Customer Reviews
Perhaps his least enjoyable work - By: M. A. Krul, 18 Mar 2010 
Most people, when they think of Polynesia, think of warm weather, pleasant beaches & overall bliss. Not so with this Paul Theroux travel book through Oceania, despite the book's title: the book was written directly after the author's painful breakup with his first wife. Since Theroux is generally not a man to be easily impressed by what he sees, one can imagine the general tone of the work. Indeed its sombreness together with the rather repetitive nature of his island trip, where for most pages he does not much else than paddlein his kayak & occasionally talk to uninterested locals & eat taro, make for less invigorating reading than some of Theroux's other travel novels.
This isn't to say the book is no fun at all. His descriptive qualities did not suffer, so the amazing island landscapes are vividly pictured as ever as he travels by them. His analysis & depiction of the island societies is very interesting,in particularin how he emphasizes the differences between those islands. Not only are the islands of Micronesia quite different from Polynesia as their societies & attitudes go, but the internal differences are sizable too. Theroux had also not lost his critical edge, & he unfailingly captures the negative consequences of many islands' dependence on foreign states (New Zealand, France) or the still almost feudal nature of Tongan social relations. Sometimes he goes a bit overboard on this: his hostility towards Japanese is remarkablein this book (and not at all as pronouncedin later works). Although indeed there is much to be said against the tourist exploitation of these islands & the destructive nature of such enterprise, & Theroux quite well points this out, his specific hostility towards Japan takes on almost racist forms. Another such thing is his litany against French colonialism & nuclear testingin the Pacific; this indeed is terrible & disgusting, make no mistake, but he does not mentionin context for example the British-American exploitation of Diego Garciain a similar manner.
Nonetheless, Theroux shows very well how many of these paradise islands are, if they are still such, paradises despite the influx of visitors. The introduction of a monetary & commodity economyin societies that used to be based around gift relations has made things much worse, breaking social ties & reducing many islanders to drunks dependent on handouts from colonial owners or dubious salesmen with a total loss of interestin their traditional culture. Now this is always historically the case, & sometimes is justifiedin the name of Progress. Butin the case of the islands Theroux describes, not much good comesin its stead: the living standards & life expectancy are still generally low, & there is not much use for cars, telephones, or other such accoutrements of modernity. While it does nobody any good to want to preserve Noble Savages as if their societies are mere open-air musea,in the case of Oceanic tourism there is good reason to be morose.
On the whole, though, this book lacks some of the energy & variety that make Theroux's other works such page-turners. This is probably not really the author's fault: it is justin the nature of his camping trip by boat that most time is spentin & around fairly similar island landscapes, however beautiful, & talking about little of interest with lethargic locals. This frankly gets somewhat boring to read after a while, although it is impossible to imagine this being boringin real life. There are some interesting tidbits that change the atmosphere temporarily, such as when he meets the former Prime Minister David Lange & converses with him, or the interviews with luminaries such as the King of Tonga & the Governor-General of New Zealand. Also Hawaii, the final stage of his trip, gives an interesting window back onto the 'regular' world, & it is no coincidence that the book ends on a happier note there, as Theroux (now remarried) spends half his time living there. For Theroux fans, I can certainly recommend reading this book as part of the collection. But for those new to the author, I would not start here.
The guy despises everyone he meets! - By: Joanna, 02 Mar 2010 
I bought this book because I dream (or dreamt) of visiting Oceania. After just a few pages I realised this man, who has the best jobin the world, hates it just as much as we hate our 9 to 5 cubicule jobs. And he despises everyone he meets - Australians are agressive & stupid alcoholics, Tongans are stupid & steal everything, Samoans hate & pester you, & throw stones at you, & yes, they also are stupid, & so on & so on.
The book reads well, but after reading it, visiting Oceania is the very last thing you want to do, as you get brain-washed to hate & despise all the Oceanian nations, Australians & Kiwis included.
did he go to the same place as me? - By: nomad, 19 Oct 2009 I read this book a few months ago as I was planning a trip to Fiji. He made the place sound so unappealing I nearly didn't go but I'm so glad I did. The people have to be some of the nicest people on this planet & the islands I visited were paradise. It makes me wonder how jaundiced his descriptions of the other places he visited must be?
A dismal whinge - By: Mike Daplyn, 27 Apr 2006 
This book is a prolonged snivel about the pain of voluntarily going to places the author then found tacky, hostile or boring. By his own account he had not a moment's pleasure from his travels until he reached Hawaii, where it was all American & OK & Not Foreign. The only puzzle is why he did not at a much earlier stage of the trip get on a plane & go there direct; presumably he'd taken an advance from his publisher & had to deliver a book of some sort. The whole thing carries a moral for modern travellers: if you can't engage constructively with the places you go to, then please, please, stay at home - that way you'll be happier, the foreign people will be happier, & you won't needlessley contribute to airline CO2 emissions.
Wonderful Corrective to Lonely Planet Overkill - By: , 21 Feb 2002 
I found this a well-written, very funny antidote to the endlessly sunny, ultimately irritating "travel copy" containedin my Lonely Planet guidebook. Theroux is the best antidote to being stuck on some never-ending bus-ferry-train journeyin the depths of the Third World where there are no Pyramids, Taj Mahals or Great Walls, within a thousand miles, the people are not warm & gracious but poor & grasping & the governmentsin charge are not victims of the West but inept imbezzelers & tin pot tyrants.
Theroux rejuvenates the weary long distance traveller with his unfailing wit, good sense & stubborn determination to be beholden to no one.
I particulary likedin this book his account of Australia & New Zealand struggling with their identitiesin a post 1973 (Britain joining the EU) world. Good writing, & it corresponded with what I was seeingin these countries at the times. His account of the NZ Prime Minister making a pig of herself with her food after running down John F. Kennedy for his personal habits is a bit of satirical writing worthy of Gore Vidal.
His depiction of the the modern squalor & boredom of much of Pacific island life matched my experiencesin places as diverse as Kuwait, Hong Kong & Singapore (of which Theroux writes about with such accuracy & wit - be sure to try his Kowloon Tong & Saint Jack if you like this one).
And despite the sad realities, Theroux almost always likes the places he visits!
