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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific

Paul Theroux

4.01 · Rating details · 5,732 ratings · 300 reviews

Renowned travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux has been many places in his life and tried almost everything. But this trip in and around the lands of the Pacific may be his boldest, most fascinating yet. From New Zealand's rain forests, to crocodile-infested New Guinea, over isolated atolls, through dirty harbors, daring weather and coastlines, he travels by Kayak wherev ...more

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Paperback, 528 pages

Published 1993 by Ballantine (first published 1992)

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Apr 28, 2020 W rated it liked it

Shelves: travel

Until I arrived in Australia many years ago,I had never heard of the island nations of the Pacific.But soon,I became fairly familiar with them as people from many of those islands were living there too.

In a way,I envied them.I've always found a certain charm in the idea of living on a Pacific island.Paradise,however,comes with its share of hazards.

I had earlier read about Paul Theroux's travels by train.This time,he takes an even more unconventional mode of transport,paddling the Pacific,using a ...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Pattie rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: those who love travel writing

I would NEVER want to travel with (or spend any time with) Paul Theroux, but damn, can he conjure up a sense of place. Cranky, complaining and mean-spirited, but vastly entertaining.

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Mar 10, 2018 Diane in Australia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paul-theroux, nonfiction-travel

This book seems more pensive than Paul's usual fare, and that may be due to that fact that he set out on this trip right after he, and his wife, separated. So, he was downhearted, and at loose ends emotionally. I think it made him more in tune with his fellow man, looking outward at them from his inner place of sad solitude. He didn't write in a depressing manner, far from it. I felt it was a journey that was close to his heart, in many ways, and somehow he translated that deepness to the writte ...more

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Jul 01, 2008 Oceana2602 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who are capable of loving Theroux

Shelves: male-writers, english, 2005, favourites, travel-literature

Ah, Theroux! How much do I love Theroux?

This is one of my favourite books by him, not only because of where he is traveling. I know, many readers don't like Theroux because he is so seemingly negative. I've heard people ask why he doesn't stay at home if he doesn't like what he sees, but see, I don't think he doesn't like where he is. But he is human, and he sees and describes the world he travels thruogh as a human.

So if you expect great travel writing to sound like "and the we visited the pyr ...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: worldlit2015, location-solomon-islands, location-new-zealand, location-australia, location-fiji, location-cook-islands, location-easter-island, read2015, location-marquesas, location-tonga

This is the last book for my year of reading books about or set in or from Oceania. It is bittersweet indeed! This one sat on my shelf at home for several years, actually, and I almost didn't get to it again this year. I think it's Theroux. On one hand he goes on these amazing adventures, on the other hand he is cranky and judgmental and while some reviews claim this trait to be "wickedly funny" (Los Angeles Times) I have this feeling deep down that in another person's hands, the experiences mig This is the last book for my year of reading books about or set in or from Oceania. It is bittersweet indeed! This one sat on my shelf at home for several years, actually, and I almost didn't get to it again this year. I think it's Theroux. On one hand he goes on these amazing adventures, on the other hand he is cranky and judgmental and while some reviews claim this trait to be "wickedly funny" (Los Angeles Times) I have this feeling deep down that in another person's hands, the experiences might be more compassionate, perhaps more insightful, and that holds me back from diving in. He hates the travel writers who stay in 4-star hotels and write about fine dining experiences and don't see the actual people and places, and we agree on that point. Still he tends to treat each experience with a person in a place as representative of that people group and place, and doesn't leave a lot of room for a range. That comes across in a big way in this book (as anyone living anywhere in Oceania is fat, lazy, and not overly friendly, according to Theroux) but he does manage to characterize each place he visits as slightly different from the other.

He also doesn't spend a long time in any of the places he writes about, so even just because of circumstance his impressions are sometimes shallow. This is not an ethnography on any one place in Oceania. This isn't even really journalism, rather some kind of hybrid between light journalism and adventure travel writing. It helped to remind myself of this so as not to get too upset about generalizations and mistakes, of which there are plenty. This is also pre-internet, written while the first Gulf War was just winding up, where he has to listen to the actual radio or read an actual newspaper for news. Somehow that adds a slowness to the pace of the book that I actually appreciated. It is paddling (some of) the Pacific, not cruising or zipping between. (And the paddling is really done not far from any shore, he isn't in his little boat traveling from place to place most of the time.)

Still. I did not hate the book. Oceania is so huge and the literature from the countries there tends to be from the bigger places with more industry - Australia, New Zealand, a bit from Samoa, and not much beyond that (other than from journalists or anthropologists, of whom I read quite a bit this year.) Through his eyes I could see places I had yet to experience, and that definitely rounded out my reading journey.

One thing I appreciate about Theroux ever since reading The Great Railway Bazaar is that he doesn't try to keep himself out of the writing. His personal life is the lens he views the travel through, and this time around he has just separated (permanently) from his wife. Early on he says:

"Travel, which is nearly always seen as an attempt to escape from the ego, is in my opinion the opposite. Nothing induces concentration or inspires memory like an alien landscape or a foreign culture. It is simply not possible (as romantics think) to lose yourself in an exotic place. Much more likely is an experience of intense nostalgia, a harking back to an earlier stage of your life, or seeing clearly a serious mistake. What makes the whole experience vivid, and sometimes thrilling, is the juxtaposition of the present and the past-...."

While he reflects on his own life, he has some unexpected encounters. This idea of "paradise" is the first to go:

"I paddled away thinking how I had once seen these islands as idyllic. I had been wrong. An island of traditional culture cannot be idyllic. It is, instead, completely itself: riddled with magic, superstition, myths, dangers, rivalries, and its old routines. You had to take it as you found it. The key to its survival was that it laughed at outsiders and kept them at arm's length.... On this visit I had felt an undercurrent of violence - and it was not only because I had been threatened. It was something in the air - a vibration, the cries of certain birds, the way the wind whipped the trees, the stifling darkness of some jungle paths, and the sudden noisy jostling in the leaves that shocked me and left me breathless."

Immediately after leaving the Trobriand Islands, there was a major battle between two groups, leaving over 30 people injured and one dead. It isn't just danger that wipes out the ideal paradise - it is more frequently the European influence, the missionaries, the move away from traditional work toward junk food. (Who could ever forget the comparison between human flesh and Spam?)

Speaking of missionaries, they make a frequent appearance in this book. From the Seventh Day Adventists who guilt islanders into not eating the meat and fish they had in their traditional diet (a similar issue illuminated in Serpent in Paradise about the all-SDA island of Pitcairn) to the Calvinists who added restrictions in New Zealand to the entire shut-down of any business on Sundays to any denomination vilifying nudity and a more open sexuality. Not knowing much about Mormon doctrine, I was surprised/amused to learn that Polynesians were "always Mormon" and the Mormon missionaries see it as their job to "remind" them.

"In Samoa, as in other Polynesian places, I found myself muttering against missionaries and generally rooting for heathens..."

"Still, life went on in its passive Polynesian way and somehow people managed still to dance, to drink, to smoke and fish and make love."

Throughout the book, Theroux also discusses the people from the original Oceania cultures in contrast to others - the large Indian populations in Fiji, Chileans on Easter Island, Australian tourists everywhere, and the Japanese in Hawaii. According to the author, family is so important that outsiders may never assimilate. I'm not sure he's right but it was an interesting perspective. It is also useful to view some of these islands from the water instead of the land - beauty, danger, perspective. ...more

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Dec 09, 2008 Mukikamu rated it really liked it

Here I am, stepping into something huge again. Paul Theroux is one of the most popular travel writers of our times and I am fully aware that it will take me years to eat myself through his literature. He has several essential travel volumes to choose from and hereby I officially promise to report on The Great Railway Bazaar and The Old Patagonian Express A.S.A.P..

The volume I read this time was The Happy Isles of Oceania and to be perfectly honest, after the poetic and respectful admiration towa ...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Sarah rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Nobody!

Shelves: non-fiction, biography, travel

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I'm at the last section of the book and I'm amazed that I've made it this far without giving up. I thought this book was going to be a great ode to the Pacific islands, but instead it was just one man's cynical and downtrodden tirade. Theroux managed to make sweeping generalizations about every group of people he came across, and you were lucky if you could read an entire page without him bitching about how lazy or dumb people were.

I know from my o ...more

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Apr 01, 2016 Missy J rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, oceania-related, 2016-books, travelogue, biography

"It was in the Trobriands that I had realized that the Pacific was a universe, not a simple ocean.
I especially recalled how one day sailing back to an island we were delayed, and night fell. There were stars everywhere, above us, and reflected in the sea along with the sparkle of phosphorescence streaming from the bow wave. When I poked an oar in the ocean and stirred it, the sea glittered with twinkling sea-life. We sped onward. There were no lights on shore. It was as though we were in an
...more

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Jul 19, 2008 Jamie rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel-writing

Damnit Paul Theroux, once again you made this book work by the skin of your teeth. Almost as if you can make your books work by sheer force of will and effort as opposed to any clear message. And somehow that works.

So the gimmick or setting of this Paul Theroux travel book is a year and a half, yup, a year and a half spent traipsing through the Pacific islands with a collapsible kayak. Theroux is a master of creating this fantasy of perfect travel: exquisitely written little vignettes informed b ...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010

Huh. Well. What to say about this book that won't put off the rest of my book club fellows before they've read it.

I did not enjoy this book. I think it probably could've been named "The Depressing Isles of Oceania" and been a lot more accurate.

The author is not a very happy person as he travels in his collapsible kayak around the isles. This is perhaps a bit understandable as he & his wife have just split up.

However, there doesn't seem to be anything that can make him happy. People are either t Huh. Well. What to say about this book that won't put off the rest of my book club fellows before they've read it.

I did not enjoy this book. I think it probably could've been named "The Depressing Isles of Oceania" and been a lot more accurate.

The author is not a very happy person as he travels in his collapsible kayak around the isles. This is perhaps a bit understandable as he & his wife have just split up.

However, there doesn't seem to be anything that can make him happy. People are either too helpful, or not helpful enough. He's desperately afraid that he's going to be robbed in (American and Western) Samoa. He really seems to have a problem with fat people (repeatedly mentioning that certain islanders are fat, such as Samoans, Tongans, various chiefs, etc.).

He searches for the decadence of the mythical South Pacific, but seems a little disturbed when it's actually hinted at. He abhors religious (which, fine, I'm not fond of it either), but actually will challenge and mock individuals for their faith. I'm always up for a debate, but I think he mistook the word "debate" for "baiting."

I have never been anywhere close to the Isles Mr. Theroux visits (not even Hawaii...sigh), and although I do believe they're likely not the paradise depicted by films and books, I have a hard time believing that they are as sad & depressed & lazy & gluttonous & obnoxious & unfriendly & nosy as they are depicted in this book.

In one of what I thought was the most telling passages in the book, Mr. Theroux scoffs at anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl's belief that the Moai statues on Easter Island could not have been created by the Polynesian inhabitants of the island**: "Probably the most obnoxious aspect of Heyerdahl is that he appears to display a deep bias, bordering on contempt, against Polynesians. In Fatu-Hiva, he maintains that the Marquesans are too lazy to have create the ambitious stonework and carvings on Hiva Oa." This is funny, considering he spends a lot of the book's chapters talking about the laziness of the Pacific Islanders (from the chapter on American Samoa): "[The American Samoans:] were victimizers, they were oafish, and lazy, and defiant, and disrespectful."

Overall, I hope that Mr. Theroux is in a happier place now (he seemed much happier in Hawaii, although whether that was due to the fact that he was beginning to accept his divorce, or whether the comforts of America were all he needed for a good cheer up, I can't say) - and I'd like to read another book about this region from a more positive point of view.

**I am trying to say that the reason he scoffs is what amuses me - it's been proven that the Easter Islanders are in fact of Polynesian (Marquesas, I think) descent, and that they did, indeed, create the Moai statues. ...more

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Jan 08, 2017 Srivatsan Sridharan rated it it was amazing

Travel writing isn't easy. I've read books that start off as engaging, but quickly lose the reader with dense facts, boring subtleties and the rigors of a timeline based storytelling ("this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened."). Yes, this book has the facts, the subtleties and the rigors, but they are never too dense or rigorous or boring. Paul Theroux is a gifted writer and in this book, he managed to keep me hooked all through its 528 pages. The fact that I traveled to Is ...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Charles rated it it was amazing

This book was really neat. Mr. Theroux took a year to kayak around many Pacific islands in a collapsible travel kayak. He navigates around sharks, warring tribes, head hunters, and new age Hawaiians. I found that he was happier in this book than some others. He is a sharp observer, even if I don't agree with all his thoughts. He shows how travel can test one's civility. I appreciate that he doesn't hide this, and shares his experiences warts and all. Culture shock sneaks up on you, surprises you ...more

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Nov 29, 2012 David P rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel

The south sea islands! Stevenson's Samoa, Gauguin's Tahiti, Melville's "Typee," Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" (with music by Rodgers and Hammerstein), Heyerdahl's "Kon Tiki." Theroux brings their story up to date in a long and detailed travelogue, covering an extensive territory.

His journey starts with New Zealand and Australia, parts of the prosperous western world, though their native inhabitants do not seem to share much of that prosperity. It ends in Hawaii, which also seems fami The south sea islands! Stevenson's Samoa, Gauguin's Tahiti, Melville's "Typee," Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" (with music by Rodgers and Hammerstein), Heyerdahl's "Kon Tiki." Theroux brings their story up to date in a long and detailed travelogue, covering an extensive territory.

His journey starts with New Zealand and Australia, parts of the prosperous western world, though their native inhabitants do not seem to share much of that prosperity. It ends in Hawaii, which also seems familiar. But in between he moves off the beaten track to the Solomon islands, the Marquesas, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Easter island, and some whose names I had never heard until I opened this book--Vanuatu, Aitutaki, Trobriand islands, Vava'u group.

A travelogue on television usually involves more than meets the eye--a camera crew is always around, and what seems spontaneous often isn't. Not so here. Theroux travels alone, carrying a collapsible kayak for travel around and between islands; he talks to countless natives and visitors, learns pidgin, collects words (all Polynesian languages seem related), camps in his small tent on deserted beaches and no doubt, takes copious notes throughout his trip.

Like other travel books by Theroux, this one too seems a bit too personal--too many pronouncements, too much of the writer's ego, and the reader may also wish for more passion for the islanders. No matter: so much is crammed here that the reader is swept up by the story. It is an easy read, most chapters stand on their own and it makes little difference whether you read them in order or skip around.

The lush islands and the sunny lagoons are all still there, but times have changed. Having fought bitterly over some of these islands in World War II, the world has largely lost interest in them. Once again they are a backwater of civilization, and once again their inhabitants have to live austerely off fish, coconuts, yams and foraging pigs. The old culture, though, is fading: old seafaring skills are neglected and lost, and ancient traditions are smothered by missionary Christianity. Alcohol, rock music and canned food make inroads: societies which until recently had lived in the stone age do not adapt gracefully to modern times.

And yet. And yet, life on these islands still echoes old tribal ways, and as Theroux drifts from one island to another, he experiences many interesting encounters. It is a world tourists rarely see: read this book and catch a glimpse of it, for it might not last much longer.

...more

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Jun 02, 2009 Stephanie rated it really liked it

I also chose this book, Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific, by Paul Theroux, in preparation for our trip to Hawaii (alas, now at least a month in the past). Mr. Theroux describes the journey he began in New Zealand, a journey essentially retracing the steps (!) of the ancient Polynesians as they settled the islands of the Pacific. Mr. Theroux traveled by airplane, not by outrigger canoe, but he carried a little collapsible boat with him, and made sure to get some paddling in at each is ...more

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Jan 13, 2015 Claudia rated it it was amazing

This book was my first Paul Theroux. I probably got it almost twenty years ago, and have read and read and read it. What is he looking for, in this tough moment in his life? I admire his ability to resist making himself look good in every book, but in this one in particular, he is vulnerable and open in his need to find comfort in the familiar, the interesting, the strange. I'm reading it again right now, for the twenty-somethingth time. He's in the Troubled Trobriands right now. I'm not sure wh ...more

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May 13, 2019 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reread, oceania, travel-classics

Tropical paradise? Forget about it! After divorcing his first wife, Paul Theroux went for a long journey in the South Pacific, visiting all of 51 islands. The result of his travels was The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific, a somewhat less than halcyon view of Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Perhaps the collapse of his marriage had something to do with it, but Theroux did not find much to like in the Happy Isles: In fact, most places get an outright pan, as havi ...more

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May 27, 2011 Troy Parfitt rated it it was amazing

Paul Theroux’s The Happy Isles of Oceania

I’m a big fan of Paul Theroux, at least his travel literature (the only novel of his I’ve read is Waldo, his debut, which, despite moments of hilarity, doesn’t quite come off). In the travel genre, I’ve read his The Great Railway Bazaar, The Kingdom by the Sea, The Pillars of Hercules, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, and Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.

The Great Railway Bazaar is a masterpiece, the others merely very good to outstanding. Time Paul Theroux’s The Happy Isles of Oceania

I’m a big fan of Paul Theroux, at least his travel literature (the only novel of his I’ve read is Waldo, his debut, which, despite moments of hilarity, doesn’t quite come off). In the travel genre, I’ve read his The Great Railway Bazaar, The Kingdom by the Sea, The Pillars of Hercules, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, and Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.

The Great Railway Bazaar is a masterpiece, the others merely very good to outstanding. Time magazine called The Happy Isles of Oceania (1992) “possibly his best,” and I wondered, as I took up the book, whether this were overstatement or requisite gushing, the deification of another American intellectual. But Happy Isles really is possibly his best – possibly. It’s certainly his most unique. Theroux has become famous for being “that travel writer who travels by train,” yet here he explores 51 Pacific islands mainly by foot and collapsible kayak. He could have rented cars (and he did, occasionally) and trudged around the more developed areas (he does, sometimes), but no, this author is prone to doing things the hard way – exploring the middles of myriad nowhere, and even setting up camp – and the reader is rewarded for it.

Happy Isles is divided into four happy parts: Meganesia (New Zealand and Australia), Melanesia (the Trobiands, the Solomons, Vanuatu, Fiji), Polynesia (Tonga, Western Somoa, American Somoa, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, the Marquesas, and Easter Island), and what Theroux calls Paradise (the Hawaiian Islands). The isles are diverse, yet similar. Words have travelled thousands of kilometers, and the writer talks about how most islanders have a sense of family, of connectedness. And this is what Theroux doesn’t have; he’s just broken up with his wife, and his journey is a sort of cathartic, extended “walkabout.”

The volume is ironically named. Though there are happy inhabitants in the South Pacific islands, or at least contented ones, the writer reports on the despondent, the taunting, the slow-witted, and the downright peculiar: a man standing up to his neck in a lagoon while puffing on a cigarette; another cradling and cuddling with a large pig. The first Iraq War is on, and people in the Solomons worry about the war spreading to their islands. There are harbours of fish, yet people eat canned tuna and spam. Beaches are often used as communal toilets or dumps. Locals warn the paddler he’ll never make it to that distant island, yet he usually does in an hour; the witch winds and sinister currents people speak of never make an appearance. Villages are often threadbare – huts and what not; missionaries have convinced islanders they are sinners, and the Mormons are out recruiting souls for their planet in outer space. And even where there things are more “civilized” they are buggered. The French have politicized Tahiti beyond repair and ruined fragile ecosystems with their atomic bombs; residents of Queensland drink too much and have racist views about the “abos.” Theroux probes and ponders, questions and interrogates. He draws people out, and jots down what they say. He plays botanist, beachcomber, anthropologist, investigative journalist, humourist, historian, philosopher, and bum – and he does it all so well. Above all, he is a snoop, one with an appreciation for the outdoors, a limitless curiosity, a sharp understanding of human nature, and a gloating abhorrence for political correctness.

In addition to being his most personal book, this is arguably Theroux’s funniest. Consider this chapter intro:

In the way that tardy and negligent people are often blame-shifting and chronically mendacious, many of the Tongans I met in Nuku’alofa were unreliable, and some outright liars – or, to put it charitably, they meant very little of what they said. This could be tiresome in a hot climate. My solution was to take my boat to a part of Tonga where there were no Tongans.

In another bit, the narrator describes a tribal chief as being visible as tribal chief because he had on a less dirty shirt. There’s no racism here, for Theroux lambasts all – his description of a pompous New Zealand politician stuffing her gob with meat is deserving of a commemorative plaque. But he’s respectful and charitable when people are generous, informative, and normal. Like most sensible people, he just doesn’t suffer fools.

There are great “characters” in the “story,” and you’ll learn tonnes about the region: everything from how to get by in Pidgin English to the complex social structure of Honolulu. I’ve read Bill Bryson’s Down Under, but Theroux better conveys what Australia is like in about 50 pages. When Theroux is exploring Easter Island, Vanuatu, and the Marquesas you feel as though you’re exploring it, too. Travel literature can take you far, far away, and Paul Theroux is a superb guide.

If I have any criticism about the book it’s the usual one for Theroux: it could have been whittled down a little. Sometimes, there are sections where not much happens, though that makes for balance and mimics the experience. When travelling, it’s normal for not much to happen. Still, 528 pages could have been 475, maybe 450.

Paul Theroux remains the godfather of travel literature. There may be others who, on a technical level, write better (Jan Morris, Colin Thubron), but Theroux writes exceptionally well – the descriptive prose in this book is visceral and exquisite. As far as travel writers go (and travel writing is such a rich genre), no one has nearly as much to say.

Troy Parfitt is the author of Why China Will Never Rule the World
...more

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Oct 30, 2018 Jolanta (knygupe) marked it as dnf

Shelves: travel

"What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you're not in a hurry." ...more

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Sep 17, 2013 Barb rated it really liked it

A combination travelogue and personal reflection, Theroux provides us with his impressions as he travels and paddles his portable kayak from Australia to Hawaii. He visits each of the island groups of the Pacific and provides his impressions of the people who inhabit them and their culture.

Filled with Theroux's witty and humorous observations, the book is a commentary of the clash of the native people and the European's who sought paradise at the expense of native language, culture and sovereign ...more

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Oct 25, 2016 Chris Steeden rated it liked it · review of another edition

I am now 45 years old and this is the first Paul Theroux book I have read (add a suitably embarrassed emoji). I have seen the Mosquito Coast film and most of his travel books are on my wishlist. This is not a Bill Bryson laugh out loud or a Michael Palin pleasant trip with many helpers but a one man tour-de-force in a collapsible kayak.

I admit it did take me a little time to get into but was rewarding once I did. What an insight to these islands and the people this book is. Don't expect a lovely ...more

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Jul 20, 2013 Marilyn rated it really liked it

This travel book by my favorite travel author, Paul Theroux, did not disappoint. Written back in 1992, it is an account of a trip taken through the Pacific Islands shortly after the breakup of his first marriage. Setting off from New Zealand, he travels to Papua New Guinea and then follows the clusters of islands throughout the Pacific Ocean, passing through Easter Island and finishing his trip in Hawaii. Not everything is pleasant in the Happy Isles as I learned that the island of Kahoolawe, ju ...more

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May 11, 2015 Andrew added it

Shelves: paul-theroux, travel-nonfiction

I always like to spend my travel time with the world's leading chronicler of assorted miseries, Paul Theroux, and the idea of the South Pacific has been quite appealing to me lately. He finds things to love-- Hawaii, Easter Island, the Trobriands-- and a great deal to hate as well. And when he hates, he often delivers a hell of a zinger-- that the Fijians, once cannibals, now wanted to push their Indian population out, like diners sending a meal back to the kitchen, for instance.

But oftentimes, ...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Jessaka rated it liked it

Shelves: travel

This was a good book, but it gets tiring when he doesn't like any of the islands until he gets to Hawaii and into a posh hotel. I would rather read a travel writer that found interest in people in other countries instead of pointing out the bad. All I remember was his complaining about how the natives used to ocean for garbage and the restroom, and then the posh hotel in Hawaii. ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Sandie rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, travel

In the early 1990's, travel writer and author Paul Theroux is at a lifestyle change as his marriage has fallen apart. He decides to go back on the road and travels through the islands of Oceania where he will have time to process the change and think about the future. As he travels, he explains the layout of the archipeleo as well as the culture of the people he encounters.

It is an ambitious undertaking. He visits islands which most people have heard of, Fiji, New Zealand, the Solomons, Samoa, H In the early 1990's, travel writer and author Paul Theroux is at a lifestyle change as his marriage has fallen apart. He decides to go back on the road and travels through the islands of Oceania where he will have time to process the change and think about the future. As he travels, he explains the layout of the archipeleo as well as the culture of the people he encounters.

It is an ambitious undertaking. He visits islands which most people have heard of, Fiji, New Zealand, the Solomons, Samoa, Hawaii, Easter Island and Tahiti. But he also visits small islands many people have no idea existed such as Vanuatu, Marquesas, Moorea, the Trobriand Islands, the Tongatapu Group and the Vava'u Group. He takes a small collapsible kayak and where he can, he paddles around the islands and camps out by himself.

Wherever he goes, he tries to establish contact with the local inhabitants. He asks them all what words they use for various items, seeking commonalities between the islands hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles apart. He asks them where they believe they come from and about their religion. He asks them what they eat and how they cook it. He asks about cannibalism as many of these tribes were involved in that in past times.

Theroux encounters difficulties. One of the biggest is the relationships he wants to establish. In these island cultures, family is everything, and a man by himself is seen as vulnerable and strange. To prefer solitude is outside of their experience. He also encounters crocodiles and rip tides that make boating difficult. On many islands, every inch of land is owned and the subject of fierce dominion and there is no where he can camp.

Although he finds much to praise about the islanders, he also finds troubling aspects to their lives. As in his other books, he bemoans the physical size and obesity of many of the tribes. He doesn't like the way the old cultures and artifacts are ignored or destroyed. The reliance of the inhabitants on various government handouts is troubling and he finds many people to be thieves or lazy.

I've enjoyed Theroux's travel books for many years. I started with the train journey books and have read several of his books about different places such as various parts of Africa and England as well as the United States. His keen eye for history and his interest in learning the stories of those he encounters makes for an interesting read. This book is recommended for readers who enjoy travel writing. ...more

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Aug 23, 2019 Ben rated it really liked it

Shelves: travel

Theroux takes planes, ferries, helicopters, and his kayak around fifty-odd Pacific islands. As usual, he's critical of all he sees, occasionally hypocritical, observant but prone to overgeneralization, often unhappy. But, he experiences a lot, he gets into conversation with a lot of people without taking advantage of them, he's funny. I think what distinguishes this from the previous Theroux I read, "Dark Star Safari," is that Theroux overall very much enjoys his travels through the Pacific, and ...more

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Apr 26, 2017 Peter rated it did not like it

Shelves: awful

I somehow made my way through 175 pages of this book before I decided that I didn't need to finish it. It was such a relief to realize that I don't need to spend more than 500 pages with this miserable man. Was the title supposed to be ironic? No one in the book could be described as being 'Happy'.

He's both traveling through the Pacific islands and going through a breakup with his wife. I'm assuming that the breakup is the reason he's so miserable. The amount of time he spends writing about his ...more

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Feb 01, 2018 Jan Willem Nijman rated it liked it · review of another edition

Paul Theroux goes on amazing trips and writes about them vividly, exploring curiously and encountering all sorts of interesting characters. He's also such a fucking White Dude who sees himself as a passive neutral observer instead of a hyperprivileged grumpy asshole. I love reading about the trips and the stories but it's some unethical shit. ...more

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Feb 15, 2021 Jim rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, travel

Even though this book is 30 years old, Theroux pretty much convinced me that a trip to the Pacific islands might not be the most enjoyable endeavor. This wasn't my favorite of his books, not because of that though. It just dragged too much, like a kayak headed into heavy wind. His writing is fine, but his material and focus just seemed too repetitive. Still, there is a lot to interest a reader so I don't want to discourage people because he still is one of the better travel writers, perhaps not ...more

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Jan 19, 2021 Stephen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Long but satisfying travelogue from the early 1990’s has you sampling many of the island nations in the Pacific, much by kayak. The sands, the cuisines, the SPAM, the scarce gasoline. Well-written and bitingly funny, you hear the echoes of WWII co-mingled with the contemporaneous First Gulf War. To the modern reader, it constitutes a “double back” of time travel. First to the mind set during the invasion of Kuwait. Then further to the sunken ships off Guadalcanal and on to the legendary tales of ...more

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Dec 30, 2013 Loraine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I choose a Paul Theroux travel book when I expect to be short on reading time. I can pick it up, read a leg of his journey and put it down again feeling like I've been away on vacation. Where better to dream a vacation than in a kayak, paddling in the south pacific?

It is not all Zen though. There is danger in the water and on the land as well as pleasures beyond my imaginings. I felt the “paddler’s trance”, and the shock of nature’s fury. Imagine paddling in rough water but holding on fine, lis ...more

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About Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux

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Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best know ...more

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“You travel all over," the woman said. "Do you write about your travels?" I said, Yes, I did. Articles. Books. Whatever. "You must write Paul Theroux-type travel books," she said. I said, Exactly, and told her why.” — 1 likes

“Even in Africa, I had never seen such a profusion of stars as I saw on these clear nights on Pacific isles - not only big beaming planets and small single pinpricks... but also glittering clouds of them - the whole dome of the sky crowded with thick shapes formed from stars, overlaid with more shapes, a brilliant density, like a storm of light over a black depthless sea, made brighter still by twisting auroras composed of tiny star grains - points of light so fine and numerous they seemed like luminous vapor, the entire sky hung with veils of light like dazzling smoke... they made night in Oceania as vast and dramatic as day.” — 1 likes

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