Serpent in Paradise

I love the idea of remote islands. Particularly those inhabited by Westerners like Ascension Island or Christmas Island. Or Pitcairn Island, a 1.75 square mile island with fewer than 50 people on it. No airstrip, no reliable communcations, not even a place to easily land a boat. But it has a website! Lots of them.

I just finished reading Serpent in Paradise, the narrative of an Englishwoman who went to Pitcairn pursuing her fantasies of island paradise only to find cold loneliness as an outsider in a complex, tiny, isolated society. Everything she describes about the island — the gossip, the newspaper, the work, the language, the religion — all seems so alien. Good book. For a taste, read this short article by the same author.

Pitcairn was in the news a lot a decade ago, the result of child rape charges against most of the adult men on the island. Lots of complications: arguments about British sovereignty, arguments about where the trial will be held, and of course the question of what punishment means in such a tiny community. Things didn't really improve after the conviction, either. It seems to be a broken place.