The Swiss Family Robinson

Yikes.... Do yourself a favor. Watch the Disney movie and skip this book. This is one case where the movie is infinitely better than the book.

By page 74 it was still just a laundry list of each day's discovery of new items from the island, or items recovered from the wrecked ship. No plot, no adventure. This may have passed my standards for a good read (probably not), but the thing that made me press the delete button on the Kindle with particular fury was the way in which Father Robinson was so damn knowledgable about every aspect of “savage” lifestyles and survival tactics. I mean, what middle-class clergyman from the Alps knows the exact proper way to halve a tropical gourd? Is it likely that this late-18th century minister from a mountain climate knows that a particular tree from a tropical climate can be used for making sewing thread, and also exactly how to make a navigable boat out of 8 barrels and a bunch of wrecked plywood? It strained the very limits of my suspended disbelief to the snapping point, and snap they did.

Delete from Kindle.

I'm glad we have books from the 1800s, this particular one is not my cup of tea. The text reads like a handbook for scouts - still the overall story is very appealing and hence the movies and abridged versions.