Customer Reviews

Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What a missed opportunity. This could have been an insightful book about a truly puzzling and horrifying development of human culture, if intelligently written. But the author cobbled together her dispatches to the New Zealand Herald, filled in the gaps with gossip and her own pouty reactions to other aspects of community life on Pitcairn, and stretched the book to twice its necessary length. She is shocked! Shocked! To find internecine disputes, patronage, parochialism, favoritism, and suspicion of outsiders on what is essentially an isolated tribal population of fifty somewhere in the South Pacific. Shocked to find that the population shuns her as a journalist. And her easily bruised sensibilities show as she undercuts the power of the main story of sexual abuse of children by diluting it with her snarky comments on almost every person on the island, generously spicing her writing with gossipy asides like "Someone said" and "Someone heard," and offering us distasteful observations about who likes whom. I would hate to be this woman's neighbor. And unless I missed something she apparently believes that Clark Gable and Mel Gibson are the planet's main source of information about the Bounty mutiny and Pitcairn, when more people have read Nordoff and Hall's work than have seen the movies. Indeed, her neglect of much of the written material, and her paltry treatment of the amazing background of the Bounty descendants, in favor of her high-school level snit about the everyday social graces of the inhabitants makes one wonder if she has even read anything but her own writing. A disappointment. It gets one star because she was willing to make the trip.

Sometimes I think a book ends up getting reviewed more as a commentary on its content than as a piece of writing. I would give this book 5 stars if I were just making a statement about how horrifying all that happened to the women of Pitcairn over the years was. However, as a piece of writing and a testament to that horror, this book is deeply flawed.

My first issue---the length. The author covered the trial on Pitcairn---that was 6 weeks on the island. About a third of the book is about that time. She could have easily covered the history and aftermath in another section that length (better researching and writing would have taken up more space, but that didnt' exist here). The rest of the actual book is quite literally repeating stories already told, with pauses to again mention how awful it all way. Nothing new is learned or gained.

My second issue---the author let her social classism into her writing far too much. She obviously has no idea what it's like to live in a closed or small society. That certainly doesn't excuse ANYTHING the child abusers did, but she also seems to have total scorn for anyone who didn't put every once of their being into stopping what they suspected was happening. She seems to never have lived in a small town, to say nothing of a tiny island with literally no way to get off it. She also comments far more than is necessary on things like the clothing of the islanders---who showed up for court in a dirty shirt or a t-shirt. I wonder if it occured to her that with no reliable source of water or electricity, you might slightly lower your standards for clothing appearance. She seems disgusted that the islanders spend a lot of time watching DVDs, instead of in more high minded pursuits. All this muddies the message here.

My third issue---I think much of her anger is wrongly directed because she felt slighted on the island. I think somehow she thought everyone would be thrilled to have her there, and would be friendly and kind and welcoming. She mentions often when people wouldn't talk to her, or said mean things to her. She hits the nail on the head when she notes that journalists usually don't have to live right in the same area as those they are writing about. If they did, they might write a bit differently.

The fourth and biggest issue---by writing a book that so poorly written, she lost the chance to truly serve the women that were so abused. I nearly gave up on my reading several times. This is a story that cries out for a masterful piece of writing. Of course there will be bias, but a good reporter would have at least made an attempt to understand the accused as well as the victims, and I don't think she did either here. In particular, her hatred for Steve Christian shines through so strongly that even I felt a little sorry for him, and I couldn't be more sickened by what he did.

I hope another book, or several, gets written about the child abuse trials on Pitcairn, because this one is not the one to read.

I have been fascinated with Pitcairn Island since I first saw Mutiny on the Bounty. I had visions of an island paradise. I then heard about a sexual abuse scandal on the island at one point but the news did not spend much time on it so I did not learn much. Then I saw this book.

While Lost Paradise first and foremost is a book about the horrible sexual abuse and child molestation scandal that occurred on the island it also gives the reader an understanding of how the mutineer's legacy led to this modern day tragedy. The author does a great job in interweaving the stories of a modern day trial on an isolated, remote island of approximately 50 people, most of who were relatives of the mutineers who decided to make the deserted island their home in 1790.

In a moving chapter called "Reaping a Sad Legacy Since Bounty Times" the author explains that after the mutiny Christian returned to Tahiti. After inviting some Tahitians (mostly women) on board for a party Christian cut the anchor cable. One woman jumped overboard and six older woman were left of on a nearby island but a dozen women including a girl of 14 were left for 15 men. She writes "Such is the basis on which Pitcairn was established: women abducted and shared out like rations of rum, then held captive, effectively, on a remote island 1,300 miles from home." Some 10 years later only one mutineer was left alive (as well as most of the women and the children fathered by the other men) because of infighting and illness.

In another chapter called "Lord of the Flies" the author looks at what happens when a small group of people create their own society on a deserted island. She compares the culture to other isolated islands.

I want to stress that this information is intertwined with the stories of those on trial and the victims as well. The information about the trial and life on modern day Pitcairn Island is well documented and seemingly fair.

In order to make this book as good as it is the author needed to be part criminal trial reporter, part historian and part anthropologist. She was all three and more. This is a fascinating book about a terrible abuse scandal on isolated island founded by famous mutineers.

Kathy Marks, the author of "Lost Paradise" was one of only six journalists allowed access to Pitcairn and who covered the sensational trials of several influential Pitcairn inhabitants, prominent men who were accused of the most abhorrent crimes - that of sexual abuse of young girls on the island.

Pitcairn Island has historic significance going back generations, as it was the island that became home to Fletcher Christian and other mutineers from the HMS Bounty. Today, it is home to about 50 descendants of the early settlers and until recently, was viewed as a sort of paradise on earth, an idyllic island, remote and peaceful. Little did the general public know of the dark secrets concealed for generations by the island's inhabitants, and even those from the outside world who were privy to what was going on - that of the systematic sexual abuse of young children, condoned by many of the inhabitants, and seen as part of the island culture. The horrors finally came to light when one young teenage girl alleged rape and the world discovered Pitcairn's horrific secret.

Reading this book is like "The Lord of the Flies" come alive - how a remote society, isolated from the outside world, developed close kinship and strong bonds, and where the strong preyed upon the innocent, almost 'cannibalistic' in nature, where grown men, so-called leaders of others systematically indulged in the violation of innocent children. Worse still, is the revelation of the cult of secrecy surrounding the abuse, where the violated have no voice and rights to decry the abuse, instead are forced to endure and keep silent.
Kathy Marks does an excellent job painting a compelling portrait not only of the case proceedings, but also of the culture of the Pitcairn Islanders and the foundations of the society that allowed for these abuses to go on for so long, unchecked.

I found those who abetted these criminals extremely abhorrent - justifying the abuse as part of the island culture of breaking them in? The attitude of indifference is simply appalling. I wonder at the years of therapy needed to get the victims over their trauma.

This is horrific reading, but very compelling, and I for one could not put the book down. Highly recommended.

In 2004, a trial was held on Pitcairn Island, that tiny speck of land in the vast Pacific Ocean, and settled in the 1700s by the mutinous crew of the infamous HMAV (His Majesty's Armed Vessel) Bounty.

But eventually, Great Britain declared that those events were a long time ago, far, far away. Can't we all be friends?

That seemed to be the case for the remaining families on Pitcairn Island, until allegations of mass rape and child abuse were uncovered.

In Lost Paradise, author and journalist Kathy Marks was selected to accompany the lawyers and judges in a trial that had neighbors accusing neighbors and families accusing families of the gravest misconduct. Marks reviews the initiation of the original investigation, the various trials, and then delves, speculatively, into how and why this abuse could occur, and whether it is the fault of the British government, clueless or powerless religious leaders and school teachers, fearful parents, or simply the result of an island culture's unique history and evolution.

The residents of Pitcairn Island are terribly angry at the British government, their accusers, and Kathy Marks and the other journalists. "The unforgivable crime, in the Pitcairners' eyes, was not sexually assaulting children, but betraying the island" (p. 79).

Marks uses her journalistic eyes and ears to capture, as well as possible for an outsider, the sense of Pitcairn as a place. Although idyllic in some ways, living on a speck in the ocean has its drawbacks as well. It is not a place for the weak-willed. Leaders needed to be strong. And everybody seemed related to everyone else. It is unknown when child abuse on the island started (indeed, when does it start anywhere?), but over the past 40 years its "acceptability" seemed to increase. This "acceptability" wasn't legal, moral, or even discussed. Marks points out evidence during the trials and her investigations afterward that this abuse was a well-know "secret". It was the "Pitcairn way." And, from the islanders' perspective, they wanted to deal with it in their way, not necessarily the British legal system way.

And they certainly didn't appreciate the role of journalists. "While Betty was still friendly to us, in her slightly guarded way, the animosity of most of the other locals was getting me down. It was not as if the islanders knew any of us personally; they disliked us solely because of our jobs. The majority believed, or claimed to believe, that the media were writing and broadcasting fiction. My perception of reality seemed so different from theirs that I sometimes felt like I was going mad" (p. 129).

What I know about the trials (there were more than one) is nothing from the national or international newspapers; my perspective comes entirely from reading this book. Certainly there are known cases of mass delusion involving child abuse, but clearly it occurred. The debate should be not if, but how much and by whom? But the islanders' focus was on the absence of a crime committed. "The only thing that really unites the islanders is survival, and when it comes to survival, community takes precedence over family and individuals. Yet, it is debatable what community means to the people of Pitcairn, or what they are so intent on preserving: the collective well-being, and their common history and culture, or simply their own self-interest. In order to preserve communal harmony and maintain the status quo, certain parents effectively opted to sacrifice their daughters. But while some kept quiet out of a misguided sense of loyalty, others, it seems, were not prepared to give up their lifestyle and status" (p. 217).

Pitcairners fought, and are probably still fighting, very hard against all charges, even with some defendants pleading guilty and testifying in court that this abuse occurred.

Although Marks pulls out the specter of Lord Of The Flies, by William Golding, I think there are many non-fiction examples of group-think linked with abuse: certain religious groups (Marks mentions some), gangs and their traditions, and atrocious abuse as a means of sowing terror (think Sudan). Clearly, the worldview of Pitcairn Island residents strayed from the conventional, from the norms of how a healthy community protects and nurtures its children, particularly girls, in a male-dominated society.

"The Pitcairn story makes us shiver. We recognize that hellish little universe, and we recognize ourselves. The island offers a glimpse of the darkness that lies within every one of us" (p. 284).

Here's what we know. Child abuse wasn't invented on Pitcairn Island. Horribly, it occurs everywhere. Marks argues that the uniquenesses of Pitcairn Island allowed this abuse to flourish. Her story, as a journalist, wasn't so much the abuse itself, but the vigorous defense of the perpetrators, and the lack of a support network around the victims. She saw a situation where the perpetrators called themselves the victims while the victims were labeled the perpetrators.

For a journalist, that is a story to follow.

I can't add much to the great reviews above. If you want to know about the serious and widespread rape of little girls that has occurred on Pitcairn Island, probably for well over a 100 years, this is the book to read.

On a different note, I am impressed to learn that of the 15 men, 9 mutineers and 6 Tahitians, that settled on the island, within four years, all but two were dead, almost all by murder! One certainly has to sympathize with William Bligh who had to captain these thugs. It would be like going on a boat ride with a bunch of Hells Angels.

IN SHORT: an excellent read!

For many years I've had a mild interest in Pitcairn; that tiny little speck of land in the South Pacific where the Bounty mutineers fled after their revolt. I'd thought it might be an interesting pace to visit, you know? This little place out in the middle of nowhere.

This book is the first I've read about Pitcairn and it talks almost exclusively about the sex abuse trials that went on there in the early part of this decade. The book describes in great detail what it was like being a young girl growing up on an island dominated by men who seemed believe the girls existed solely for their pleasure. It talks about the fear and the terror of knowing that you could, and probably would, be raped anytime, anywhere, and that no one would bother to do anything about it.

I hadn't known too much about the case, not surprisingly it wasn't well-covered by the American media outlets, so reading this book gave me a lot of information I hadn't already had. I'd been under the impression it had only been a couple girls and a couple men. I was rapidly disabused of my notions.

The book is written by one of the few reporters who were on the island during the trials. She has a nice, easy-to-read writing style, and though I'll admit at the beginning I thought she was one of those sorts of writers that has an, "all men are evil" stance, I quickly changed my mind once I got into the story.

This is a sad and depressing tale, but it does end on a positive note, with some real change coming to Pitcairn after decades of neglect by the Brits and New Zealand. Though it sounds like every generation of children, and not just the girls, have had large amounts of harm inflicted upon them by adults, perhaps future generations won't have it happen to them. Perhaps the chain of abuse has been broken. Perhaps. Time will tell.

Benefiting from extensive Hollywood exposure over the years, the "Mutiny on the Bounty" has become an increasingly romanticized event. Ordinary sailors rebelling against a tyrannical Captain Bligh, Bligh's extraordinary journey back to civilization after being cast adrift with a few supporters in a lifeboat with no compass, some of the mutineers settling on the virtually unknown Pitcairn Island to create a life for themselves and their newly-created "families" consisting of sensuous Polynesian women...the story kind of writes itself.

But the romanticized version is a far cry from the reality, which Kathy Marks does a good job of describing. What Pitcairn Island became was not a paradise lost, but an incestuous community where, as the phrase goes, "some animals were more equal than others," and where men ruled the roost with little consideration for the women of the island beyond their sexual value. (This was in fact the case from the very beginning, because virtually all of the women who ended up on Pitcairn had been at best tricked or at worst kidnapped from other islands in the area.)

Pitcairn is considered a British holding because the mutineers were British. As Marks points out, the island, while certainly isolated and difficult to get to, was neither unknown nor unvisited by military vessels even when the original mutineers were alive. Except for a period during WW II, there has been more or less continuous communication with the island's inhabitants. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church has had a rotating ministership onsite for decades. In fact, the island long ago became a cruise ship mecca, even though until recently the waters around the island were considered so difficult to navigate that only the Pitcainers themselves were capable of doing so.

In other words, outsiders have visited and even settled, and yet the island remains populated by between 60-200 people at any given time. Of those people, a certain group of men have historically dominated the power structure and been able to "rule" virtually unchecked. And one of the things this group had control over was the women and young girls of the island, to the extent that girls as young as 5 were repeatedly sexually assaulted, often for years, but could do nothing about it. Because the men assaulting them were often the brothers, fathers, and uncles of their mothers and fathers, the girls' parents refused to act in their own childrens' defense. It was *expected* that older men would "break in" younger girls, brutally or not, with the result that girls became pregnant at obscenely young ages, not to mention traumatized and even injured. The very outsiders who should have helped -ministers and teachers, for example - quickly become co-opted by the system and did nothing either.

When this situation came to light in 2000 as a result of a complaint by a young Pitcairn woman to a sympathetic outsider the British government, acting through its New Zealand legal proxies, was forced to investigate and finally brought several men to trial on the island itself, trials which pitted family against family and children against their parents in haunting ways. "Lost Paradise" is the story of those trials, the men who felt free to rape and terrorize young children to whom they were often related with impunity and the girls and women who were not just victimized but trapped in a tiny town on an island from which they could not flee until their late teens if at all.

While Marks is clearly liberal in outlook - she admires New Zealand's PC-concept of "restorative justice" while unwittingly citing local crime statistics that prove that the system clearly doesn't work - "Lost Paradise" is fortunately not tainted by an overtly PC tone. It is instead a fascinating look at what *really* happens in a heavily romanticized but virtually closed society when power is both unevenly distributed and wielded with an iron fist, and is well worth reading.

Kathy Marks did a remarkable job writing this book. "Lost Paradise" was compelling, factual and offered insight into a society gone horribly astray. Whether you are familiar or unfamiliar with the drama that has taken place on Pitcairn Island, this book delves deeper than those judging and prosecuting the legal entanglement dared, to take a look at just where society failed. How many people needed to suffer for justice to prevail? Is there really justice?

The generations as well as the nature of abuse was staggering. Taking a look at a society where perpetrators of rape, pedophilia and domestic violence are applauded, this book delves into moral questioning and historical questioning as to how it could have come to this. Firm proof indicates just how long outsiders of the island knew of these problems before they came to light and the world was made aware of them. The legal, moral, and personal revelations in this book are shocking, and bring an incredibly unique culture into light. Taking it a step further, the book discusses human nature at large. Were the results unique to Pitcairn Island, or to any small, unsupervised and interdependent society?

Several years ago, I became curious about Pitcairn Island and its unique history, how it was settled by mutineers and a few Tahitians who had been tricked onto the ship (The Bounty) before they set out for this haven where they would hide from the law. Current web pages belie the true nature of this society. I thought that it was a quaint island paradise where natives worked communally and produced fine woodcarvings and honey for export. This book makes it clear just how hard these people worked to maintain this illusion.

The author spent several weeks on this island interviewing people and getting a feel for the history and culture of the place. She was one of only six to be able to witness the courtroom proceedings that were prosecuting only a few of the worst offenders. However, it is made clear that virtually every man on this island and many of the women engaged in horrible kinds of abuse of children. The women, even if they didn't rape the children (and rape often began as early as three) remained silent. If they did speak up, it was usually to chastise the child for taking part in the abuse. When parents did speak up for their daughters, they were summarily ignored and dismissed.

Because of the small size of the population, huge amounts of abuse took place between relatives. Brothers would rape sisters, grandfathers would rape granddaughters, uncles would rape nieces and nephews would rape aunts. The only taboo was that fathers would not rape daughters. Everything else was ignored or even encouraged.

The author notes how when the island was first settled, the English mutineers each took a wife and they allotted three Tahitian women for the nine Tahitian men that they had brought along against their will. After two of the mutineers' wives died unexpectedly, they forcibly seized two women from the Tahitian men. This led to an uprising and the Tahitian men killed several of the mutineers. The author postulates that this was the defining event in the history of this island. After this point, nobody would pay any attention to a person who wanted to take advantage of a woman. No longer would people fight over women or even try to defend the honor of their wives and daughters.

There are stories in this book of married couples performing sexual acts in front of children. Some wives would find five year old girls for their husbands to molest and rape. Some rapists managed to continue this horrible practice well into their eighties.

Even the mayor took part in the horrors.

So, why were only a handful of rapists prosecuted? The answer is that the entire island was guilty. If people found that their daughter had been raped by a certain man, chances were that the father of the girl had raped the rapist's daughter or wife. In such cases, both parties dropped the charges.

As one reads this book, the sense injustice becomes sickening. The verdict at the end does little to repair this feeling. Sufficed to say, those who were charged in these crimes were given the opportunity to build their own jail. The book describes them as posh, ocean-view apartments that are now being used to house distinguished visitors.

All I can say is, if you enjoyed Lord of The Flies, you'll love this book. It is nothing short of a grisly view of an anarchic tropical paradise gone horribly awry.

Remote islands are fascinating case studies given that the evolution of species and culture are not nearly as affected by the diversity of nearby populations since there are relatively none. This can often lead to an accelerated rate of evolution of an island's given population with startling results. With Lost Paradise, the subject is how the transplanted group of Bounty mutineer men who kidnapped some Tahitian women were able to create a sustainable society along with the mutations that followed from what advanced or even many primitive civilizations would define as evil.

Kathy Marks has plenty of extraordinarily horrendous material to work with as she describes a society of mutinous kidnappers whose present day progeny end up sexually abusing other families' daughters while turning a blind eye to the abuse of their children. Mark's describes the descent into an extreme form of patriarchy based on the conditions and violence experienced when the Island was first settled. Marks also does a great job of insuring we are able to understand this horror without gratuitous descriptions of the acts. All in an environment that on the surface currently appears to be not much different than other small, culturally British societies that are not as isolated.

Mark's background as a working journalist and the standards for intellectual honesty used here are convincing, much to the dismay of the supporters of this patriarchal society that would prefer the world was not aware of the horrors their women were forced to undergo as a de facto rite of passage. In fact one of the most fascinating perspectives of this story is that most Pitcairners perceive the abusers as the victims, not their wives, sisters, or daughters, who are frequently perceived as traitors.

While I recommend the book given the story and stock I place in Marks' integrity to accurately convey the story, the book itself has two major flaws that limit its impact (due to readability) and narrowness of the perspective.

Marks is excruciatingly thorough in reporting the tale of many of the victims who are still alive in terms of who did what to whom, including those who've since moved away from Pitcairn Island. I would say to the point of stale repitition. This is especially evident after the trial verdicts where Marks spends dozens of pages piling on accounts of abuse in spite of the fact I believe she's already provided ample accounts leading up to the trial verdicts. These dozens of pages could have been easily cut with no loss of perspective.

Soon into the book it becomes self-evident to the reader that the true tales on Pitcairn eerily parallel the classic novel Lord of the Flies (50th Anniversary Edition). Mark's does an excellent job of exploring those parallels in a chapter of that name a couple of dozen pages past the trial verdict. It would have been a far better book if Marks had deleted all the tales between the verdict and this chapter. Marks could have then followed the Lord of the Flies (50th Anniversary Edition) chapter with a chapter or two of perspective based on interviews from sociologists and cultural anthropologists to provide some functional expertise and a broader context to the story. Instead we are left with a lot of great tale, told far too redundantly with no overarching perspective beyond the fact that the banality of evil requires our constant diligence.