Friday, or, The Other Island (1967)

I decided to read Friday as a companion novel to the Robinson Crusoe book my online book group was reading. I saw that it was listed as one of the 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.

I spent the entire time reading this book thinking two things: (1) this is a brilliant, thoughtful book and (2) this is not a children’s book. I was relieved to learn later that the Friday I meant to read is a children’s adaptation of this book by the same author; this was the original grownup version.

So I’m not terribly sure what Tournier would have kept in the children’s version and what he would have left out. The book I read was brilliant and innovative and philosophical and very, very French. Robinson Crusoe is alone on the island and he suffers from this aloneness. He tries to recreate the world he left behind on the island when he meets an islander named Friday and fails. Gradually, Crusoe changes and becomes more and more like Friday, so much so that he flees his rescuers when they finally arrive.

Warning: This is not a children’s book. At one point, Crusoe makes love to the island. He later sees that plants are growing up out of the island and he believes these are his offspring. I think children would find all of this very, very odd. ( )

re-telling of Robinson Cruseau with Friday as hero ( )