Customer Reviews (37)

Perpetually at the top of my favorites list
I first read this book about 1972.I lent my copy to someone and it took me years to find another copy. I read it again in the 1990's and have now gotten a First Edition. I love this book.It is always at the top of my Favorite Books list.It is well written and holds my interest. The descriptions are wonderful.I don't think it bogs down, but it is very detailed and requires some concentration.I recommend it highly.

More relevant today than ever
I first read Islandia almost 40 years ago.It had a profound effect on how I viewed the world and our culture.The novel has the pace of an old movie.Slow and deliberate.If you are looking for a thrill ride this is not the book for you.The importance of this book is in how it clarifies the choices we make as individuals and as a society about what is important.Many people see our current time as a turning point from an age of American Empire to a whole Earth community of cooperative but independent communities. (See David Korten) That turning may have had it's seeds 75 years ago in this book.

A good, albeit slightly dull and far too safe 1000 page utopian novel
I enjoyed this intimate portrayal of a young American visiting an isolated, agrarian, 'utopian' society that has an entirely different world view from that of industrial-revolution era America...one that emphasizes a connection to the earth and family, and rejects all outside 'materialist' influences.

The tremendously long and at times meandering book is a journey of self discovery, a love story, a study in culture shock, an evaluation of what constitutes real happiness, and a passive indictment of what is wrong with the modern 'capitalist' world.

While Wright has clearly accomplished a lot with his relatively and undeservedly obscure magnum opus, it does come across as outdated (e.g. the references to the primitive Mountain Negroes that are a constant threat to Islandian territory are proof enough), and a bit dull. Wright's Utopian world rivals in its complexity and completeness that of Tolkien, and the characters are very well developed. The problem is that it is simply too safe, too well-mannered to sustain any real excitement. You read 600+ pages before a death occurs, and sex is presented with the utmost propriety... leaving one feeling well... bored and anxious just to get through the 940 pages as quickly as possible.

After that lack of exhilaration, I need the brutal excitement of Cormac McCarthy or a good raunchy Henry Miller novel!!!

A Lifelong Friend
I first read Islandia about forty years ago, and I've probably read it ten times since. I've never understood why it's not famous or commonly taught in classrooms. To be sure super sensitive feminists and minorities could point to the racial undertones (dark-skinned nomads raiding to kidnap white women for nefarious purposes) and the assigned roles for women in the culture. But really, the author was obviously an open-minded man who was just a product of his time. It's a wonderful book, wonderfully written and edited. Read it, keep it, treasure it.

A Richly Detailed Fantasy World
I first read Islandia when I was an 18 year old college student, and have re-read it at least once a decade ever since. As a novel, it drags frequently, and is quite racist and class-oriented, but having said that, IMO, it is still one of the best Utopian novels ever written (and a much more enjoyable read than More's original). I think it ranks among the top 100 all-time best fantasy and science fiction novels written in English and any serious reader of this type of literature owe it to themselves to read it.

The shear richness of the descriptions in this book is surpassed only by those in The Lord of the Rings and Dune. In the course of recounting the various adventures and mishaps of the American John Lang in Islandia, Wright provides the reader with vivid details of both the country and its culture, leaving the reader with numerous distinctive impressions of an exotic, yet strangely familar, land. We see through Lang's eyes a people, a land, and a way of life different, yet similar to our own. And despite the novel being told from his perspective, Lang's personal story is really only one component of the tapestry that makes up Islandia.

Although Wright set Islandia in the early part of the 20th century and he died in the 1930s, in a number of ways, such as its view of the role of women in society and a "back-to-the-land" mentality, this novel has a very 1960ish feel to it. Given some of the changes in our society over the last 30 years though, it still "wears well".(And like many of his readers over time, I'd like to join Lang and his descendents by migrating to Islandia; it's too bad they have a closed door policy.)

P.S. Unlike some "more serious" novels, this book ends on a largely happy and upbeat note, wrapping up enough of Lang's personal situation to give the reader a sense of closure. (BTW, if you enjoy the land of Islandia, Mark Saxton also wrote several novels set there. They're more tightly written than Wright's original with an adventure story flavor to them, but unless you've read Islandia first, you'll be totally lost.) ... Read more