Transit of Venus [Paperback]

Julian Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 1993

The Pacific Ocean calls to mind Marco Polo's fabulous kingdoms and the Noble Savage, the guilt-free sex and gin-clear lagoons of Polynesia, and the perfection of idleness on desert islands. Since Captain Cook first went to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the sun, the dream of the Pacific has never lost its force. The journey narrated in this book begins with a much more modern myth - a photograph of a Last Judgement sky glowering on the horizon and spears of light spreading down into the ocean - re-entry vehicles from a "Peacekeeper" missile. It was the source of this man-made vision that Julian Evans decided he had to see. But the journey became a wanderer's tale. Delayed on his way to the "Peacekeeper"'s target by the stories of both white men and islanders, Evans found himself tracing the bizarre outcome of the Pacific dream. For Europeans it is a place of secrets and illusion, where interlopers lose themselves in schemes and drink-fever. For the islanders, beset by gifts of money and military ambitions, there is nowhere else to go. Few places illustrate more powerfully the creeping destructivness of civilization.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The "noble savages" of the islands of the South Pacific now have money and alcohol, military bases, atomic explosions and a good deal of Christianity. The British on Fiji, the French on New Caledonia and the Americans on the Marshalls have all remade these island paradises in their own images, according to Evans. In Suva, the Fiji capital, the author, a British journalist, walks down Victoria Parade past Albert Park, in a city that "reeks of the London suburbs." ("What do you think we're developing the South Pacific for? So everyone can go shopping," a friend tells him.) In New Caledonia, the French are so insistently French that for a long time their navy was the only one in the world to use navigational charts based on the Paris meridian rather than the international standard, the Greenwich meridian. The Americans on the Marshalls Islands have made Kwajalein into a "real nice . . . suburban trailer-park . . . a great place to bring up the kids," Traveling on a slow boat through the islands, Evans documents in sorrowful detail, interspersed with excellent historical background, the loss of innocence.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Enticed by photographs, memories of Australia, and a desire to search for solitude, Evans sets out to experience the islands of the South Pacific. Leaving Sidney by freighter, he journeys by whatever means available through New Caledonia, Figi, Western Samoa, and a variety of islands in the region. With a lack of time restraint and a personal fluidity of choice, he saunters from island to island and meets a colorful array of informative local acquaintances. Evans describes his adventures in this tropical vastness with candidness and clarity. His journey concludes with a visit to the U.S. Army Base in Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, the site of the Missile Test Range. An obvious strength of the book is the brief but excellent history of the islands and the impact of various cultures upon it. This is a good introduction to the area and the people, places, and politics that make it unique. For travel collections.
- Jo-Anne Mary Benson, Osgoode, Ontario
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Minerva (March 11, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749391650
• ISBN-13: 978-0749391652
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,652,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifically witty and insightful travel guide to the South Pacific, September 18, 2008

By 

Donald A. Johnson (Woodstock, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transit of Venus (Paperback)

I cannot speak highly enough about the writing style of this author. From the very first page he had captured my interest and held it raptly throughout. I picked up the Pantheon Books hardcover edition of this book just before I left for SE Asia, because it had been withdrawn from the Worcester (Mass.) Public Library. A criminal shame because this author deserves much better, but a spectacular find for me! This book is a thoroughly unromantic review of the state of the South Pacific islands he wandered through, written with "passion, biting wit, and lyrical sadness" to quote from the review on the dust jacket. Because it was first published in 1992, I will keep a sharp eye out for an update, revision or subsequent books by the same author. Here is but one example of the excellence of his prose in his confession on page 23 for why he undertook this journey:

"The consolation of travel is the control it offers to cowards: you get up and leave; you abandon people; there are fresh winds and fresh places for faulty egos to dilate in; there is a sort of enjoyment to the fear."

So true!