984. Islands

Islands
Dan Sleigh
2002
Around 760 pages

It's just like the List to throw a 760 page tome at my head, when I'm trying to power walk toward that finish line. It's like that moment in a movie when you think the heroes are getting rescued, but it's really the bad guy's friend serving them a cup of roofied tea. This was a pretty dry read, but the scope and breadth of the novel was undeniably impressive.

This is a sweeping epic that covers covers the first fifty years of the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope. We get the upsetting retelling of when colonizers took over the lands of Hottentot tribes through the stories of seven men who were all involved in some way with Pieternella, the daughter of the first mixed marriage of the colony. Really seems like you are going out of your way to dodge the female perspective there, but hey, it's your story.

So yes, this felt like reading a history textbook. The level of research and detail is of course an accomplishment, but it's definitely not a fun or enjoyable read. It's kind of like rating an encyclopedia. 

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Sleigh died last year, in July of 2023.

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