Island book review

Since I was already a fan of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, I thought I’d investigate his other, less well-known books. One innovative title that caught my eye was Huxley’s final work, simply called Island. Read our Island book review and book banter for the nitty-gritty breakdown.

A journalist, who is also freelancing for an oil company, gets shipwrecked on an idyllic island. His goal is to connect with corrupt island leadership while he investigates the untapped petroleum resources hidden away in this paradise.

During his staged shipwreck, he is injured, and is confined to a hospital bed as he slowly recuperates. While there, he spends hours (even days) talking with the local doctor about the island’s political philosophy, about their educational institutions, the goals of the local citizens, and about their local politicians.

In other words, this once-idealistic journalist is a spy for big oil. And the plot revolves, after spending literally days and weeks speaking with the doctor, nurses, school administration, and a few local citizens, how they don’t want their idyllic island exploited and changed by outside, materialistic influences.

So, after much talk, and a little observation, the journalist slowly changes his mind about his own life, and how his current actions might harm this little paradise.

I’m shocked to admit this, because I really admire Aldous Huxley’s unique life and his philosophies, but his last novel, Island, was not very good, at least from an academic point-of-view. But, I’m not an academic type-of guy. Therefore, here’s what I didn’t like about the Island, at least at first.

I’ve read a lot of novels by Alexandre Dumas, including The Count of Monte Cristo. In all of his novels, he used nail-biting cliffhangers to entice the reader to continue turning the page.

Regrettably, the Island had only a few, ho-hum type-of cliffhangers.

Usually, a good novel will have unique characters, each with their own distinctive way of speaking and interacting with other people. But, in Island, almost all the characters sounded the same.

They spoke the same way, with the same dialogue and viewpoints. As I continued to read, it sounded almost as if only one person was speaking for all the different characters. For instance, a young island girl spoke exactly the same way her father, who was a doctor, spoke. In real life, that would never happen!

Sure, there were a few individuals who acted differently and spoke uniquely, but they were rare. Unfortunately, I felt insulted, not only by the publisher, but also by the author—I sensed that they didn’t respect my intelligence.

Thankfully, many of the characters had interesting backgrounds. Fortunately, those intriguing personalities kept my interest, despite the lack of genuine dialogue development. Once again, it seemed as though one person was engaging in the dialogue for all of the other characters.

It didn’t take me long to suspect that the author, Aldous Huxley, was using each of his characters to express his own philosophies and opinions. Normally, the lack of unique character-driven dialogue would be a bad thing, and in the Island, it was a bad thing.

Initially, all the characters sounded the same, and that disappointed me. However, the author intrigued me and drew me in as I read what the characters were expressing about religion, politics, and philosophy.

In fact, it didn’t take long for the author’s pontifications to engaged me deeply. Surprisingly, I almost couldn’t stop reading, even though I had other things on my schedule!

Aldous Huxley was a brilliant author and intriguing person. This is a great interview!

Huxley, through his diverse characters on this idyllic, isolated island, expounded fascinating ideas about government, religion, philosophy, economics, physical health, and hallucinogenic drugs. The author brought all of these otherwise mundane topics to life as each character spoke! It was amazing!

But, I’m sure that the author was cleverly planting his own dialogue into each of the characters, even the young island girl who initially found him shipwrecked.

And, just like the philosophers, Socrates and Plato, Huxley allowed the characters to pose questions, and visit real examples on the island, as they were making their rhetorical arguments. So, even though each character sounded the same, the dialogue was extremely compelling.

Even though one-or-two characters had their own style of speaking, most characters sounded the same. Was this a literary device that Aldous Huxley used on purpose?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I suspect he must have known exactly what he was doing as he outlined and wrote this novel. Aldous Huxley was a fascinating and brilliant person.

If you get a chance, read his biography in the back of his novel, Island. You’ll be convinced, just like I was, that Huxley knew exactly what he was doing and purposely made each character sound the same. Why he did that, I can’t even begin to guess!

FINAL VERDICT

Aldous Huxley’s last book, Island, was not a good novel. The characters were poorly developed, and almost all of the dialogue sounded like it had originated from one person.

And, I believe that the ‘one person’ who originated the dialogue was the author himself! He used this unique novel to pontificate and elucidate some very complex subjects.

Those subjects tackled by the author in Island include philosophy, economics, religion, societal structures, and even hallucinogenic drugs. For me, this implausible novel slowly became fascinating, and even spell-binding!

The author’s characters were poorly developed, and served only as a mouthpiece for the author! However, the reason I soon became engrossed by this book was because of the content, and the author’s brilliance in cleverly proving his rhetorical arguments.

So, I loved Island, even though the book, written by Aldous Huxley, was an implausible novel with poorly developed characters. In fact, I had a hard time putting it down even when other tasks demanded my attention!

It was a brilliant novel, and if you are interested in philosophy, existentialism, and societal structures, then Island is a must-read novel!

If you’ve already read Huxley’s novel, Island, please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Content and photos by Doug Martin and Our Book Banter