An Island to Oneself

     Being that this past weekend was not much to speak of - I did taxes a lot of the day Sunday - I will finally do what I mentioned I might a few weeks ago: review An Island to Oneself, by Tom Neale.  While it took me quite some time to read the book this most recent time around, as work and fun weekends tended to get in the way, I enjoyed it nonetheless.  As I brought up in a prior post, I had read the book once before and had been known to make the claim that it was my favorite book I had read.  While I may not be making such a claim after reading it a second time, I still believe it is worth the time to read for anyone with an adventurous side.
     The book was published back in the mid-1960s, and the story itself takes place in the late 1950s and early 1960s which was when the author voluntarily gave up his lifestyle in the "big city" of Rarotonga, Cook Islands in preference of one by himself on an uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific called Suvarov.  I found this book to be exceedingly interesting not only because of how crazy it is to think of someone actually going through with such a plan in order to live a completely self-sustaining life, but also the insight into Tom's thoughts throughout the campaign.  "Perhaps I was a little overawed by the challenge I had taken on.  I was fifty now.  And this dream of mine had been essentially a dream of youth.  Was I too old now to turn this dream into successful reality?" 
     Since reading this book the first time many years ago, one passage really stuck with me and upon reading it again this time around I made sure to take note of its exact wording.  The passage comes about when the author, a native of New Zealand, returns home after being away for a few years in the New Zealand Navy and then many more years while island hopping, taking odd jobs while seeing different parts of the South Pacific.  He was twenty-eight years old upon his return and, being that it was 1931, he had not been able to talk to his family in many years.  "Ten years is a long time, but before long I was back in the family routine as though I had been away hardly more than a month.  Yet, somehow, I remained an outsider in my own mind.  I had seen too much, done so much, existed under a succession of such utterly different circumstances, that at times I would catch myself looking at my mother sitting placidly in her favorite chair and think to myself, 'Is it really possible that for all these years while I've been seeing the world, she has sat there each evening apparently content?'"
     I'm not exactly sure why this quote struck a chord with me, but I think it has to do a lot with a desire to not live a monotonous life and to never be too content.  While most people I know can sit down and crank out a season of the newest TV sitcom or watch a hit comedy movie enough times to easily rattle off a page-long list of quotes, I have always been unbelievably inept as such a thing.  I'm not even very good at sitting still long enough to read a few chapters of a good book.  I prefer to be a bit more active, though if I'm going to take the time to sit down and watch a movie or read a book I almost always try to make sure it's one that I will come away better for having done so.
     The biggest thing I take away from the quote is that I do not want to end up being that person sitting in the same chair ten years down the road and instead would much rather be the person seeing the world and having adventures while the rest of society sits idly by.  But I digress.
     At the end of the day, I recommend reading the book.  If you can't get your hands on a copy then you can find a pdf version of it here: http://www.privateislandsonline.com/an_island_to_oneself.pdf.