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which is a great book if you think that pirates get a bad rep or just think that children are kindof twisted. Or you enjoy bizarre stories.<\/p>\nI suppose that pirates and ninjas have been banished to the attics of our minds for vampires. But that’s ok, because the pirates in this book kindof suck at being pirates anyways.<\/p>\n
A High Wind in Jamaica is a “classic” book (read: old), but it reads more like a Sherlock Holmes story than it does Beowulf. In other words, it doesn’t have a bunch of words that only people who are 117 years old would understand. It might have been written 80 years ago, but it has held up well.<\/p>\n
The story itself is fairly typical (snerk):<\/p>\n
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- Children grow up in Jamaica<\/li>\n
- Children’s house is destroyed by a hurricane<\/li>\n
- Children set sail back for England<\/li>\n
- Children are captured by pirates<\/li>\n
- “Hijinks” ensue. And by hijinks I mean that the children turn out to be little rat bastards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I won’t give away too many details, but let’s just say that, by the end, you will definitely feel sorry for the pirates.<\/p>\n
This isn’t a mad cap romp, by any stretch of the imagination. These are not Pippi Longstocking’s pirates. But the books is well written, the story is engrossing and there is a certain level of subtle, dry humor that will make you chuckle. And you’ll feel immensely proud of yourself for doing so.<\/p>\n
This book has often been compared, and favorably so, to Lord of the Flies<\/a>
. I can definitely see the similarities, although I think that you’ll find that A High Wind in Jamaica doesn’t quite beat you over the head with its message. It takes a fair amount of reading through the lines to see what’s really<\/em> going on. And that’s half the fun.<\/p>\n