Island Book Review
Aldous Huxley
Sorry, but this book does not live up to the hype. Marketed as a utopian counterpoint to Huxley's *Brave New World*, it instead perpetuates the most boring tropes of mid-century scientific colonial thought. This book was written in the early 1960s, when former colonies around the world were freeing themselves from centuries of European tyranny. And yet Huxley's vision of utopia is one where the colonizer influences and "modernises" Indigenous culture. But that's not the worst part of the novel. *Island* really falters by violating the principle of "show, don't tell". Instead of immersing the reader, this story scrapes along with second- and third-hand accounts from characters who are far removed from the action.
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