Customer Reviews

Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

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

 

 

Contemplations visual, intellectual and spiritual. In 1891, French painter Paul Gauguin fled to the island of Tahiti - "a sixty-three days' voyage, sixty-three days of feverish expactancy;" begun as an unofficial visit regarding the imminent death of the island's king Pomare -- and resulting in a profoundly moving sea-change (spirit, observation, happiness). The Tahitian theology, natural history, and especially the progress of his relationships - a gift. This is a good book to read BEFORE embarking on your "desert island" voyage, but beware! Hard to top once you're there on some other island. An exceptional journal, with a graceful translation (it seems) by O. F. Theis from the French. Rated 9 (needs more color plates of paintings! but a lovely, portable paper edition) Other recommended travel/discovery books: Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia, by Mark Jenkins. 1993 HarperPerennial pb. Letters from Iceland, by W. H. Auden & Louis MacNeice. 1990 Paragon House pb. Why Come To Slaka? by Malcolm Bradbury. 1991 Penguin Books pb. Travels With Lizbeth (writing/homelessness), by Lars Eighner. The Starship & the Canoe (Freeman Dyson & son George) Bird of Jove (falconry), by David Bruce. 1994 Texas A&M pb. The Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin Ishi (anthropology/Native American history), by Theodora Kroeber

Typically considered a journal or memoir, Gauguin's book is in fact an early type of experimental multimedia novel. Thematically, Gauguin burlesques Pierre Loti's "Marriage of Loti", while structurally he interleaves narrative with his own highly-inventive Post-impressionist woodcarvings. It's a fine book: Gauguin could have been a great novelist, if he weren't already busy.

Though you may quarrel with Guaguin tactics or motivations, his art stands alone--brilliant, moving, subtle. It is always intriquing to hear the voice of a master painter and "Noa, Noa," affords that opportunity.

Very readable translation. This is not the best edition if you want good reproductions of drawings. But in terms of getting a good text for a good price it's great.

I'm not really going to review the book itself as I assume most people who are here know that this was Gauguin's attempt to put together a what he hoped would be a best selling travelogue that would promote his art. He was hoping to cash in on the success of Pierre Loti's best seller the Marriage of Loti which was set in exotic Tahiti. It never made any money, but this is mostly because of it's idiosyncratic style. But for anyone interested in Gauguin's Tahitian experience it's great. Also check out his intimate journals which came out posthumously and cover also his life before Tahiti.

Noa Noa, Gauguin's two-year journal of living in Tahiti, is a fine read that touches on the colonial impacts of the expanding French control of Tahiti. Although Gauguin noted the bureaucratic excesses, he does not dwell on it and instead spends the bulk of his journal noting his engagement and involvement with the native population.

Noa Noa deals briefly with his artistic endeavors and tends to focus on his daily discoveries of Polynesian culture. One of the highlights of the journal is his re-telling of Tahitian creation-myths and how it influenced contemporary behavior such as "tunny" fishing. Gauguin is well known for his artistry, and Noa Noa expands his repertoire to include a near-journalistic view of his sojourn in Tahiti.