Easter Island - Jennifer Vanderbes

Easter Island is told in three almost distinct sections in (tri-?)alternate chapters that don't immediately reveal their intent. The first section deals with Graf von Spee (from a presumably fictional biography called Graf von Spee and the Impossible Journey Home), a German naval commander during the First World War whose fleet is being pursued by British forces in East Asia, particularly of interest for a stop that the fleet made at Easter Island.

Part two of the book is set slightly before the war. In 1912, when her father dies, Elsa Pendleton has no choice but to marry Edward Beazley, an anthropologist and colleague of her father, who is more than 30 years older than her. She has to care for her younger sister Alice, who is simple-minded and requires constant supervision. Elsa accepts a proposal to go with Edward on a field trip to Easter Island. 1,500 miles from the nearest landmass and taking a year of travel, she thinks it might be easier for them all to adjust to their new situation.

Part three of the book concerns Dr Greer Farraday in the present day. After the death of her husband, a renowned botanist and academic, she comes to Easter Island to undertake some studies of her own - a trip that, in contrast to Elsa’s trip, takes 24 hours of flying. Held back from her own studies by assisting her husband, she has a lot of things to work out as she joins the scientific community on the island.

It's not particularly gripping and nothing much really happens until well into the story. I could have put the book down at any point up to half way through and not cared about the fates of the characters, but the story picks up after this point. Part of the problem is that the characters are a little bit dull and academically minded. Elsa is timid in her marriage to Beazley and only finds expression in her life when she decides to do her own study on the mysterious rongorongo scripts found on the island. The chapters on Greer are similarly packed with interesting-up-to-a-point details on plant life and spore dispersion, her particular field of interest and part of the reason for visiting such a remote location. It doesn’t exactly inspire passions or even the slightest bit of identification with the characters. The author has the idea of livening them up with touches of academic’s humour, using appalling phrases like – “My sediments exactly”, (sentiments) “The Gramineae always have more chlorophyll…” (The grass is always greener) and “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate” (?? - I have no idea about that one), which only makes them seem even more dull, humorless and geeky than they already are. (It reminds me of my Latin teacher who would say ‘tan longum’ (literally ‘so long’), at the end of a class and double up at the hilarity of it).

The book however is well structured and clearly narrated. Divided into three entirely different sections that have only the smallest of connections, it is a difficult structure to juggle, but the novel reads very clearly and coherently. Individual chapters also jump timeframe and manage to convey back history without any confusion of where or when we are. Personally however, I thought the best parts of the book read in the first person letters of Elsa, where there was a passion to her character that is not evident in the third person narration. In the Dr Farraday sections, a minor supporting character, Jo, Greer’s university friend, in her brief appearances has more life than the rest of the academically minded characters that populate the novel. Usually, with this type of structure, you are falling over yourself to get past one section to find out what happens in the one you are most interested in, but I didn’t find it the case here. Both sections were equally interesting in the latter half of the book (as they were equally dull at the start).

The ending is, well, I think many people will find it unsatisfactory, but I kind of like that it defies expectations of the usual wrapped-up happy ending. The story of the German fleet ties in with the Elsa story and makes sense close to the end of the book and is perhaps the only real surprise in the book - the story of the old lady in the cave and other ‘revelations’ are signalled well in advance. The whole Elsa episode is however wrapped-up much too quickly considering the slowly paced and less interesting chapters that precede it. The Greer story daringly ends (almost) with the presentation of her scientific paper, placing the emphasis on the academic and intellectual lessons she has learned from her stay on Easter Island rather than personal and romantic issues, which again I think are very much glossed over and to the detriment of the characters.  

It’s not a bad book and I quite enjoyed it once I got into it, but I think the slant towards academic success and intellectual learning over the personal and romantic issues of the characters makes for less interesting characters and a disappointing ending.  The fact that this message is summarised at the end of the book from a quote from Darwin’s ‘The Origin of the Species’ says it all  “No one ought to feel surprise at much remaining unexplained in regard to the origin of the species and varieties, if he makes due allowance for our profound ignorance in regard to the mutual relations of all beings which live around us”. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a cop out for not giving a more rounded or fuller picture of the main characters. It is certainly different and daring to end on this note though.