The Gnome King reviewed Transit of Venus by Evans, Julian
Review of 'Transit of Venus' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I have always found the many little islands in the Pacific Ocean fascinating, it’s where you could find a cannibal and it is where you could get stranded on a desert island wishing you had brought food with you instead of 10 CDs and no CD player. It is also the one place on the map of the world where it is hard to get an understanding of scale, they are always down in the bottom right of the map and it looks like the only place within a million miles is New Zealand, it is surprising just how close they are to Hawaii.
Evans has something in his blood calling to him to visit these islands, the see those beautiful beaches, to meet the locals and to experience all that he can. It’s not an easy task, finding a boat or plane to take him anywhere is a tough …
I have always found the many little islands in the Pacific Ocean fascinating, it’s where you could find a cannibal and it is where you could get stranded on a desert island wishing you had brought food with you instead of 10 CDs and no CD player. It is also the one place on the map of the world where it is hard to get an understanding of scale, they are always down in the bottom right of the map and it looks like the only place within a million miles is New Zealand, it is surprising just how close they are to Hawaii.
Evans has something in his blood calling to him to visit these islands, the see those beautiful beaches, to meet the locals and to experience all that he can. It’s not an easy task, finding a boat or plane to take him anywhere is a tough undertaking, timekeeping is not something that happens on the islands, a boat will arrive when it happens to turn up, it really does make planning a trip difficult. Evans ends up trying to find the true face of the islands, looking for the damage caused by British/French/American/German politics and the ever present missionaries, you’ll never get used to the damage we caused in the past. There are some shocking scenes and some people are living in heart-breaking conditions but Evans keeps a cool head, he tells the reader how it is, he doesn’t cover things up…even when he promised to do just that. He meets some wonderful people, so generous when they have so little and he doesn’t cover up anything embarrassing he does, trying to flirt with a young lady soon backfires but he is able to laugh it off.
One of the most interesting areas he visits is near the Bikini Atoll, where the nuclear bombs were tested and people were only moved slightly away, truly shocking treatment of humans by the USA. The book is worth getting just to read this section.
This book is a proper good adventure, sharing the stories of the people he meets, not shying away from any customs, every experience is included from sleeping conditions to dodgy food. He visits places you’ve probably never heard of Vanuatu and Tuvalu were only places I had heard of on the gameshow called Pointless. The writing is easy to read, reading about his personal experiences mixed in with other peoples stories and plenty of interesting history makes this a fun book. Highly recommended by me.
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/02/13/transit-of-venus-travels-in-the-pacific-by-julian-evans/