image links to Amazon
|
THE A5 BOOK REVIEWThe Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific is a travelogue by Paul Theroux describing a long trip to the South Pacific, where he mainly traveled by way of a 16 foot kayak. His first marriage was ending, and this was a way to escape, to regroup, and to “be purified by water and wilderness”. The idea started on the back of a book tour in New Zealand and Australia, where he meets a number of interesting local characters and escapes to the wilderness, camping on an Aboriginal reserve. He then starts paddling, island-hopping through Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, then to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Easter Island, finally making his way to Hawaii. His trip covers 51 islands in total, and at the end, he actually finds a little happiness. Theroux’s personal situation influences his work so his cynicism often dominates, but the writing is as brilliant, as funny, and as perceptive as always.
Click here to see reviews and prices for this book on Amazon.
|
A FEW OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS FROM PAUL THEROUX (click here for more)
LEAVE YOUR OWN REVIEW HEREGREAT QUOTES FROM THE HAPPY ISLES OF OCEANIA"More than an ocean, the Pacific was like a universe, and a chart of it looked like a portrait of the night sky. This enormous ocean was like the whole of heaven, an inversion of earth and air, so that the Pacific seemed like outer space, an immensity of emptiness, dotted with misshapen islands that twinkled like stars, archipelagos like star clusters, and wasn't Polynesia a sort of galaxy?"
"The fact that few people go there is one of the most persuasive reasons for traveling to a place." INTERESTING LINKS:
|