Note: This review contains spoilers. But this book has been out for 72 years, so if you haven't read it yet, that's on you.
There's something about being stuck on an island that just seems ripe for drama. Look at the compelling stories told in the books "Robinson Crusoe" and "Swiss Family Robinson," the TV series "Lost," and the movie "Cast Away." I'm sure you can think of more.
Stranded on an island, you're on your own, dependent on the limited resources of the island. While some stories tell of individuals marooned alone, many more place the unlucky characters in the company of random strangers. Fate has brought them all together in the dire scenario. Can they cooperate to survive? Will they work together, or turn on one another?
One of the best-known books in this genre is William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," first published in 1954. It tells the story of a group of young boys who are stranded on a tropical island after a plane crash. There are no adult survivors.
At first the boys create a civil society with rules (at meetings, only the person with the large shell known as the conch can speak), but gradually a schism develops between two rival leaders, Ralph and Jack.
The boys divide into two groups and Jack's band becomes progressively more hostile and "savage," painting their bodies, engaging in fevered dances, placing the head of a killed pig on a spike. Violence ensues, and two boys die, including the lovable Piggy, a portly near-sighted kid whose glasses had been stolen from him to help make fire.
It reminds me of the 1972 plane crash in the Andes that left about two dozen young men, mostly Uruguayan rugby players, trying to survive in a bitterly cold environment without the guidance of older adults. These survivors were not kids, but they still showed a lot of immaturity during the ordeal, and their mistakes probably contributed to more deaths than were necessary. They did not, however, turn to violence.
Golding imagines a similar situation but with children. He raises a fascinating question — would humans devolve into a more crude existence if they were freed from the normal standards of society?
Unfortunately, most of the book is exceedingly slow.
For the first two-thirds of the book, not much happens. The boys quibble over and over about whether it's better to keep a fire going to signal rescuers or to hunt wild pigs for food (hint: you can do both). They bicker over whose turn it to speak. They worry about a "beast" somewhere on the island, a fear enhanced by the fact that the events of the book take place in the dark of night, the murkiness of the jungle or the hazy dawn or twilight. These various scenes largely go nowhere.
The last third of the book has more action and is more engaging but like the rest is still plagued by unnecessary wordiness. Throughout the book, I found myself skipping ahead by paragraphs without fear of missing anything. The book could easily be 25% shorter, and would be a much tighter read if it were.
