{"id":93322,"date":"2016-01-08T16:08:44","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T21:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=93322"},"modified":"2016-01-08T17:19:15","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T22:19:15","slug":"fifty-islands-i-have-not-visited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/08\/fifty-islands-i-have-not-visited\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

From Pocket Atlas.<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s a book I\u2019ve returned to again and again, ever since its clementine-orange cover first caught my eye at a museum bookstore: A Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Judith Schalansky, translated from the German by Christine Lo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The subtitle is Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will<\/em>, but don\u2019t worry: this book isn\u2019t precious. At least, not\u00a0too<\/em>\u00a0precious\u2014despite the somewhat whimsical conceit, the author approaches her idiosyncratic task with seriousness. The book\u00a0looks<\/em>\u00a0serious, until you read that quirky subtitle: it looks like a pocket atlas. But then you open it. And each remote island\u2019s entry\u2014St. Kilda in the Atlantic, the Carolines of Micronesia, the American Pagan\u2014is a prose poem of sorts. Facts sit side-by-side with a kind of highly personal fiction; we are given latitudes and detailed maps, but also lore and speculation. Of the antipodes the author writes, \u201ccattle that are brought here die quickly and quietly in the dun-colored steppes of grass. And the thunderous echo of waves breaking against the hollows of the jagged coastline never ceases.\u201d<\/p>\n

It reminded me slightly of Lauren Redniss\u2019s recent study of weather,\u00a0Thunder and Lightning<\/em>, and also of Bruce Chatwin, and a little of the fantastical travel journals of past eras, in which writers freely matched personal observations with conscientious fact-finding. But it is not quite like any of these. Indeed, what I like about it (besides its portable size and digestible scale) is its distinct whiff of madness. This is a book that makes no sense, and took a tremendous amount of energy\u2014and yet it exists, and is as a result peculiarly inspiring. The chapters are short enough to make it convenient reading, but be warned: there is nothing comforting about it. It starts landslides of thoughts and emotions. Remember: this is a book about isolation. As Schalansky writes at its start, \u201cParadise is an island. So is hell.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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