Ebook A Pattern of Islands, by Arthur Grimble
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A Pattern of Islands, by Arthur Grimble
Ebook A Pattern of Islands, by Arthur Grimble
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Arthur Grimble was sent to the Gilbert and Ellice islands as a colonial administrator in the twilight of the Edwardian era. He lived there for the next twenty-five years and developed a rare passion for the language, life and landscape of the place. Fortunately his island neighbours, a fascinating cast of fishermen, sorcerers, poets and fighters, began to trust this charming, happy and energetic young man, and shared with him their treasury of stories from the days when warfare was endemic and magic an essential part of everyday life. A Pattern of Islands is a rich and complex cultural history of the dances and legends, rituals, spells and way of life of the islands. It is also a riproaring adventure story. Grimble learns to spear hungry sharks, to negotiate fearsome reefs and, on one terrifying day, is used as human bait to catch a giant squid.
- Sales Rank: #617669 in eBooks
- Published on: 2012-12-01
- Released on: 2012-12-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
An Entertaining Pattern
By Malcolm Cameron
A Pattern of Islands by Arthur Grimble
Various tales from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands are recalled by Arthur Grimble commencing with his cadetship at the end of 1913. In a witty, honest, self-depreciating style this book makes light insightful reading ... "nobody could be always right, except an Englishman ... The Almighty was beyond doubt Anglo Saxon".
In London, his job interview commenced with "Let us see ... yes ... let us go on a voyage of discovery together ... Where precisely are the Gilbert and Ellice islands? If you will believe me, I have often been curious to know". The interview continued with a discussion about insisting "upon the dominion of romance, not the romance of dominion" and was ultimately successful in part because he was the only candidate to ask for the job.
Originally published in 1952, the book was luckily part of my English literature course in 1959 - an enlightened relief from the standard Charles Dickens fare. Its impression remained to 2011 as I remembered his anecdotes such as seeing the slitting of the belly of an attacking shark "rip itself open like a zip-fastener, discharging blood and guts"; the catching of a giant octopus allowing himself to be used as bait; and his cure of a French missionary by faith and lies. (Having administered the last morphine tablets with a rusty hypodermic syringe he injected pure water subsequently.) My impression resulted from the insight Grimble relates as he faced novel situations alone, and his thoughts while overcoming his feeling of lack of preparation. Plus the honest effort Grimble put into learning the local language and becoming an expert on the islands.
There is a kaleidoscope of topics covering geography, culture, traditions, phosphate mining, copra production, religion, administration - always entertaining never encyclopedic. Grimble gives the case for "Pax Britannica" but combining existing beliefs with Christianity - "A tree without roots dies, but new grafts thrive on a trunk that stands deep-rooted in the soil of its homeland".
The return of the book is to be welcomed, as is the information about these islands, now the two island nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu since independence in 1979 and 1978. Times have changed of course. Kiribati is expected to be the first country in which all land territory disappears due to global warming and, in the book, when a native pastor "... ordained that a wave should arise to the height of the Government's flagstaff and sweep away the Flag" it was not identified with a tsunami.
Malcolm Cameron
29 August 2011
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Delightful and insightful memoir...
By HMS Warspite
In late 1913, the young and newly-married Arthur Grimble was nominated as a cadet administrator for the Colonial Office, at a time when the British Empire still wrapped itself, and English values, around the world. Grimble was posted to the distant Gilbert Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, to a place where a thin veneer of British ways barely papered over the native culture of the islanders.
Such is the premise of "A Pattern of Islands", Grimble's delightful memoir of his first overseas tour. As the representative of a distant government in London, Grimble found himself thrust into the middle of a complex and very different society of fishermen, with well-defined traditions for civility, intermural warfare, poetry and even sorcery. Fortunately for the reader, Grimble was an observant and skilled writer. With typical British understatement, respect, and humor, he captures a fascinating portrait of the people he came to administer. The result is a unique cultural history from the turn of the last century.
Grimble was willing to try anything, from experimenting with explosives in Government House to acting as bait for the trapping of a rather large octopus to rescuing a mentally unbalanced man from an unhappy crowd. "A Pattern of Islands" is highly recommended as an excellent read.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
How a book can shape your life
By anthro
This is an amazing early ethnographic account of life in the South Pacific Gilbert Islands. Starts out like a comedy of all the ways a young district commissioner was judged as naïve and inept by his seniors and by the islanders. But moves to a deeper study of island culture. I read this book sixty years ago and remembered it for his experiences with fishing for a giant octopus. this time I found amazing scenes of a shaman like islander calling in the dolphins and how he endured tattooing so as to be admitted as a member of a cla.. His best teacher is a young island girl Moves like clouds. Beautifully written, honest portrayal of colonial administration, and scenes of community gatherings, ways of island navigators, tales from old mythology including creation myths. It was this book that made me want to travel to distant tropical islands and see the world. A book that led me eventually to becoming an antghropologist..
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