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A review by lachesisreads
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
5.0
On the surface, this is the story of the Bas-Thornton children, who live with their British family on a plantation on Jamaica and are sent home by ship to grow up in civilisation. The ship is captured by pirates, and they have many adventures on the pirate ship before finally getting to England and being reunited with their parents. However, it's so much more than that.
This book is, bewilderingly, classed as a children's book - and a child could probably read it and enjoy it very much, and it would tell you it's about pirates.
But it is not. Reading this as an adult, the unease quickly starts growing, and after the introductory chapters that set up the story, it quickly becomes very wild and very weird. The story is about growing up, about the unbridgeable gap between children and adults, about sexual awakening, about what civilisation means, about moral ambiguity.
It's difficult to talk about this book without giving the plot away, and you really ought to read it knowing as little about it beforehand as you can. It's a wild ride and certainly not a book I'll easily forget.
I read this book for the challenge "20th century classic" in the Back to the Classics Challenge on Books and Chocolate's blog.
This book is, bewilderingly, classed as a children's book - and a child could probably read it and enjoy it very much, and it would tell you it's about pirates.
But it is not. Reading this as an adult, the unease quickly starts growing, and after the introductory chapters that set up the story, it quickly becomes very wild and very weird. The story is about growing up, about the unbridgeable gap between children and adults, about sexual awakening, about what civilisation means, about moral ambiguity.
It's difficult to talk about this book without giving the plot away, and you really ought to read it knowing as little about it beforehand as you can. It's a wild ride and certainly not a book I'll easily forget.
I read this book for the challenge "20th century classic" in the Back to the Classics Challenge on Books and Chocolate's blog.