Mutiny: A Novel of the Bounty

From the back cover: A fourteen-year-old boy, John Jacob Turnstile, has got into trouble with the police on one too many occasions and is on his way to prison when an offer is put to him - a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain's personal valet has been injured and a replacement must be found immediately. The deal is struck and Turnstile finds himself on board, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail. The ship is HMS Bounty: the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti. Mutiny on the Bounty is the first novel to explore all the events relating to the Bounty's voyage, from their long journey across the ocean to their adventures on the island of Tahiti and the subsequent forty-eight-day expedition towards Timor. A vivid recreation of the famous mutiny, the story is packed with humour, high drama and historical detail, while presenting a very different portrait of Captain Bligh and Mr Christian than has ever been shown before. Review: The minute I heard about this book I knew I had to read it. I absolutely loved The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and was looking forward to reading more by John Boyne. Also, I have an interest in this period in history - I think it has to do with all the time I spent as a child at the Maritime Museum here in Fremantle, Western Australia. As a child, the stories of the seafaring men and women who founded our colony captured my imagination, and I've always had an interest in stories from this time. So, these two things together pushed this book high up my TBR list. I was not disappointed. This one kept me awake and reading in bed long after a mother of a 12 month old should go to sleep at night. I was bleary-eyed for the few days it took me to finish reading this story. The narrator, Turnstile, is adorable - a street wise, savvy boy who despite suffering greatly in England has maintained a sense of innocence, and the story told through his eyes is humorous, heartbreaking and human. The story of the mutiny on the Bounty has had many screen adaptions (none of which I've seen, and actually, after reading this book I don't think I'll ever watch one, I can't imagine it could compare. Unless they cast Johnny Depp in a new adaption and then I might make an exception). From what I can tell, these all seem to paint Captain Bligh as a cruel, tyrannical man the men were trying to escape from. However, historical records indicate that he was in fact far less tyrannical than his peers, and in this version the mutiny has its roots in the men finding paradise and never wanting to leave. It is an explanation that is more modern in its sentiments and something I can relate to. After spending some time on a tropical island paradise a few years ago, I myself would have risked being hanged rather than going back to England in 1789. Everything about this book is amazing - the details and facts of the stor

John Boyne - isn't he the one that wrote....? Yes Boyne is the author of the hugely successful historical fiction bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Boyne turns his talents into a re-telling of the ill fated 1789 voyage of The Bounty to harvest breadfruit on what is now known as the island of Tahiti. The breadfruit was destined to feed slaves in Jamaica. After a long and difficult voyage, many men questioned William Bligh's leadership and a mutiny occurred. Bligh and 19 loyal men were turned out into a small launch and left to live or die. Bligh managed to guide them to land over the course of 48 days. Most of them did survive. Many books have been written, recounting this event. Boyne's novel, although faithful to historical fact, is character driven. It is told from the viewpoint of 14 yr. old John Jacob Turnstile. Turnstile is given a choice - serve his gaol sentence for thievery or sign on as the captain's servant boy on the Bounty. The ship is his choice. Having never sailed before, we are treated to seeing the vessel, the traditions, the crew, Bligh himself and the fate of The Bounty's historic voyage through the curious eyes of "Turnip", as he is known to the crew. Turnstile is a wonderfully engaging character. His dialogue is witty, sharp and humorous. He is wise beyond his years in certain ways and yet naive in other matters. His documentation of the ship's crew, their personalities and what may have led to the mutiny are a fresh look at a known story. Knowing the history of the Bounty did in no way detract from the reading of Boyne's book. Boyne is a consummate story teller and The Mutiny on the Bounty is a heck of a tale. Highly recommended.

I was lucky to come across this in the library, not having heard of the title or the author. Being retired, I read 2-3 books a week...and this one stands out as one of the "gems".

I have read just about anything I could find about the Bounty story and I found this book to be pretty entertaining. It's a novel, of course, and Boyne takes the liberty of making Bligh out to be an extremely sympathetic character and Fletcher Christian into a dilattante near-fop. I think both characterizations are off the mark but it's Boyne's book after all. He cleverly puts the teenage pickpocket, John Jacob Turnstile, on the boat as Bligh's servant in place of the real-life John Smith who was Bligh's servant. And since the servant is usually in Bligh's cabin or hovering nearby, Turnstile is able to pick up on many conversations between Bligh and his officers, particularly with Christian. However, I think Boyne made a couple of big errors in the book. Later, when Turnstile, Bligh and 16 others are fighting for survival in the lifeboat after the mutiny, Turnstile and another sailor talk about how much they hated the ship's clerk, Mr. Samuel, and how they found it typical of the man that he'd joined Christian's mutineers. But Samuel wasn't a mutineer, he was with Bligh in the lifeboat and is mentioned several times in the lifeboat story up to that point. So how in the world did Boyne put that conversation in the book and state that Samuel was a mutineer? Also, at the very end of the book Turnstile has just gone to Bligh's funeral in 1817 and meets his mysterious benefactor from the beginning of the story. But Turnstile never mentions anywhere at the end of the book that he had any knowledge of what happened to Christian and the other mutineers who hadn't been caught. I think that's preposterous. The surviving mutineer, John Adams, and the descendants of the Bounty mutineers were found on Pitcairn Island several years before Bligh's death and that discovery was the talk of all England. It's just impossible that Turnstile, who by that point of the story has had a long naval career, would not have heard about Pitcairn. It should've been mentioned and it is a huge omission. Boyne also tones down the real conflict between Bligh and the ship's master, John Fryer. Fryer is portrayed very sympathetically but in reality Bligh and Fryer despised each other on the Bounty, in the lifeboat and after they returned to England. Some of that is used in the book but not enough, probably in the attempt to humanize Bligh. Lastly, Boyne doesn't even mention the big disputes that arose after the Bounty stopped for supplies and repairs at Tasmania (Van Dieman's Land as it was called back then). Perhaps he left it out of the story to keep the book to the length he wanted but some of the seeds of mutiny were sowed there and I think it could've been included. Nonetheless, you'll like the book whether you're a Bounty historian or not.

This is the 1st and perhaps only book on the HMS Bounty that i've read and, therefore, can not say how it stacks up to others like it, but let me tell you, this book was fantastic. This review will be brief so that any one who does read it will have a fresh go of it. Basically, an urchin boy (John Jacob Turnstile) is caught pick-pocketing a pocket watch from a gentleman by the name of Mr. Zela...the boy gets caught, in leu of a prison sentence of a year he is "sentenced" to the "high-seas" aboard the HMS Bounty as the Captain's Servant...a lot of trials and trivulations...native love...mutany...more suffering...rescue...and a little finality.