Cumner Son and Other South Sea Folk Volume 03 edition by Gilbert Parker Literature Fiction eBooks
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Cumner Son and Other South Sea Folk Volume 03 edition by Gilbert Parker Literature Fiction eBooks
Being a fan of the South Pacific and having been there about 50 times I looked forward to reading Gilbert Parker's collection of short stories entitled "Cumner's Son."I have rated it as "three stars," and then I really have to ask myself if it is worth this high an evaluation. Perhaps 2 1/2 would be more appropriate.
These stories are primarily about the white settlers in various parts of the South Pacific, especially the Australian Outback. I am a lot more interested in the interaction between the white settlers, traders, etc. and the local people, the Polynesians and Melanesians and the Australian Aborigines, than I am in stories about interactions between white folks who might well have been in London but here inhabit a more exotic setting.
However, I am glad I read the book.
So here are the negatives.
Gilbert Parker's ponderous writing style leaves a lot to be hoped for. It is usually stilted,filled with the kind of circumlocutions typical of Victorian times and lacking in directness. You're not reading anything halfway as good as Conrad, Stevenson, Twain, London or Maugham here. In addition, the stories are generally presented in such an overly melodramatic fashion that were the dialogue to be expressed on stage these days it would often be regarded as parody and set the audience to laughing.
The title story is written in a peculiar style intended to be terribly serious if not even mythic. The tale might make a good movie, somewhat as Conrad's Lord Jim did, but as a written work it suffers enormously from pretentiousness.
Volume 4's story "How Pango Wango was Annexed" is sheer nonsense. Take this from someone who used to live in Samoa (myself) and who speaks Samoan.
My favorite of them all is in the same volume, and is called "An Amiable Revenge." This short tale is set in Tonga, on Tongatabu, which I have visited a number of times. It rings true to me. I found an essential element of what the author would have called "civilization" in the behavior of the main Tongan character, something at odds with the peculiar racist idea of the "natives" that lurks below the surface of many of these stories, and that certainly is typical of the attitudes of whites in Australia and elsewhere in the Pacific during the late 19th century.
The positive: These stories offer an interesting window on white attitudes in the South Pacific in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
My summary: Pacific fans, eventually you might wish to read this, but it shouldn't be your first or even your second priority. As for the rest of you readers, move on to Stevenson, Maugham, Conrad, Twain or London.
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Cumner Son and Other South Sea Folk Volume 03 edition by Gilbert Parker Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Being a fan of the South Pacific and having been there about 50 times I looked forward to reading Gilbert Parker's collection of short stories entitled "Cumner's Son."
I have rated it as "three stars," and then I really have to ask myself if it is worth this high an evaluation. Perhaps 2 1/2 would be more appropriate.
These stories are primarily about the white settlers in various parts of the South Pacific, especially the Australian Outback. I am a lot more interested in the interaction between the white settlers, traders, etc. and the local people, the Polynesians and Melanesians and the Australian Aborigines, than I am in stories about interactions between white folks who might well have been in London but here inhabit a more exotic setting.
However, I am glad I read the book.
So here are the negatives.
Gilbert Parker's ponderous writing style leaves a lot to be hoped for. It is usually stilted,filled with the kind of circumlocutions typical of Victorian times and lacking in directness. You're not reading anything halfway as good as Conrad, Stevenson, Twain, London or Maugham here. In addition, the stories are generally presented in such an overly melodramatic fashion that were the dialogue to be expressed on stage these days it would often be regarded as parody and set the audience to laughing.
The title story is written in a peculiar style intended to be terribly serious if not even mythic. The tale might make a good movie, somewhat as Conrad's Lord Jim did, but as a written work it suffers enormously from pretentiousness.
Volume 4's story "How Pango Wango was Annexed" is sheer nonsense. Take this from someone who used to live in Samoa (myself) and who speaks Samoan.
My favorite of them all is in the same volume, and is called "An Amiable Revenge." This short tale is set in Tonga, on Tongatabu, which I have visited a number of times. It rings true to me. I found an essential element of what the author would have called "civilization" in the behavior of the main Tongan character, something at odds with the peculiar racist idea of the "natives" that lurks below the surface of many of these stories, and that certainly is typical of the attitudes of whites in Australia and elsewhere in the Pacific during the late 19th century.
The positive These stories offer an interesting window on white attitudes in the South Pacific in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
My summary Pacific fans, eventually you might wish to read this, but it shouldn't be your first or even your second priority. As for the rest of you readers, move on to Stevenson, Maugham, Conrad, Twain or London.
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