A very well written book that’s let down completely by whoever converted it into Kindle format.
As Lucy tells the story of her year on Tuin with G, she intersperses it with excerpts from the diary she wrote while on the island. For some reason, the person who converted this book decided that the diary excerpts would be published in a print size that is so small it’s illegible, so one has to keep stopping and greatly increasing the font size for the diary excerpts and then reducing it back to normal for the rest of the writing. You spend the whole book yoyoing font sizes in this way. I have no idea why anyone would publish a book in this way, it isn’t clever, it isn’t artistic, it’s crass and completely ruins a good flowing read.
Ok, rant over, all the yoyoing aside, the writing is incredibly candid and Lucy really does bare it all.
Anyone familiar with Chris McCandless’ story from Into the Wild will be aware of how much negativity and lambasting that Chris received posthumously for his stupidity and unpreparedness. The only difference between Chris in Alaska and Lucy and G on Tuin is that Lucy and G were lucky enough to be rescued by the kindness and generosity of their Torres Straight Island neighbours, and that the poisonous beans that Lucy stupidly ate just made here incredibly sick for a couple of days and didn’t kill her. Yet those who survive against the odds, purely by the miracles that appear when least expected, are labelled as successful, applauded and celebrated while those whose miracle fails to show are labelled as idiots, lambasted and possibly given a Darwin Award. But hey, at least both kind get films made about them.
I could get into a full on judgemental view of Lucy and G’s behaviour, attitude and outlook, both positive and negative, but i won’t. Some might read this book and side with Lucy, some might side with G, and some might think both are as bad as each other.
All that aside, if you enjoyed Into the Wild, then you may find this just your cup of tea.
