to cross the border from one to the other, especially if you are facing the need to defend what’s yours. I think this is one of those books you gain more from if you read up on Jennings and her experience in writing it and if you read this with someone else and discuss it. There is something about discussing it that adds an extra layer of meaning which you don’t seem to catch iff you’re on your own with it. And while I was left with quite a few questions, I think this was an eye-opening experience to a topic I don’t read much about.
Samuel is an old lighthouse keeper on a small island off the coast of an un-named country in Africa. He is the only person living on the island, which he never leaves, and if it’s not for the weekly shipment of supplies he’s being brought from the mainland, he would probably never even speak to anyone. One day, though, a half-dead stranger is washed up on the island’s shore, and while they only spend four days together, Samuel’s whole life unravels before us during this time.
An Island is a short book that compresses a lot of major issues such as political oppression, xenophobia, justice, lack of justice, and much more. With it’s tightly packed narrative, An Island shows Samuel as a metaphor for all of these things. Through his turbulent life and the way Samuel has become a remote and isolated version of his former self, Jennings shows us all of these complex topics and feelings, and how easy it is to cross the border from one to the other, especially if you are facing the need to defend what’s yours. I think this is one of those books you gain more from if you read up on Jennings and her experience in writing it and if you read this with someone else and discuss it. There is something about discussing it that adds an extra layer of meaning which you don’t seem to catch iff you’re on your own with it. And while I was left with quite a few questions, I think this was an eye-opening experience to a topic I don’t read much about.