Customer Reviews

Serpent in Paradise: Among the People of the Bounty

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Dea Birkett became obsessed with Pitcairn Island, populated with 37 descendants of the 'Mutiny on the Bounty.' It has neither phones, nor a landing strip, nor even a harbor, so just getting there was a tale of perseverance in itself. Birkett thought she was going to a tropical paradise, but after three months, she began to fear for her physical safety.

As other reviewers have pointed out, Birkett is, to put it mildly, a severely flawed person. She lied to get a visitor's permit, although her charade was so transparent, it's hard to believe she fooled anyone on Pitcairn. More serious was her habit of habitually lying and the conflict this created with Irma, her host/employer/landlady. Yet unfathomably, Birkett tells the truth about having sex with the island's sole policeman, a married man. Does she not care how this will affect his family when her book is published? Birkett is clueless about how badly she comes across to the reader.

But she is on target in revealing that this isolated island of 37 people is no paradise. She correctly discovers that violent crime is a problem, and that law enforcement is nonexistent because even the island cop is concerned about retribution from anyone he arrests. Birkett herself eventually concludes her life is in danger. It is noteworthy that in late 2001, the British government announced it was prosecuting a large component of Pitcairn's male population for the widespread practice of adult males engaging in sex with female children. The Pitcairnese do not deny the allegations, but instead claim the British are insensitive to their unique cultural practices(!). The resulting trials may very well lead to the end of this society, which now appears to have been too isolated and too tight-knit for its own good. Birkett is a very flawed observer, but her book has a prophetic quality about it, knowing what we now know about how pathological this supposed 'island paradise' actually is. The end result is a travel narrative that is a fascinating page-turner, about a society that probably won't exist five years from now.

I was astonished by this book. Ms. Birkett gets to Pitcairn Island by lying through her teeth, and it goes downhill from there. I can't imagine why such a xenophobic, suspicious, self-centered woman would choose to be a travel writer, of all things, but she is. Being already familiar with the whole Bounty/Pitcairn story, I can say that this taught me virtually nothing new, except why the Islanders are so reluctant to have strangers come to live with them. She seduces a married man, accuses another (in her book, not in person) of being a peeping tom (Her only evidence being that he moves quietly, and thus could have snuck up to a window and looked in), and towards the end of the book, and her stay, sinks into a paranoid fantasy that the Islanders may be out to murder her. I don't want to be rude, but Ms. Birkett has some serious problems. I'm sorry the people of Pitcairn Island had to share them. I was so amazed at this book I actually read another by her, to see what it would be like. In "Jella: A Woman at Sea", Ms. Birkett buys elephant ivory (In the 1990's), compares a crew mate to a wet rat, and nearly has a breakdown, suspecting that the crew is sending her a secret message to get off the ship in mid-ocean. The secret message? Michael Jackson's song "Beat It" is played during a party. Like I said, she's got problems.

You have probably already read the other (mostly negative) reviews, so I'll spare you an exhaustive retelling of the plot. I was astonished at the blithe way Dea lies on her application to get on to the island-she seems to relish the idea that she "pulled one over" on the natives and beat them at their own game, when it is exactly people like her that they are trying to filter out. She then spends her time on Pitcairn alternately trying too hard to fit in (thus coming across as smarmy and over-ingratiating), or else trying to recreate her Western, more liberated life through the island's few rebellious members ( and coming across as self-centered and insensitive). Her writing style is excellent-she can carry a story beautifully. What a shame then, that her teenage-level emotional maturity causes the story to fall flat. What could have been a great insight into a slowly decaying, yet rich and colorful, society is instead a nasty, "dear diary" high school tittle-tattle. It makes sense that Dea earns her living writing for women's magazines-the dirt she dishes reads just like a Cosmo Hollywood gossip column; except the Pitcairners have absolutely no recourse to Dea's book-some of them can't even read. Dea did want to become a Pitcairner-on her terms only. When the rules became too strict for her tastes (No drinking?! No bacon?! No sex with married men?!) she simply flaunts them, hoping that her "specialness" would win the islanders over. I think the author hoped that the islanders would come across as backwards, strange, and hopelessly out of it, yet I found myself developing an affection for them-especially the ones she most disliked such as tough-old-broad Royal and the sweet misguided Dennis and his doting worrisome mother. Too bad Dea is one in a long line of screwy women who come to Pitcairn hoping to recreate themselves as goddesses of paradise and instead infest the land with their own bitter unrealized dreams.

This book is too much! ...My absolute favorite part of the book, is when, after sleeping with the married guy on the island (which she did as a way of "reaching out" to the Pitcairners), she finds out that he wasn't really a Pitcairner at all, and she is so angry and feels so "cheated!" I laughed so hard I almost cried when I read that part! I also loved the part where she was furious with her friend, who unbeknownst to her sent her a piece of pork along, since it wasn't allowed on the island. She was furious at the insult to her host. However, she could go drink alcohol with the group of islanders who drank, when she knew her host was even more opposed to alcohol than pork, and that it's illegal to have alcohol on the Island. How in her mind did she justify the alcohol as not being an insult to her host and not justify the pork? Her drinking as well as her affair would have been known about by all on the Island, and the reader could tell her hosts knew about it, but the author never figured out "why" they changed toward her. And she NEVER DID get the fact that they all turned on her after she slept with that guy. I guess when that happened and they began shunning her is when she thought they were trying to kill her? PLEASE!!!!!!! The book did leave a lot to be desired information-wise on how they lived, but it also gave a good bit of information. I found the book to be exciting and consuming. It DEFINITELY was worth the read. She was nasty to worm her way into their homes and then turn on them in her book. I sincerely hope the Pitcairners do not think everyone is like her. (I also feel kudos are due Royal Warren...) What a fascinating, unique privilege the author had. I do admire her resourcefulness in getting to Pitcairn as well as her physical fortitude in the sometimes horrific experiences she encountered. It's too bad she couldn't match that with a modicum of warmth, compassion and humility. P.S. WHY does everyone get the impression from the book that the Islanders were lazy? I got the opposite impression. I thought they worked very hard.

When I first saw this book on the shelf my thoughts were, "Oh, this has got to be a good one!". My first thought after reading it was that the title was most appropriate. I can only say that I was amazed by her lack of insight into & empathy for the islanders. The fact that she thought she could have an affair with a married man & not get found out shows her naivete & insensitivity toward such a small community. The saddest part of all is that she's probably ruined it for anyone else that may have wanted to spend some time on the island. They'll probably never trust another outsider & I wouldn't blame them.

This book is both boring and brimming with bad faith. The author, a foot-loose, thirty-something Englishwoman, develops an obsession with the remote island of Pitcairn and becomes determined to go there. She never makes clear why this is so important to her, other than a vague boredom with her life in London. She lies her way onto the island, taking money from an English organization by promising to study the Pitcairn postal system. Once there, she pretends she wants to stay forever, while never for a moment intending to do so.

Her condescension toward the island's natives, nearly all descendants of the famous mutineers from the Bounty, is infinite. She toys with their lives as if they were something less than human, noting their intense desire for privacy even as she accumulates their intimate secrets for her book. She has a "one-night stand" with a married man whose wife was away, rather than with one of the bachelors whose clumsy efforts at courtship she brushes aside. When she abruptly leaves, catching a ride on a passing ship, she arrives back home and begins telling lies again, this time denying that she's had any sexual contact while on Pitcairn.

The author comes across as a shallow, self-serving, contemptible human being. And worst of all, life on Pitcairn as she describes it is simply BORING! Curiously, there is no hint that she knew anything about the scandal that subsequently came out, about the sexual abuse of young girls by the older men of Pitcairn. No doubt it escaped her notice, along with everything else not directly concerned with her own little life. The serpent in paradise is obviously the author herself.

Sadly, a wonderful opportunity for a vivid description of this remote island and its inhabitants was missed. The reader received an unwanted play-by-play description of a visiting captain's "pass" at Ms. Birkett, but is left with many unanswered questions about what life is really like on Pitcairn. The school is mentioned, but what is it like? What do the children do there? In fact, little is said at all about the Pitcairn children--what do they do, how do they play? There was mention of a birthday party, but all that is described is the food and the hearty appetites with which the Pitcairners ate it. Simple but interesting things are omitted--do they bring presents? Where do the islanders bathe? As another reader asked, what do they do with their garbage? The writer was unfair and harsh in her descriptions of the hospitable islanders. This book is a big disappointment and not what the reader expects.

Rarely have I started a book with so much anticipation and been so disappointed. Ms. Birkett seems to understand very little about the Pitcairn Islanders, and about human foibles. Her paranoia, pettiness and lack of character destroy almost any credibility she tried to give this book.

After reading some of the more negative reviews of this book, I was nearly persuaded not to purchase it. However, my curiosity about this author's tabloid-worthy experiences on the infamous island of the Bounty Mutineers got the better of me, and I waited with much impatience for this book to arrive!

Like a lot of Pitcairn enthusiasts, my interest (rather new, I admit) in this tiny, unique community was sparked by a movie interpretation of the Bounty story. In my case it was the 1984 version with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson. Dea Birkett saw this version too, and it was one written line at the end of the film about the descendents of the mutineers still living on Pitcairn today that got us both. While I have worn out my eyes reading histories on the internet, Birkett took her fantasies of this storied place to their ultimate realization, and she wrote this account of her extended stay with the isolated islanders.

This is a real page-turner. Birkett delves into the everyday lives of her hosts with a vigor that, at times, seems reckless. She wants so badly to become a part of these people, to live like them, work like them, and think like them - all the time oblivious to the fact that she can never become a true Pitcairner since she was not born there and does not share their blood. She reports on the failures of other longtime non-native residents and guests to "fit in", disdainfully speculating that they must have done some secret thing wrong, and she does not entertain the idea that she may likely have the same fate befall her. Meanwhile, Birkett sees nothing wrong with indulging in Carlsbergs with the island's rebellious younger set - or even with having illicit relations with one of the men - while knowing her devout host Irma would be furious at these transgressions against both her Adventist faith and her hospitality. The most outrageous thing about Birkett's frame of mind, however, is that she thinks on an island of 48 people she'll never be found out!

I can't judge Birkett for her actions; lord knows we all make mistakes in this life. But so many of her actions - indeed, the very action of writing this book! - seem to be of selfishness. She has put the private lives and most intimate moments of a small group of people up for public display while knowing of their disdain of all written accounts about them. Reading this book does feel, at times, like voyeurism, and I felt a little bad peeking into the private lives and pecadillos of people whom I will most likely never meet and certainly never get to know well. They were unwillingly put in this position (writers are severely shunned on Pitcairn to prevent documents just like this very book from being written; Birkett lied on her landing application about her reason for visiting), a fact which smacks of unfairness and even disrespect.

But you won't want to put this book down. I have to echo the sentiments of a few reviewers here by agreeing that old Dea's got some issues, but she knows how to write a good story. Her descriptions of the island put you solidly there, and the Pitcairners themselves emerge as the complex, fully real people that they are.

I admire Birkett's tenacity in fulfilling her fantasies of getting to Pitcairn, and perhaps most acutely, I admire her willingness to present her all-too-human flaws to the world in this fascinating account. It's a satisfying, if somewhat guilty, read!

Is it possible to write a stultifyingly boring book about a travel adventure to Pitcairn Island? The answer is an unequivocal YES! This book is living proof. The writer - Dea Birkett, remember that name - has absolutely no idea of what makes for an interesting story. She is riveted by trivial details of a sweater, whose nub she carefully describes (this before she even gets to the island), yet seems unable to tell the reader what Pitcairners are like as people, or how they keep from going crazy on their lonely island. She recounts many desultory conversations with islanders, pointless exchanges that go nowhere, yet she has no overarching theme, imparts no lessons (except those the reader can infer). And she completely fails to make the islanders come alive; I couldn't tell them apart, other than by name. Her book reads like a very dull diary by an insipid 14 year old. A cynical editor and publisher calculated there's always a market for a book about Pitcairn. And the cynical author-adventuress was hoping to have a fling and make a buck. There are real writers who can describe everyday life in their own hometowns, and make the story fascinating. This young woman has traveled to the ends of the earth - and she cannot put together a coherent paragraph. The tale, my dear, is in the telling.