Customer Reviews

Hippolyte's Island

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Illustrating a novel with foldout maps, collages of flora and photos of penguins might seem like a gimmick, but in the case of "Hippolyte's Island" they add to the delight of the book. Hippolyte Webb is a travel writer, and a sometime explorer and naturalist, a man who seeks adventure and manages to do it without having a telephone. He's at home in his leaking Vancouver apartment (he labels all the water stains as if they were exotic lands) wondering what to do next. He reads about the Auroras, a trio of islands near the Falklands which some people say exist and others say do not. He'll go find out! And he does.

Little does Hippolyte know that journeying into the south Atlantic looking for elusive islands after too few sailing lessons will only be the beginning of the adventure. He has a buyer for the story of his travels, which means that he must work with his publisher. Not having a phone, fax, or computer, he arrives, disheveled, jolly, and accompanied by strangely shaped and smelling bags and crates, to take up residence in the conference room at Rumor Press.

Lighthearted, intelligent, and fun, "Hippolyte's Island" raises questions about what is real and what isn't, and why should we care? Barbara Hodgson's writing is bright and delectable, and this novel is a winner all around. The graphic element is informative as well as fun, and adds to the overall charm of the story. Lovers of literary fiction should treat themselves to this one.

(and who among us would not, right now), this might be your ticket out. Ostensibly the illustrated story of Hippolyte Webb's search for an island which has disappeared from the maps, it is also a tribute to the spirit of adventure, the power of imagination, and the stick-to-it-iveness which sometimes makes dreams come true. Webb, the former owner of a travel magazine and voyager to remote and unlikely places, is also a collector of antique maps and atlases. Seeing the Aurora Islands halfway between the Falklands and South Georgia Island on old maps from the 18th century, but missing from later maps, he decides to try to find them, using equipment from the period.

Hodgson's writing is lighthearted and often very funny, making what must have been a tremendous amount of research seem perfectly natural to an iconoclast like Hippolyte, with his eclectic interests and resistance to convention. Her collages of drawings, maps, charts, and letters from Hippolyte, written on an old typewriter, are so much fun that I pored over them, looking at every detail, and I had to work hard to restrain myself from rushing ahead to see what new delights were waiting just a few pages ahead. And Hippolyte himself is an irresistible character--truly romantic and a little flaky, to be sure, but conscientious and concerned enough with the details of his journey that even the most pedantic among us will empathize.

Sailors, naturalists, archaeologists, geographers, engineers, historians accustomed to research using primary sources, and others grounded in the reality of the here and now should find the book a delightful escape. Those whose spirit of adventure sometimes propels them out of this world and into that of dreams, imagination, and new possibilities will find it positively magical. And those who dabble in writing and drawing and wish we had more talent will be positively green-eyed at Hodgson's ability to do both so well. Mary Whipple

I'm a "slow" reader who likes to take her time savoring the use of language and ideas, so I figured this book would take me a while to finish. I was surprised when I finished it in two days!

This novel with intriguing graphics caught my attention. The graphics are outstanding, and the collage of handwritten notes on sailing and wildlife with photos, watercolors, and drawings gives more information than a verbal description and adds depth and interest to an already interesting book.

The fictional travel adventure is appealing and traveling to a mysterious place that may or may not exist sparked my curiousity. Once I started reading, I wanted to keep reading because the personality of the main character, Hippolyte Webb, was quirky and he was a man of many extreme talents as well as someone with ideosyncrasies and annoying habits.

The main thing that bothered me was his sailing solo for days across the ocean with no previous experience as a sailor other than a basic learn-to-sail course. This was pretty unbelievable, although I found humor in it. Of course, a disappearing island is also unbelievable, but that was a given when I decided to read the book and part of what appealed to me in the first place.

The protagonist of this novel--Hippolyte--is an adventurer intrigued with maps, particularly the incomplete maps of distant, exotic locales. In a marvelous and prescient early scene author Hodgson describes how Hippolyte has embellished and labeled his cracked and peeling home's ceiling into a grand map of an unknown continent.
The plot is set in motion when he succeeds in convincing a publisher to support his quest for a group of long-lost islands explorers supposedly sighted in past centuries (vicinity of The Falklands). Amazingly--since this is set in current times--Hippolyte returns from his trip with the announcement that he has indeed re-discovered the islands. Not only that, he brings drawings and actual samples (shells, dried flora) back from these islands that "can't" be there. The novel's graphical representation of this evidence is supplied by Hodgson, who is as much an artist as she is a writer.
Up to this point then we have the makings of a decent novel, very much in the mold of the second half of Poe's sole novel "The Narrative of Arthur Pym" (1838) which actually mentions these same "lost" islands. But from there Hodgson runs out of ideas or energy. She hastily and unconvincingly concocts a romantic interest between the solitary Hippolyte and a woman who works at his publishing house. They disappear into the mists of the South Atlantic, looking for the mysterious islands he claims to have found. The End. More work devoted to that romance, and further development of the characters, would have made this a richer work. Still, I can recommend it as a reasonably interesting, unchallenging read. Those who do appreciate it would probably also enjoy Ben Jones's "The Rope-Eater", as well as to the Poe novel mentioned above.

I also really wanted to like this book but ended up just getting annoyed by the characters and the writing. The "mystery" of the book (i.e. why are the islands so hard to find) is not every developed much. The main character is supposed to be eccentric and thus interesting. Instead, he just comes across as really annoying.

I just finished this book and enjoyed it from a lot to a whole lot from start to finish. This is my first Hodgson book, but it will NOT be the last. I was initially intrigued by the whole concept, based on a review by a friend of mine. Plus, I love maps, so it was an easy fit to begin with.

What I found as I read was a great character study of a fellow more than a bit out of touch with the 'normal' world, but in a beautiful way. At one point, my worry was whether the people back home would ever buy/believe the story of his travels. Then I got to a point where I no longer worried or cared --- their opinions or endorsements became irrelevant.

Sort like some of the negative reviews. There's a bigger story here than those-whose-feet-must-always-stand-on-solid-ground could ever fathom.
[sea pun unintended ;-) ]

I was completely unprepared for the fantastical turn that the story took near the end --- it felt very Jonathan Carrollish (in the best way). The last 100 pages went by quickly. With the last 30 or 40, my eyes were literally glued to the pages.

Pardon the vagaries, but I wouldn't want to give too many spoilers to those who haven't yet had the pleasure!

I really want to love this book.

Hippolyte's Island is presented with fold-out maps, drawings and photographs of specimens seemingly from the 19th century. Hippolyte, who refuses to welcome any 20th century luxury, is obsessed with finding a set of islands with a dark, muddled history. The first part of the book focuses on his search for the islands.

His adventures are funded by a publisher taking a chance, and are later to be reviewed by a straight-laced editor without any sympathy towards Hippolyte's shortcomings. The second half of the book focuses on proving the first half of the book was real.

Unfortunately, the book suffers from an inconsistent voice. Even Hippolyte changes from an obsessive compulsive man capapble of managing his life as an adult to an erratic, boy-like bohemian dead set on writing a story about... his under-developed adventure.

As a result, we learn that while Hippolyte is an excellent adventurer, he is a horrible writer. And the second half of the book makes the reader put up with Hippolyte's disrespect of anything normal. If Hippolyte wasn't so darn strange, none of the problems encountered after his trip would have surfaced, and you can't help but want to reach in and slap him sometimes. I found reading through the various documents - letters, emails, chapters by Hippolyte himself - to be tedious and unrewarding.

The end of the book does a pretty nice job of wrapping up the story, and the aftertaste of the book sits nice on the bookshelf. Unfortunately, there is a great sense of "so what" throughout the book, as the reader has to wait for the nice bits of Hodgson's writing to surface.

Filled with magical moments of beautiful prose, and unforunate insertions of ugly facts, the book is fighting with itself to either be a historical document or a rich novel. If you are looking for a quirky mix of fact and fiction - this is it.

This is a beautifully made book. The quality of the construction, the maps and the illustrations, make it a treat to read. The story, of a man who re-discovers some islands (the Auroras) between The Falkland Is and the South Georgia Is is secondary. The first part, about the ideas of going there, and the second, the voyage, are not really all that compelling, but the third and fourth, dealing with the attempt by Hippolyte to prove the truth of his story, and Marie's disbelief, are more like a real novel. If you get a chance to buy this, do so. And savour it!

I plowed through this book quickly and enjoyed my entire read. It demonstrates the tension between truth and reality; faith and fact. I have read none of the authors other books, but I plan on trying to get to them soon.

to buy this book, as two of the author's others: The Sensualist and The Tattooed Map are two of my alltime favorite books. Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed. This is the story of Hippolyte, to me an annoying, unlikeable and dirty smelly explorer type (hmmm...the heroine in The Tattooed Map was also none too clean..)who sets out to find some islands that supposedly do not exist. Sounds like a good story, right? Well, it would have been, except that the bulk of the story consists of Hippolyte trying to convince his editor that his journey was fact and not fiction, as she believes. This is done mostly through letters and notes of historical facts sent back and forth. The "finding the islands" part was way too small, and the rest of the book was sooo boring that any mystery etc. regarding these islands is overshadowed by the simple fact that I didn't want to read on. Also, there is some kind of completely unbelievable romance type thing beginning between Hippolyte and his editor Marie that begins to make the book a little bit more interesting, but it never fully develops into anything. Because I paid full price for this book, I forced myself to finish it. I must say that the illustrations did distract from the boredom of the continuous facts and figures in the book, thus raising it's rating from two to three stars. All in all, I was sorely disappointed, especially since I was so looking forward to another novel by this, one of my favorite authors.