Hardcover

8496246094

While on a 17th-century voyage from Brazil to Africa, Robinson Crusoe's ship is severely damaged in a storm. He discovers upon gathering his wits on the shore of a Caribbean island that he is the sole survivor from the wreck and lucky to be alive. He also learns to his surprise that the ship and all its supplies is still in sight, foundering a tantalizingly reachable distance from shore. This is the eponymous story of Crusoe's nearly three decades surviving on the island, most of it in utter solitude.

In terms of engagement, it took a concerning few chapters for the story to get interesting, so I was relieved when it finally picked up steam. My first thought was that these were the most fortunate circumstances of any shipwreck I've ever heard of — Crusoe was able to salvage just about everything from the ship but the kitchen sink, to the point where the amount of supplies he started with was almost laughable. His detailed descriptions of his explorations and the things he built, created and cobbled together to further his survival were the most interesting parts of the narrative, although I couldn't believe it took him 11 years to start a herd of goats. The book's biggest shortcomings are when he goes off on lengthy theological tangents regarding what his plight might symbolize in the eyes of God and other pointless musings to the detriment of the plot. My eyes glazed over when the proselytizing got to be a bit much, and so I wanted to high-five Friday when he challenged Crusoe with the question, "If God is more powerful than the Devil, why doesn't he destroy evil once and for all?" (Friday, this is a question skeptics have been asking for centuries.) Crusoe was overall an interesting but occasionally unreliable narrator, at one point suggesting that he had no way to defend himself from "beasts," while having all variety of firearms, bladed weapons and barrelsful of gunpowder in his arsenal. Though he comes to the realization that the life he's living now is a better and a happier one than any he had lived previously, he doggedly continues to look for means to escape the island (one can suppose that what he really misses is social interaction). A few aspects that are particularly cringey to a 21st-century reader include the rampant racism (Crusoe takes no action against "savages" cannibalizing victims until a victim is shown to be European — we can't have that!), the portrayal of Friday's broken English, and animal cruelty. For a 300-year-old book this classic wasn't bad, and the language is still very readable/accessible. It's worth a read, with the added bonus of literary/pop culture awareness. One star removed for, after all we'd been through, an anticlimactic ending. ( )

This is an amazing book. More than three hundred years after it was written it's still worth reading. Yes it's full of practices we no longer consider acceptable. Yes it does not condemn things everyone today condemns. If it had nothing to offer we would clearly have written it off years ago, but it does. Yes in some sense it's pandering to a mindset that thankfully is long gone. Yes it's not realistic. If you need those things this is not the book for you.

This is the ultimate white man's fantasy. It's the story of overcoming, even triumphing, over the worst things life can throw at you. Even when deprived of life's necessities such as clothes, food, shelter, companionship, support, Crusoe overcomes all. Even if immediately overwhelmed he still manages to think things through and come up with increasingly sophisticated responses to the needs and situations he initially thought unsurmountable. While he is able to obtain a few essentials from shipwrecks, he needs to make do with what he can make from his surroundings. He needs shovels and spades so he finds hard wood trees and carves the shapes he needs. Modern day survivalists have lessons to learn here. Crusoe is clearly a man's man. He even discovers gold and silver on a shipwreck. He has little use for it in his current situation.

But he also conquers the more subjective world. He admits the flaws in his life that he committed in his non-reflective past. He turns to the Bible and sees he's been redeemed. Life is good. He just needs to put more faith in Jesus. He becomes a happy man. He's no longer afraid of the cannibals he's observed coming to his island paradise. After 25 years he discovers cannibals have brought a prisoner who they intend to eat. He frees the prisoner who becomes his devoted man Friday. He teaches Fridays to become a Christian. Once again his faith in his Provider has been rewarded. ( )

A wonderfully entertaining story. Much darker and adult than modern Hollywood and politically correct society would have us think. This is a great story and sadly one that is rarely seen in school libraries anymore. It seems to have fallen into that “offensive to some” niche. Loneliness, doubt, self-discovery and the desire to understand why our stars align the way they do and in what manner we should…or should not accept their formation. Defoe comes across with insight and brilliance to tell us the story of Mr. Robinson Crusoe, a young man who appears to have more bad luck than good. Stranded on an island for nearly three decades our protagonist suffers, lives and learns and still has the uncanny ability to be human. ( )