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Serpent in Paradise | 
 enlarge | Author: Dea Birkett
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
Buy Used: $2.39
Rating:  50 reviews
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
ISBN: 0330343440
EAN: 9780330343442
ASIN: 0330343440
Publication Date: May 22, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Stained Edges Our feedback rating says it all: Five star service and fast delivery! We've shipped four million items to happy customers, and have one MILLION unique items ready to ship today!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Crashing a clique February 23, 2007
Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
"No. Nawa (never) read. All ha books full of s__t. People write bad things about Pitcairn in books. Them people who go write books on Pitcairn should go wipe (i.e. emphatically go away or, perhaps, be struck dead)." - The Pitcairn "librarian" on being asked by Dea Birkett if she enjoyed reading
First off, let me say that I'm awarding five stars to SERPENT IN PARADISE because it does what I think a successful travel essay should do, i.e. grandly transport me to a faraway place that I shall never see in person, but which, due to the descriptive skills of the writer, I can envision clearly in my mind's eye, thank you very much.
English writer Birkett became fascinated with Pitcairn, the remote British colony and island home of a subpopulation of the descendents of the Bounty mutineers, while viewing a screening of "The Bounty" starring Mel Gibson. (A larger group resides on the somewhat bigger Norfolk Island isolated in its own expanse of ocean north of New Zealand.) After almost two years of dreaming of visiting the place, she managed to book passage on a Norwegian chemical tanker scheduled to steam by. Thus, after having fibbed on her landing application that she represented Royal Mail International, Dea clambered ashore to live for several months among the island's thirty-eight inhabitants.
The author has been pilloried in other reviews, which have described her as being flawed, foolish, insecure, contemptible, self-serving, shallow, deceitful, condescending, screwy, voyeuristic, narcissistic, and a gossip. Well, gee, that pretty much describes, on one point or another, the flip side of just about everyone, doesn't it? Get over it! And, I could add, the reader can infer from SERPENT IN PARADISE that the Pitcairners themselves are tribal, petty, suspicious, compulsive, repressed, and eccentric. But, I don't hold those against them because they're also traits of the human condition that balance out the nobler ones, also possessed by all concerned, both author and subjects. And let's ignore for the duration of this review the convictions of child molestation recently found against several Pitcairn males by the British authorities. (At least Dea's one night stand with a married islander was consensual sex between two lonely adults, albeit imprudent. Hey, I'll bet that's never happened before.) So, now what?
The most glaring deficiency of this book is the lack of a picture section. However, I don't fault Burkett for this because there's no 2-hour film processing kiosk on Pitcairn, and I expect that whipping out a camera and snapping away would have caused the author to be pitched off the jetty and told to swim for home. Rather, look on the Web for "official" island sites that also include photo images. Or better, zero in on "Pitcairn Island" on Google Earth and be amazed that people can happily live their entire lives on a life raft so small. As a fun exercise, try to match the structures in Adamstown as seen on Google with Dea's map of the village.
I admire the author for making the tremendous effort to get out and about. SERPENT IN PARADISE is a fascinating read for the armchair traveler, perhaps better than actually being there.
"We all hold a place within out hearts - a perfect place - which is in the shape of an island. It provides refuge and strength; we can always retreat to its perfection. My mistake was to go there. Dreams should be nurtured and elaborated upon; they should never be visited. By going to Pitcairn, I had vanquished the perfect place within myself." - Dea Birkett
A fascinating read!!!! January 1, 2007
Oscar Jennings
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
In my opinion, the critics above and below are being too hard and perhaps a little self righteous in their criticism of Dea Brikett's book.
Her book provides a never before revealed insight into the culture of the people of Pitcairn Island, warts and all.
There was more deceit on the part of the Pitcairner's towards her than there was on her part towards them. Far more.
And yes, in a moment of weakness she slept with one of the married islanders. So what? It takes two to tango doesn't it?
She is in my opinion a very gutsy lady who did her best to adapt to their very different culture. I could not put the book down.
 fascinating insight into life in an isolated community December 23, 2006
Alberto (NY - London)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I very much enjoyed this book, which gives an interesting view into life on Pitcairn. It de-mystifies life on the island, the fantasies of paradise of many outsiders looking in and the myths about the offspring of the mutineers from the Bounty. At the same time and of equal interest, it enables the reader to have insight into the people who search for happiness or validation or escape on the island (author Dea from UK, Kari from Norway, Perry from Germany). The book comes across as the very personal experience of the author, so it is often quite subjective, and this subjectivity both adds to and detracts from the book. As an aside, it is surprising that the book does not protect the privacy of the islanders; it mentions their real names, putting them in a real-life literary episode a la Big Brother/Survivor. All in all, an enjoyable read and a rare glimpse into life on Pitcairn Island.
Am I the only one? September 22, 2005
S. Lyster
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Am I the only one who views Dea Birkett's book as an honest one?
Certainly Birkett is not going to win a 'citizen of the year' award on Pitcairn Island. And when one reads a South Pacific travel guide and notes Pitcairn's rules for visitors include "no journalists", one can't help but think they feel quite burned by Birkett.
If you live by the sword....
For better or worse the future of Pitcairn relies upon a successful commercial explotation of their storied past. It is one of the more incredible stories that the planet can offer and the island's future relies on the residents "getting ahead of this" and using it to guarantee a future.
In a sense, they need more journalists... even one's like Birkett.
At least she's honest. The book has two Birketts - one the author and the other the character in the book. Birkett the author calls it as she sees it in relation to the Islanders - but she does in relation to the character of "Debbie" in the book as well.
She is up front with the character's somewhat flawed motives for going to the Island in the first place. She admits that the character lied to get there. In retrospect she discovers the real reason the Island council let her come in the first place. Almost sheepishly she admits that despite the lie about being a stamp collector, the real reason resides in the last line in the application form, "I am an unmarried thirty year old woman."
The only time the author lets the character tell the story is in relation to what REALLY happened that night at Nigger Brown's house. The author of Seprent in Paradise claims nothing untwoard took place - yet in future articles the author admits it happened, just as Irma suspected.
But in everything else, Birkket the author lays it out as is, casting everyone in an all too human light.
Which is, afterall, the real story that off-ilanders need to hear. When reading about Fletcher Christain, William Bligh, John Admas, topless Tahitian women, Island evacuations... those of us who make a 'paradise' out of Pitcairn need to know that the present-day Islanders are just like the rest of the world.
Jealous of their privacy in an age of information.
The internet has come to Pitcairn. Satellite telephone service is there. Inevitably an airstrip will be built and the remotest place on earth will suddenly not be so remote.
But as for the book - despite revealing what no one really wants revealed, at least Birkett (with one or two exceptions) keeps a respectable firewall between herself the author and herself the character in the book.
On that score, it is mainly an honest book.
As for the Islanders not wanting journalists, it is not hard to guess why they insist on that. Yet their survival may depend on MORE journalists coming, not less.
Maybe they should take lessons from the Royal Family, who struggle with the double edged sword the papparatzi present. Or any personality in Hollywood.
Pitcairn needs to get ahead of this.... not behind it.
Serpent in Paradise September 19, 2005
R. Royal
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
A nice look over the fence, where the grass seems to be greener.
A very nice read!
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