Fatu-Hiva, Back to Nature

Purchased this book that was supposed to be “very good condition” Yet the cover is ripped and the pages are falling out. This was supposed to be given as a gift and now I’m too embarrassed to give them a book that’s in horrible condition.

It all started as an idea and dream. Thor wanted to return to nature and to a primitive lifestyle, as he had become disillusioned with modern civilization. He and his newly wed wife did just this in 1937-38 for their honeymoon. First they went about the difficult task of finding a place as untouched by civilization as possible. Fatu Hiva, in the Marquesas group in Polynesia, fit their needs as best as could be possible. Thor and his wife had many adventures on Fatu Hiva. Life seemed idyllic. The jungle yielded a plethora of fresh fruits and copra, an unpoluted fresh-water stream ran through the island, and the ocean and jungle surroundings were incredibly beautiful. But as time went by, Thor and Liv discovered that "paradise" was not perfect. Mosquitoes carrying European-introduced diseases such as elephantiasis and unfriendly natives made life more difficult on Fatu Hiva. But while a few of the natives were unfriendly, many were not and the couple made many strong friendships. It was on Fatu Hiva that Thor Heyerdahl first became perplexed with the idea of Polynesian origins. From his readings, he knew that many of the fruits on the Polynesian islands originated in South America and could only have been introduced by man. But these fruits already existed on the islands when the first Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Heyerdahl was also intrigued with large statues found on the island, bearing South American affinites. Natives told Heyerdahl of how their ancestors had come from The Great East. Heyerdahl knew that it was the Americas which were east of Polynesia. Eventually, Thor and Liv longed to return home to Norway and their families. At the end of their one-year adventure, Thor and his wife Liv came to the revelation that one cannot buy a ticket to paradise and happiness, for happiness lies within man himself.

As a boy I yearned to escape from civilization and the Marquesas Islands in the south Pacific seemed as far away a place as could be found. Thor Heyerdahl, a young man who was to become a famous adventurer and author, felt the same way and he and his new wife came to the island of Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas to live in 1937. The couple lived on the island for eight months following in the footsteps of previous visitors such as Herman Melville and Paul Gauguin. Life was idyllic on Fatu Hiva. The daily bread could be picked off trees amidst tropical splendor and a clear, splashing river. But there was also trouble in paradise: disease --elephantitis and open running sores -- mosquitos, unfriendly natives, and mud. In seeing the remnants of Marquesan civilization -- destroyed by the white man and his diseases -- the germ of Heyerdahl's theories about trans-oceanic contacts between America and Polynesia grew. "Fatu Hiva" is a fetching book, both for its delicious descriptions of living in a tropical paradise and the frank accounts of disillusionment of the young couple. In the end, the Garden of Eden became cloying and they stared endlessly out to sea longing to see the sail of an inter-island boat so they could escape their island and return to civilization. "One can't buy a ticket to paradise," was Heyerdahl's concluson. Smallchief

To use Thor's own words... "There is nothing for modern man to return to. Our wonderful time in the wilderness had given us a taste of what man had abandoned and what mankind was still trying to get even further away from. Progress today can be defined as man's ability to complicate simplicity. Nothing in all the procedure that modern man , helped by all his modern middlemen, goes through before he earns money to buy a fish or a potato will ever be as simple as pulling it out of the water or soil. Without the farmer and the fisherman, modern society would collapse., with all its shops and pipes and wires. The farmers and the fishermen represent the nobility of modern society; they share their crumbs with the rest of us, who run about with papers and screwdrivers attempting to build a better world without a bluprint."All this author's books are GREAT reads! If you are a city dweller you will especially appreciate his adventures as he asks the question- "Were we meant to live in jungles made of plants or concrete?

This is a wonderful book that I recieved as a gift from my grandfather. I will always treasure it. It not only tells of Thor Heyerdahl's adventure, but also describes the culture he visits. The book encourages me to follow my own dreams no matter how unusual they may be.

This book is more than just an adventure. It is a young man's awakening to his own ideas, his inspriations and would greatly influence his later travels. It is highly illustrated and higly reccomended. I first read it when I first arrived in my own sailboat many years ago at Hanavae Bay. We read aloud from the book as our boat arrived in Fatu Hiva and we visited all the sites that he mentioned in the book. Yes, they really do exist! But when I reread the story I am also captivated by the love and devotion of his wife Liv. Imagine she married Thor and for their honeymoon they travel to Fatu Hiva to live in the jungle. Such devotion! This is a great adventure novel for both men and women. I cannot believe that it is out of print for now. His words are as exhilirating now as they were when I first read them years ago. On this island Thor saw the remarkable resemblence to the massive stone carvings on Fatu Hiva and to the stone carvings on Easter Island. This adventure would be the one that helped him form his theory of native peoples from South Amercia travelling to the Marquesas not from Polynesia.