JasonKoivu

Back in the '70s and early '80s teachers liked to make their students cry, and so they forced them to read books like Island of the Blue Dolphins, which is just the kind of good old fashioned heartbreaking stuff to do the trick!

It starts of great this story of a Chumash (local natives to the Santa Barbara, California area) tribe taken by surprise by fur hunters and then taken from their island, accidentally leaving behind a brother and a sister. There is sorrow a'plenty. The tale trots along, even stepping it up to a steady canter for about the first quarter or third. Then the narrative devolves into a Robinson Crusoe style listing of things done by or to the main character, Karana, while she's stuck alone on an island. As short as Island... is, it grinds on through the middle to a dull (yet somehow still sorrowful!) finish.

I figured this weekend was as good time as any to read this while I was visiting Santa Barbara, since the real life story it's based upon happened on one of the islands just off the coast. What would've made this infinitely more compelling would've been the simple adding of motive. If O'dell has suppled Karana a fervent desire to get off the island and get back to her people, that would've given the reader something to pull for. But he did not. I don't know the real story well enough to say, but from what I recall I have a feeling the author was trying to stay true to the actual account. All I have to say for that is, leave that to the biographers and historians. You're writing fact-based fiction here, my friend. You're allowed a little leeway.

Rating Note: 3.5