52. Pitcairn's Island by by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall

Before I started this blog I stumbled upon and read the second book in the Bounty trilogy:  Men Against the Sea.  I really enjoyed it at the time, just an incredible story of skill and strength of character in the face of incredible odds and hardship.  It follows the story of hated Captain Bligh and 16 other officers who instead of being murdered after the mutiny were put off in a lifeboat.  Pitcairn's Island is about the mutineers themselves, who, along with their Tahitian girlfriends and 5 Tahitian men, set sail for the most remote island Mister Christian could think of in the hopes of escaping the cruel arm of British law and living out their lives.

It's a fascinating story in the real world that brings up all kinds of fascinating social questions.  How would it feel to know that you would spend the rest of your life with two dozen other people on a small island, never seeing civilization again?  How can a small group like that govern itself?  What happens to its children?  I'm sure Nordhoff and Hall take liberties and there is also possibly some strong judeo-christian bias in their telling, but it is convincing and engrossing.  I felt that for something written in the 1930s, they were pretty fair and un-racist.  

The first part of the book, when they arrive and start settling on the island, is a group-based bildungsroman.  I quite enjoyed reading about them constructing their homes, figuring out the flora and fauna and setting up their gardens.  There is a hint early of the troubles to come as some of the men do not treat the Tahitians with respect and some of the women sneaking away from their partners.  I don't know what actually happened but the trigger in this book is when two of the men decide they want to section off property.  This was already stupid and useless as there was more than enough land and resources for everybody.  Worse, he wanted the Tahitians to not be included in the sectioning off.  The Tahitians were pretty formidable and two of them were of their own aristocratic class.  They did not take it well and shit went down.  The real bummer is that of the four survivors of the conflict, two of them were the original assholes.  

After things have settled down and the men are in the minority (because the rest killed each other), they double down on their assholishness by building a still and basically having a three-year party.  If you are ever stranded on an island paradise with a small group of people, do not allow alcohol to be produced.  Or just keep men to a minimum enough to reproduce.  When the dust finally settles there are 12 women, one gentle man and a bunch of kids and it really does become paradise finally.

It's kind of a tragic story, at least as told in this book.  Christian is portrayed as a really good man and he dies when things are at their very worst.  It hints that they tricked the Tahitians and sailed away in the night after inviting them to party on the boat, so he may not have been all that good.  If I find the first book, I will definitely read it.