Island: How Islands Transform the World by J. Edward Chamberlin tells of
the impact islands have made on human history. I have taken many visits to
islands as holiday destinations: Prince Edward Island, the Åland Islands, Vardø,
the Faroes, Bornholm, Newfoundland and Tristan da Cunha, so I thought
Island would be a book I'd want to take with me as a desert-island
classic. This book was only 242 pages long but when it takes eight days to get
through as short a book as this, there can only be one reason: it bored me to
sleep. Even though it covered a subject matter that seemed directed to me
personally, for 2013 was the year I announced would be devoted to reading books
about islands in homage to my upcoming trip--now past--to Tristan da Cunha,
Island never caught my interest as I thought it would. Perhaps
Chamberlin's brevity was the problem; for example, I would have preferred to
learn much more about the history of sailing and the development of sails in
their role in both settling islands as well as getting people off them. At least
provide me with more than just a few pages on these topics, as Island,
to its credit, covers an enormous range of subject matter. In addition
to sailing, Chamberlin discusses island formation and continental drift, the
earliest days of European exploration, Darwin's theory of evolution, flightless
birds, the role of islands in literature...so much to cover yet so little
between the covers. I jumped around Island like an island-hopper,
taking in only a little bit of information about each new train of
thought.
When it came to the specific islands themselves, instead of entire chapters
on specific island groups, there were only a few pages on each. Unfortunately
for me, an island-lover as it is, these pages told me things I already
knew, although I am sure that readers who had never read about the Faroes or
Rockall before would have enjoyed their brief sections. He also wrote longer
passages about Iceland, the Galápagos and Newfoundland.
Chamberlin covers the differing opinions of what constitutes an island. How
big should it be? Or rather, how small? Chamberlin, as a Canadian, filled
Island with Canadian references such as the following definition of an
island:
"To qualify as one of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River
bordering Canada and the United States, an island should be over one square foot
in size, be above water three hundred sixty-five days a year, and support at
least one tree.".
Yet there was a different opinion in Scotland:
"The definition of an island in a Scottish census taken in 1861 required
that an island must support at least one person and one sheep. In this case,
trees were not a requirement."
Chamberlin quoted the poetry of E. J. Pratt often, as well as Rex Murphy
and Northrop Frye. I was pleased to find so many Canadian
references.
Tristan da Cunha, by the way, was mentioned twice in Island. The
first was merely a name-drop in the introduction, The second was a paragraph
about the evacuation of Tristan in 1961. While I was on the island I let my
isolation fantasies take over. At times when I want to be alone, or when I have
the dictatorial fantasy of banishing those who annoy me, I will think of this,
the best line in the entire book:
"Islands are good places to send people you never want to see again--and
they are also good places to go if you never want to see people
again."
