I sometimes find it a bit irritating when I buy these sort of reading guides and I find out that the book is out of print. I obtained Islands through play.com’s used book section and I did have to wait a bit in order to receive it.
What makes it more disappointing is that the hassle was not worth it as I did not really like the book.
Islands takes place in South Africa, during the mid 1600’s when it was just being colonised by the Dutch. Here we meet the South African Native Chief Harry, who was the first African to make friends with these colonisers and act as a go-between. He later inducts his daughter Korota into the colony and the whole story focuses on her relationships and interactions with the Dutch people she grew up with. Later the book then moves on the life of her first born Pieternella. In all cases there is a clash as neither culture wants to accept each other fully.
Really, though, what we are gettting is an extended history of South Africa, and an explaination on all the problems that occured some centuries later. However this is the only reason why I stuck to the novel, as I found it to be very flawed.
For one thing I did not find the character memorable in any way no matter how hard I tried I could not sympathize with them, I found the plot and dialogue to be plodding and in the end I began to get irritated with everything and was glad to read the last sentence.
That’s all I can say here. I don’t like slagging a book off on a blog but Unfortunately there are times when I read something I don’t like and this is a case in point.
The Bobsphere 