Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #655789 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Daniel Defoe based his 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe on the trials and tribulations of Scottish seaman Alexander Selkirk. Souhami (The Trials of Radclyffe Hall) draws on journals, maritime histories, and ship and parish records to detail his engrossing story. Born the seventh son of a poor cobbler, Selkirk fought violently with his brothers and dreamed about the "adventure, gold and escape" that the sea seemed to promise. In 1703, at the age of 23, he joined a looting expedition led by William Dampier, an experienced pirate who plundered the treasures of French and Spanish ships on the South Seas. But appalling conditions on the journey scurvy, hunger and a leaky ship (worms ate through its wooden hull) led to mutiny against the drunken and belligerent Dampier. After quarreling with a new captain, Selkirk (who was very belligerent himself) was put ashore on Juan Fern ndez, an uninhabited island hundreds of miles off the coast of Chile. Souhami provides arresting descriptions of the island and the life Selkirk lived on it for more than four years, when hunger and thirst were "diversions" from his solitude. He survived, in part, by eating goats (with whom he also found sexual release), fish and vegetation. Rescued by another Dampier expedition, at first Selkirk was a wild man who had almost lost the power of speech. He did, however, recover from his ordeal: he took two wives, continued to sail and died at sea in 1721. Complete with detailed comparisons between Defoe's novel and Selkirk's life, Souhami's account is a well-researched investigation of a forgotten antihero.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This is an enthralling portrait of the man who was the source for Defoe's most famous novel, Robinson Crusoe. Souhami employs a poetic style that instantly transports readers. They are taken back to a time, the heyday of British privateering on the high seas, and to an existential question--could I survive being marooned? Alexander Selkirk's survival story has been popular ever since it was first publicized in 1712 by the ship captain who found him on an island west of Chile. The tale generated the publicity Souhami draws on, but her recounting is quite original. Selkirk was stranded on the desert isle as punishment for mutinous behavior. But as Souhami relates, English readers felt "cheated" by the rescuing captain's spare account of how Selkirk managed to survive alone for four years; so responding to demand for embellishment were, first, pamphleteer Richard Steele, and second, novelist Daniel Defoe. Souhami's wonderful continuation of the story's lineage will satisfy readers' extraordinary appetite for shipwreck sagas. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2001
"...a well researched investigation of a forgotten antihero."

Customer Reviews

A Great Read
I liked this book. It is well researched about the background of Alexander Selkirk which is important to know for understanding his marooning, the ship board life of sailors and the life of privateers. I don't know of a better book that conveys a sense of the sailor's life then. The last thing I would want to spend a lot of time reading is Selkirk's diary of spending his days creating goatskin clothes, creating his hatchets and knives and hammers, chasing goats.

The nitty gritty of his actions covered a great deal of his time since he had no on-island adversaries. In contrast the arguments over the privateers' booty and discontent by the sailors with their share, the mumblings against the officers give a real sense of shipboard life.

Then the rush by the "scribbners" to cash in on Selkirk's experiences shows that greediness was not different than it is today in book writing. Her story also draws in some background on Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift is also a character in this story.

It is not a complicated story to read. I ended up having great sympathy with the salor's lot in the 1700's.

I would have liked to see more pictures of the Island, and a contemporary map of the Island in relation to Chile and the other ports discussed.

Jim

Not even average
This book I'd rate below average. Its really just a mess of conjecture. Although, to be fair, since Selkirk didn't keep journals, that really is all the author had to go on. I was disappointed by the lack of information regarding Selkirk's four years on the island. When it came down to it, we really only had less than a chapter that dealt with those years. Also, I read this book after having read Mike Dash's incredible effort, Batavia's Graveyard. If you're reading this review, I'd like to point you to that book instead. Dash truly is an inspired writer. Batavia is a gem. This book...not so much. Honestly, the only real reason I gave it two stars and finished it was because I paid for it. This book was better off out of print. Boo.

Not History
This book appears to be a biography of Alexander Selkirk, but is actually a well-researched historical novel. The author knows her sources. There are many footnotes, quotes, and factual details. You want to believe she had some way of knowing the intimate details she supplies--how people saw their situations, what their motives were, and the vivid details of their experiences that bring the story to life. After all, historical sources sometimes provide such background, and in this case we do have some sources for Selkirk's thoughts, feelings and experiences. Soon enough, however, one sees that Souhami has simply assumed the authorial omniscience of a novelist. She states as plain fact many things that she could not possibly know, including things that only Alexander Selkirk could have known and that he would not likely have revealed.

After she tells how Selkirk masturbated against palm trees while he was marooned on the island, a serious reader continues to read only to see how far she will go. At the same time it is interesting to note how she painstakingly documents some details that are not especially interesting--perhaps this is a tactic to make the book seem more like a solid historical narrative.

Her most imaginative invention is Mr. Selkirk's having sex with wild goats on the island. We do know, from his own account, that he ran down goats for sport and food, and either killed them to eat, or else notched their ears and released them. We do not know that he indulged in any other kind of sport with them. Certainly Selkirk had an abnormal capacity for violence and survived in a pirate culture that was a home for the most dysfunctional dregs of humanity. He could have been guilty of screwing goats or even kinkier things. But there is no way to know. Ms. Souhami only provides a footnote in support, implying that a present-day native of the island gave her the idea: "It is always that way with men who are alone," he tells her. Selkirk's sex with goats is not just a passing conjecture. It is a theme to which the author returns, to encapsulate Selkirk's life on the island, and to portray his attitude towards women.

I enjoyed her discussion of the myth-making that followed Selkirk's life, especially the few pages where she analyzes the public appeal of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe fantasy, which was based on Selkirk's adventures as a castaway. But she has invented another myth--one that is likely to last. In other reviews here you'll see that some readers uncritically believe her tale.

This book received the Whitbread award, in the category of biography. That was a big mistake, unless history is now to be done the way Hollywood does it. Much effort went into this book, some talent, and a commendable concern for the preservation of habitat on Selkirk's island, but no professional ethic regarding the responsibilities of historians. We'll never know whether Selkirk screwed goats, but we do know that Souhami screwed this story.